Concept2 Forum

Day One of Rowing in Athens is now complete so I thought I'd wave my country's flag. Although it's only the heats, there are already signs of two strong medal chances for Australia, in men's sweep oar rowing.<br><br>The easy win by Australia's Coxless pair (James Tomkins & Drew Ginn) who are current World Champions, is a warning to the other crews that they mean business in Athens. They already have scared away the poms Pinsett & Cracknell. Their lead all the way 3 second win over the Serb crew and 4 seconds over the poms(are Pinsett & Cracknell's replacements any better???) in the heat was a joy for me to watch.<br><br>On top of that Australia's men's coxless four also won its heat putting in a strong last 300m for a controlled win.<br><br>Incidently, isn't the rowing venue in Athens CRAP. It's always windy and the water is choppy. I don't think we'll see any still water in Athens. Looks like everyone has to row into a fierce headwind which should favour the stronger crews.<br><br>Keep it smooth, keep it relaxed<br>Roland Baltutis<br><br><br>

<!--QuoteBegin-Roland Baltutis+Aug 14 2004, 11:34 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (Roland Baltutis @ Aug 14 2004, 11:34 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Incidently, isn't the rowing venue in Athens CRAP. It's always windy and the water is choppy. I don't think we'll see any still water in Athens. Looks like everyone has to row into a fierce headwind which should favour the stronger crews.<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>Dutch rower Femke Dekker complained: she didn't anticipate the lack of wind and the smoothness of the water.<br><br>BTW: can anybody tell me how erg-times and on-water-times are to be compared?

The British 4 were just out sight seeing today, plenty more to come from them, like a Gold medel <br><br>Australia's Coxless pair look fantastic, lovely and smooth on the water.<br><br>Sir Pirate

Jen Devine place 2nd in her heat in the womens hwt 1x, which wasn't surprising as she was racing against the woman who won the gold in Atlanta and Sydney. Hope she wins the repechage.

Swindell sisters looked very very good, and the mens pair (dont quite know the terminology) thru to the final as well .... thought the quad although Aussie won the heat look a chance as well.<br><br>Go Kiwi's

Was this on tv?<br><br>NBC hasn't shown any rowing here.

I can get most of the rowing on CBC as I'm within a certain distance of the border. I'm going to guess that NBC will only show the final of races the US team is in, whereas on CBC typically they show the prelims and repechages. I guess it is beause it is one of their events, whereas the US excels in so many and basketball draws a bigger audience. <br><br>*Crossing fingers that the Canadians blow the swimming again tomorrow so they have to cover more rowing*

<!--QuoteBegin-John Rupp+Aug 14 2004, 06:23 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (John Rupp @ Aug 14 2004, 06:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Was this on tv?<br><br>NBC hasn't shown any rowing here. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br> it's all live on the net<br><br><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic ... 919855.stm#' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic ... <br>rowing is all early morning for us in uk 5:30-10:00 GMT

Day two of Olympics Rowing is now complete and again in windy rough water conditions. In fact the conditions forced them to change the gap in between races from 10 minutes to 7. This meant that some races were starting before the previous one had finished. Officials are expecting Day 3 to be designated as a rest day due to the weather forecast for unsuitable rowing conditions.<br><br>We are getting excellent free to air TV coverage of the rowing in Australia and with the added bonus of live commentary from one of our past Olympic gold medalists(Nick Green).<br><br>I'm flying the flag again for Australia because our mens lightweight coxless four won its heat by about a length over Ireland and USA about 4 seconds behind.<br><br>USA had a great win over the past Olympic champions Romania in the Womens Eights in a time of 5.56. Despite their oars hitting the waves and slowing the boat towards the end of the race, they managed to regain momentum to go on and win by about a canvas.<br><br>The most eventfull race, given the deteriorating conditions, was the mens quad sculls race which the Germans won. In the first 500m our stroke's left oar hit a wave resulting in a huge crab stopping dead the boat and losing over 3 seconds. They went on to finish 3rd but the swiss weren't so lucky and broke a rigger to limp home with only three rowing.<br><br>However, the best news for Australia was the 1st heat of the mens eights. Australia had a crew stacked with 7 Olympic medals between them. It showed in this heat because they led all the way to win by 3/4 length over Netherlands and Germany in a time of 5.23.26. They get a weeks rest to go straight into the final next Sunday.<br><br>I missed heat 2 of the mens eights in which USA, G.B. and Canada were racing. Does anyone know the result????<br><br>Interesting looking at the heat winning times of the mens quads of around 5.43. The C2 ergo that we all love is supposed to be closest in calibration to this boat class. However we don't get a huge tailwind, or rough water, like all the crews got on Day 2.<br><br>Keep it smooth, keep it relaxed<br>Roland Baltutis<br>

