Monday at Vaires-sur-Marne saw fiery racing matching the blazing sun, which beat down most of the morning as the many and enthusiastic spectators donned hats and raised parasols. On the menu were singles E/F semis, followed by small-boat repechages (involving a rogue crustacean) and finally the heats of the eights to deliver a high-speed taste of quality to close the day.
The standout crew of the day was the American men’s eight, which sped up the course like a rocket. In a gusty headwind with hints of cross to buffet crews, they virtually even-splitted at top pace, reaching the finish line only 10 seconds outside the Olympic best time set by their predecessors who took the title in 2004, and two seconds ahead of the current Dutch eight.
The US led the whole way, but the key to their triumph was the crew lighting the afterburners twice in the last quarter, two quick rate punches at about 1550 and 1700 metres gone, taking bites out of the Dutch with every stroke and leaving the Germans and Romanians languishing in their wash.
The other instant qualifiers to the final were Britain, who sandwiched the hapless Italians between themselves and Australia, then powered away in the third quarter for an open-water lead which only shortened fractionally when they dropped to a cruising rate 32 near the end of the race. “It wouldn’t have changed anything if we had to race to the line, we were fully prepared to do that,” said Jacob Dawson (GBR). “It just so happened that we executed the first 1500 metres well enough that we were able to enjoy the last few hundred metres a bit more.”
The other dominant eights display came from Romania’s top eight women, who had spent the weekend in their small boats (first in W2- and W2x, second but qualified in W4-). They don’t spend much time in the eight, but the consistency of training and race tactics – the whole squad is coached by Antonio Colamonici – means these doubling-up athletes can jump straight into the eight and race, four-seat Maria Lehachi told Row360 yesterday. It’s an extraordinary level of talent most other countries would stretch to copy. Fizzing with pride in the stands was their predecessor Elisabeta Lipa, a five-times Olympic champion. “We will see after all finals, but for now I’m very happy,” said the former federation president who is now effectively secretary of state for sport.
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Drag
The world champions, six of whose gold-medal 2023 crew have returned with their cox, posted the quickest W8+ time without indulging in the fireworks of the American men. The Romanian women’s finish, as they flowed effortlessly ahead of the USA and Italy, was only 17 seconds behind that of their own men’s eight, and a length plus quicker to the line than the British women, who were equally unchallenged despite the efforts of Australia and Canada.
The slowcoaches of the eights so far look to be Denmark’s women, who have achieved so much merely by qualifying to be here, and the Romanian men, both of which will have to work hard not to be dropped in the repechage. The ROU M8+ line-up was altered on Sunday afternoon to remove the two oarsmen doubling up in their rep-bound men’s four, under the IOC rules which permit this as long as Aa-accredited athletes are substituted in at least one hour before the first heat of the crew. From now on, though, medical reasons will be needed for further subs.
Reactions in the mix zone varied, with everyone in the eights making the best of their outcome, whether they have to twiddle their fingers for six days and hope a few sprinty pieces will keep them tuned up before Saturday (that’s the GBR/USA men and ROU/GBR women), or assuring the press that they were happy to have to race the repechage on Thursday because it would give them another chance to put everything right.
“We’ll use the next couple of days to hone in on one or two specifics, so heading into our repechage we can build on [the heat],” said AUS W8+ cox Hayley Verbunt. “There are benefits to both, going straight through and having a repechage,” she added. “For us we’re really keen on having an opportunity to have a second race. As a group that’s something we were prepared for and something we’re really excited to do.”
“It’s not too bad [going through the rep], obviously it’s not the result you’re hoping for at the beginning of the day,” said Gert-Jan van Doorn, five-man of the NED M8+. “Obviously you want to win straight through to the final, have a little breather, a little time to relax. I don’t think the rep’s necessarily a bad thing, it’s a good opportunity for us to practise again, do the whole shebang again and fix the little mistakes we made today. There’s so much time, physiologically-wise there isn’t much disadvantage. If you aren’t going to the rep, I guarantee you the Brits and Americans are doing pieces on Thursday.
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And for the Australian men’s eight, which has thrown all its eggs into one large basket, the rep is perhaps just what they need. “Throughout our campaign we’ve changed our seating a little bit,” said cox Kendall Brodie. “We haven’t actually raced that much with our current line-up, so I think it’s a really good thing we’re moving into the rep, to get a chance to practice in that line-up and just solidify what we’re doing.” “Keeping the pressure on us keeps us honest,” added Ben Canham, who is clearly not worried about another hard race.
There weren’t many surprises in the repechages, though the pairs were brutal, the Kiwis W2- losing the ‘truck race’ and Australia’s M2- joining them in the derigging zone after being unable to overhaul the USA’s alliterative duo of Billy Bender and Oliver Bub. It’s a cruel end to have one’s Olympics end on day three. Four men’s and three women’s singles were relegated to the F-finals during E/F semi-finals, though Algeria’s Nihed Benchadli, who had been bumped to last in her repechage due to an underweight boat, won her race comfortably so could now finish 25th.
At the top end world champions Switzerland are back in the men’s pairs game, rowing a careful rep ahead of Italy and ensuring they didn’t miss the top-twelve races on Thursday. “You don’t think about that [failure] too much, you have your mind on winning the race or leading the race,” said Andrin Gulich. However, in an illustration of the intensity of this event, Italy and the USA were only a short distance behind.
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Drag
With three through to the A/B semi-finals the lightweight doubles racing contained a bit less jeopardy than usual, but plenty of crowd yelling as French qualifiers Hugo Beurey and Ferdinand “F1” Ludwig sailed into the semis between Greece and Argentina. (Ludwig is the eldest of six brothers, all of whom have first names starting with F, hence the nickname.) The Irish and Canadian lightweight women got through well ahead of Argentina, an improvement on their more challenging heats.
The one hiccup in otherwise smooth racing was a disastrous crab from China’s LW2x, stroke Xiuping Qiu losing grip of her stroke-side scull which stopped them dead at 150m gone. They lost 120m on the rest of the field instantly, and whilst they grabbed the handle back and got going, any chance of a place in the semi-final was lost.
The quads reps were fast and furious, Switzerland bagging finals places in both of them. The men’s race was a three-way bunfight between Norway, Germany and Switzerland, the latter two ending up a second up on the Scandinavians (who now go to the B-final), and 0.14 seconds apart. “After the heat we were disappointed, but it gave us that extra focus,” said Scott Bauerlocher (SUI M4x). “Going into the race we were more focused on our performance, knowing we would have to punish ourselves and row through the pain. We weren’t so much focused on what the result would mean, the A-final of the Olympics.”
That photofinish was followed by a drag race between China and Switzerland in the W4x rep, China consistently having the jump on the Swiss through the first three markers. Both crews looked calm but were steadily dropping the rest, and with only two places through from the quads the outcome was never in doubt. However neither crew was happy to settle for second, and Switzerland launched a hefty and beautifully-timed push at 1450 gone which sawed steadily through the Tokyo champions (and 2023 bronze medallists) until they had their bows in front. Revenge for last year’s fourth place behind China at the worlds, and a place in the Olympic final to boot.
