photo and story courtesy of SU Athletics:
With day one in the complete, United State Junior Women’s National coach and new Syracuse University head women’s rowing coach Justin Moore gives fans, alumni and friends an inside look at how the American women performed during the first day of the 2010 Junior World Championships in the Czech Republic.
Day one is in the books, and while it did not involve an American sweep on the women's side, the coaching staff is very encouraged by today's results. We feel that today went "as our training and observation of other crews would have predicted.” Here is a brief rundown of the women's sweep results:
Women's Pair – This crew is becoming the "feel good" story of the regatta. The pair was training well in Princeton and progressed tremendously through the final and hardest week of training. In a freak accident that involved skipping, our 15 year old bow-woman chipped a bone in her knee and was unable to row. She had to surrender her seat so that her partner could row the event. Two days prior to departure we rowed the pair with the sculling spare in the bow seat and the boat went reasonably well. Never having gone 2K together, the women worked diligently here in Racice and today saw the fruits of their efforts. They raced very well and showed themselves to be competitive within the event, besting Hungary the entire distance and rowing through Bulgaria in the final strokes of the heat. Tomorrow they race in the rep., looking to make the A final. Given that they have now raced over 2,000m together, we are optimistic that they can improve upon today's performance and become even more competitive.
Women's 4 – We knew that today's heat would be challenging. In training the Kiwis looked to be a very strong crew and did not disappoint today. The U.S. was able to establish a lead in the first 750 meters, but the New Zealanders rowed a very strong base rhythm in the middle two 500s of the race course, (1:49.9 and 1:49.4) and arrived at the 1,500 meter mark 1.5 seconds ahead. We made the decision to maintain the second position and race the reps tomorrow. New Zealand finished the day at 7:12.48 and the U.S. finished in 7:15.98. In the second heat, Australia led for 1,750 meters, before the Germans unleashed a tremendously fast final 500 meters (1:46.5). The Germans caught and passed the Aussies in the final 200 meters, both sprinting full on. Their finishing times were Germany 7:11.40 and Australia 7:14.97. So we finish the day with the 4th fasted time - a bit of an uneasy position, given that there are only three medals to be had - but we take heart in the fact that we would have been ahead of both Australia and Germany entering the final 500m of the races (if the splits are to be believed). Our time to the 1,500 was 5:22.21; Australia was 5:23.3 and Germany was 5:24.89. This is EXACTLY the kind of racing we went looking for when we decided to have a go at the 4- this year. We knew that it would not be easy, but we are all very excited to be competing for medals with the top crews from fine rowing nations such as New Zealand, Australia and Germany.
Women's 8+ - Today's cross headwind conditions suited our team just fine. In training we had identified four crews as potential medal winners - USA, Great Britain, Germany and Romania. The two heats pitted the U.S. against Romania in Heat 1 and G.B. versus the Germans in heat 2. Great Britain showed the best early speed, posting a 1:35.4 to the first 500 in a firm swirling cross-head wind. Germany posted the second fastest 500 at 1:36.5, the U.S. ran a 1:36.96 and Romania was 1:39.1. After the first 500 it was all USA, with the 8+ posting the fastest 2nd, 3rd and 4th 500s of the day. By the 1,000 meter mark, both the U.S. and Great Britain had gained control of their respective heats, so no sprints were required. There is no doubt that both crews will likely have another gear to give on Saturday. The U.S. final time was 6:42.4, with Romania following in 7:00.1. Great Britain posted a 6:44.3 to Germany's 6:51. The contrasting styles, both rowing and racing, of the U.S. and Brit crews will make for an interesting final at 3:55 pm local time on Saturday.
That's all for now. Official race results can be found at http://www.worldrowing.com/index.php?pageid=91; and Blogs, photos and updates from Racice can be found at http://usrowingjrs.org/.
No comments:
Post a Comment