<!--QuoteBegin-Roland Baltutis+Aug 15 2004, 08:22 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (Roland Baltutis @ Aug 15 2004, 08:22 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I missed heat 2 of the mens eights in which USA, G.B. and Canada were racing. Does anyone know the result????<br> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>That was a great race. USA won in a new World Best time 5:19, Canada just behind, but they also beat the previous worlds best time. GB rolled in last due to a very late change in crew.<br><br>Times<br>USA - 5:19.85<br>CAN - 5:20.46<br>ITA - 5:30.16<br>GBR - 5:32.26<br><br>Sir Pirate

Belgium:<br><br>double men lightweight, 6:26.25 came in 14th; disappointing race.<br> <br>Single men, skiff 7:17.68 was first in the heath before the Swiss. This rower looks promising, maybe a medal. <br><br>Olympic games are in their 3rd day and we already have 2 bronze medals, cycling and judo. Not bad considering we are a small country (the size of Rhode Island in the US). Head of the delegation, Robert Vandewalle, ex-judo champion, seems to have a good influence. <br><br>The athletes seem calm, focused and ready to take a shot at the medals. Low self esteem was almost a trade mark of Belgians in the past, nice to see things are changing.

<!--QuoteBegin-Sir Pirate+Aug 15 2004, 03:48 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (Sir Pirate @ Aug 15 2004, 03:48 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Roland Baltutis+Aug 15 2004, 08:22 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (Roland Baltutis @ Aug 15 2004, 08:22 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I missed heat 2 of the mens eights in which USA, G.B. and Canada were racing. Does anyone know the result????<br> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>That was a great race. USA won in a new World Best time 5:19, Canada just behind, but they also beat the previous worlds best time. GB rolled in last due to a very late change in crew.<br><br>Times<br>USA - 5:19.85<br>CAN - 5:20.46<br>ITA - 5:30.16<br>GBR - 5:32.26<br><br>Sir Pirate <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br> Great race is an understatement!! They set a new worlds best. As did the US women's eight!!! Now if they can only keep that momentum up till the medal rounds.....<br><br>Dwayne

The mens eight final next Sunday will be a race not to be missed. USA may be hot in the eights but the men, despite their world best time, will have to stay at their best to beat the Aussie eight in the final. The Aussies were never really pushed by the Dutch or the Germans in their heat. Hence a slightly slower time in the heat.<br><br>Has anyone noticed the progress of all the C2 ergo stars in the Olympics. Just for the record, Pavel Shurmei came third with his M4X(mens quad sculls) crew in heat 3 in time 5.46.80.<br><br>Thomas Ebert & Eskild Ebbesen won heat 2 in LM4- (Lwt Mens Coxless Four) in time 5.50.72.<br><br>Cracknell & Pinsent won heat 2 in their M4- (mens coxless fours) in 6.20.85 but Jamie Schroeder's four was not so fortunate in the race. They came 4th in 6.30.<br><br>That's all I've noticed but I'm sure I've missed other C2 ergo stars.<br><br>Keep it smooth, keep it relaxed<br>Roland Baltutis<br>

It's a shame Jamie Schroeder and Wherley got screwed out of the 8 the way they did. I figure Teti is thinking Schroeder's young and relatively green on the international stage, and he'll be around for 2008. The US Men's 4 doesn't have enough time rowing together to mount a competitive challenge against the likes of Pinsent and the boys. A shame. <br><br>It also sucks that the US is so laser-eyed on the 8's exclusively to the detriment of other categories. I dream of the days when the US can be across the board bad-ass like the German National Team. Perhaps there just isn't a deep enough pool of elite level oarsmen in the US? (i.e. many of our best athletes go on to play other sports??) <br><br>Just a thought....

More ergo stars:<br><br>Elia Luini (current lwt wr holder on both erg and double scull with Pettinari) in the double scull with pettinari seem to have cruised to the semis finishing second behing greece in first heat and second behind the czechs in the repechage.