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Race Recap

a day late, but still relevant.

Yesterday was one of the more interesting race days I have experienced. Nothing too out of the ordinary when I woke up. Bob did forget to bring his racing uni to the course, but the officials didn’t notice that he weighed-in in a not matching uniform and we were able to get someone to bring his uni from the hotel. Our warm up was going well on the water when, with less than 15’ to race time, we noticed that Mexico and Brazil had collided in the warm up area. Mexico’s boat was totaled, sinking, and two of their oars were broken. We rowed over to the official to ask him what to do and remind him that we have the 4x race in about 90’ at this point.

The boats in our race were all sent to the dock and the race postponed. We racked our boat and one of the members of the FISA fairness committe informed us that the 2x race would run at 11:45 am, 70’ after the scheduled start of the 4x race. We responded that it was unacceptable and we would protest. The official said it was the only option as they were not staffed to run the race later in the day.

Our coach and team manager went to the officials and pleaded our case, that the race should run in the afternoon or the following morning. Other concerns raised were that one other boat in our race had athletes who were racing on Wednesday in the morning and one boat (from the host country) expressed concern in being able to make weight again. 5 min later they told us the 2x would run at 12 pm, 85’ after the 4x race started.

It was never really a question that we would row both races. The unfortunate part of the situation is that the 4x is an afterthought event for the US. In theory it is great to be able to race in two events at an international event. In practice, when the second event crew is thrown together with limited support from the NGB and gets to practice together 5 times before the regatta, it is not set up for a great performance. Im not making excuses, just explaining the situation that all four members of the 4x were prioritizing a different event. That said, there was not way we would not goto the line in the 4x ready to race.

As the results show, we were outgunned in the 4x.

We finished that race, rowed to the dock, and started to recover and prepare for the 2x race as quickly as possible. Luckily, being lightweights, we had extra food and drink and were able to refuel a little.

Then the wind started to pick up. White caps were visible down the entire course. The officials acknowledged this but maintained they could not run any races later in the day so they would run the race at noon.

We launched 35’ before our race, warmed up and went to the line. Our start was better than in the heat and we went with the field for the first part of the race. The splits have us in 5th at the 500 though at that point the pack was very tight. Mexico was out a bit and Argentina and Brasil started to fall behind by the thousand. In the third five hundred we lost a little on the leaders and were to far back to make a difference in finish order by the end of the race. We finished fourth, less than a length out of third. Bummer.

Unsatisfied.

We didn’t come down here to come fourth. Do I think we would have medalled had we been fresh for the race? Absolutely. We didn’t come down to be third though so I don’t think I would feel any better about having a medal. I’m not one to dwell on past results but there are many things that could have gone better on this trip. Ultimately it is our responsibility to ensure all the pieces are in place to perform. All I can do now is take the experience and learn from it. That will not remove the bitter taste from my mouth but nothing I can do now can change the result.

Tomorrow we head back to the US, and I am flying directly to Boston for the Charles to rce the Champ 1x on Saturday. I can’t say that I am optimally prepared to race the single for 5k, but I will have some good motivation during the race.