Post #178
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Worlds 2014 came to a close on Friday for me and my three teammates in the lightweight quad. Although we didn't have the finish we wanted to have here, we fought hard in the B final and put up a race we're proud of. We placed first in the second-level final for a 7th place overall finish. We came within two seconds of the World Record, but the conditions were so fast that the standing record was then broken by 8 seconds by the host nation later on in the day. They did that en route to a gold medal in the event.
The US has picked up medals in a handful of events so far, with three more opportunities coming tomorrow. The strong, building tailwind is causing lots of World Records to fall at this regatta - some of them very, very longstanding (yesterday one was 1994 was broken). In the lightweight women's quad, all three medalists went under the old World Record pace. Yeesh!
I've written a little on this blog about the turn of events in early July and Kate having to get emergency abdominal surgery. She was able to rehab enough to get herself to Amsterdam, then continue her recovery process here thanks to excellent team physical therapists. Against all odds, she raced the lightweight women's single event and placed third in the final yesterday. A bronze medal! The story of her summer is here, and it's well worth a read.
Go USA!
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Worlds: Heats Tomorrow
Post # 177
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Race day is upon us and we're in a 5-boat heat with Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. The top two finishers will advance straight to the A-Final on Friday, with the rest of the boats having to go through the repechage on Wednesday. We're racing at 3:08 pm local time - that's 9:08 am on the east coast and 6:08 am on the west coast.
Follow along on World Rowing's live race feed (where you can only track boats go across the screen for now - live video coming later this week). World Rowing's Twitter feed (or USRowing's) is also a good spot to find results, and throughout the week you can also follow my Twitter feed. Admittedly, I'm pretty distracted during race week and not the best at tweeting updates, so it may be best to try the others first.
Team USA had a great opening day of races, highlighted by the lightweight men's single, women's pair, and women's quad winning their heats and a slew of other US boats qualifying out of the heats. They set the tone for the team and it's time for the rest of us to keep that going tomorrow.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Race day is upon us and we're in a 5-boat heat with Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Mexico. The top two finishers will advance straight to the A-Final on Friday, with the rest of the boats having to go through the repechage on Wednesday. We're racing at 3:08 pm local time - that's 9:08 am on the east coast and 6:08 am on the west coast.
Follow along on World Rowing's live race feed (where you can only track boats go across the screen for now - live video coming later this week). World Rowing's Twitter feed (or USRowing's) is also a good spot to find results, and throughout the week you can also follow my Twitter feed. Admittedly, I'm pretty distracted during race week and not the best at tweeting updates, so it may be best to try the others first.
Team USA had a great opening day of races, highlighted by the lightweight men's single, women's pair, and women's quad winning their heats and a slew of other US boats qualifying out of the heats. They set the tone for the team and it's time for the rest of us to keep that going tomorrow.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Whirlwind
Post # 176
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - I'm not sure I could've been more spot on with foreshadowing the rest of my summer more in my "Constantly Changing" post from late July.
I last left off at Trials, where Nancy and I raced the final of the lightweight double.
We came in three seconds behind the Oklahoma double. With that result, we'd failed to punch tickets to the World Championships in Amsterdam. My long, crazy season was over.
Or so I thought. I was visiting my family in Boston when I got a call that one of the girls in the lightweight quad heading to Worlds got injured on a training run and it wasn't looking like she was going to be able to race in Amsterdam. They needed someone to fill in, and they needed it to happen fast. I was in Philadelphia for practice the next morning and jumped into the quad with the talented team of Hillary, Sarah, and Mary. Two days later, we were on a flight to Europe.
The three of them have been training in the quad for the majority of the summer, so when I joined them, I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible and not mess up the good stuff they had going. We've now had a week together in the boat (hooray!) and are starting to feel more comfortable rowing together.
Amsterdam so far has been...rainy. Every five minutes the weather changes between pouring rain/thunder/wind to pockets of sun and warmth. The course has been filling up more every day and by now most countries are here. My favorite parts of pre-race week are seeing athletes, coaches, and support staff - either from different countries or just different parts of the US - that I haven't seen in a while and feeling the anticipation of racing build by the day. Only two more days until the start of racing and three more days until my LW4x races our heat. Go USA!
- Full schedule of racing
- Results page
- Gallery of us training together in Philadelphia
- Press release on the switch
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - I'm not sure I could've been more spot on with foreshadowing the rest of my summer more in my "Constantly Changing" post from late July.
I last left off at Trials, where Nancy and I raced the final of the lightweight double.
Nancy and me, two days before our final race together
We came in three seconds behind the Oklahoma double. With that result, we'd failed to punch tickets to the World Championships in Amsterdam. My long, crazy season was over.
Or so I thought. I was visiting my family in Boston when I got a call that one of the girls in the lightweight quad heading to Worlds got injured on a training run and it wasn't looking like she was going to be able to race in Amsterdam. They needed someone to fill in, and they needed it to happen fast. I was in Philadelphia for practice the next morning and jumped into the quad with the talented team of Hillary, Sarah, and Mary. Two days later, we were on a flight to Europe.
The three of them have been training in the quad for the majority of the summer, so when I joined them, I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible and not mess up the good stuff they had going. We've now had a week together in the boat (hooray!) and are starting to feel more comfortable rowing together.
Amsterdam so far has been...rainy. Every five minutes the weather changes between pouring rain/thunder/wind to pockets of sun and warmth. The course has been filling up more every day and by now most countries are here. My favorite parts of pre-race week are seeing athletes, coaches, and support staff - either from different countries or just different parts of the US - that I haven't seen in a while and feeling the anticipation of racing build by the day. Only two more days until the start of racing and three more days until my LW4x races our heat. Go USA!
- Full schedule of racing
- Results page
- Gallery of us training together in Philadelphia
- Press release on the switch
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Trials
Post # 175
Princeton, New Jersey - The final day of Trials of the year is tomorrow and we've got CRC boats in three events:
7:30 am - Men's Single featuring Ryan Shelton
7:40 am - Men's Double featuring these guys and these guys
8:00 am - Lightweight Women's Double
Nancy and I have a two-boat race with the Oklahoma double, which means there are no rounds of racing leading up to the final; it's just a one-and-done.
As always with Trials, it's winner takes all. In this case, the winner of each event gets to compete at the World Championships in Amsterdam in the end of August.
Results can be found here and live video is available as well. Here we go!
Princeton, New Jersey - The final day of Trials of the year is tomorrow and we've got CRC boats in three events:
7:30 am - Men's Single featuring Ryan Shelton
7:40 am - Men's Double featuring these guys and these guys
8:00 am - Lightweight Women's Double
Nancy and I have a two-boat race with the Oklahoma double, which means there are no rounds of racing leading up to the final; it's just a one-and-done.
As always with Trials, it's winner takes all. In this case, the winner of each event gets to compete at the World Championships in Amsterdam in the end of August.
Results can be found here and live video is available as well. Here we go!
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