The double of Craig Jones and Chris Morgan settled into their brand new Filippi very quickly, in a contrast with the quad, who had some difficulties adapting to their new Filippi - a different hull shape from the Mosman K45 Empacher that they trained in prior to leaving Australia. However I was confident that with 3 or 4 days in it and a few height and pitch adjustments, they would adapt. Unfortunately however we only had 4 days after arriving in Europe before we started racing, and so it showed in the Heat, where they rowed like bloody dogs- short as hell, 4 individuals each trying to apply their own remedy to a worsening situation. So we finished last, beaten by that rowing superpower - Brazil.
Repechage: a severe talking to was delivered, although hardly necessary given the Heat result. We determined that we would simply row better, and by the way row together, as well as some length and compression from stroke and 3 would be nice too please. Our aim was to make the final- top 2 places only to go through. The Polish crew had 2 of their 2005 World champion crew in their boat, and the Russians had 3 of their Athens Gold Medal crew in theirs, and 3 crews into 2 spots wasn’t going to fit too well
A much better row, delivered a better result. The Russians, rowing a quite different tactical race than in Athens, bolted out of the start- we couldn’t match them, and we had a good tussle with the Poles for the other spot. Interestingly, we started moving back on the Russians in the second half, although perhaps that was them easing back, having done enough to get through. Watch this space though, because this pattern was repeated in the final, and will be a tactical focus for us in Eton in August if we have the same crew lineup- more about this later.
Final: unsure of how hard any of the other crews were going in the leadup races, we aimed to do the simple -put one crew behind us and then having secured that repeat the dose, and whatever happened to race it right out, so that we had an indication of our true position to take forward.
This might sound a bit tentative, but the Italians had a couple of World golds on board, the Germans even more as well as the Russians and of course the Czechs, who beat us by 10 seconds in the heat, with Chalupa on board.
Well, true to form they all disappeared at the start, but we held our nerve and gradually worked back into the race. As mentioned above in the repechage, once again the Russians took 3 seconds from us out of the start, but we negative split the second 1000m, and finished just 1.4″ behind them, and 2.68″ behind the Czechs- a big change from the drubbing they gave us 2 days before.
I reckon the Russians are definitely gettable, if they continue with their current race profile.
Always nice to beat Germany and Italy in quad races- it doesn’t happen too often for Aussie crews.
We are under no illusions that this is how it will be in Eton, but it has given the boys confidence that they are competitive, especially after last years 12th place in Japan.
The double - a tough assignment - 28 crews, several countries with 3 entries with the edge of desperation from it being their selection trials.
Reference the crew lineups. This year the selectors named a squad rather than set crews, and originally planned to race the quad in Munich, and then the fastest double in Poznan, and after that assess the relative positions of each crew, and the best chance of a medal. So it may be that we don’t have the same quad crew, and this I won’t know until that time.
Packed up the team after the regatta- A huge job, and the Sunday drove through absolutely blinding torrential rain down to Varese, which added 3 hours to the drive. I took the boys through St Moritz, to show them the training venue there, the mountains and lakes were just stunning, as was the 60 km drive along Lake Como, and Lugano to Varese.
Back in the Hotel Continental, and first day on the water today- just a rig, set up camp, blow up rubber duckies and paddle day. I have 2 sickies out of the quad- Noono and Crawsh picked up a fever and stomach bug- Crawsh has lost 3 kilos since Saturday evening, but hopefully on the mend and back in the boat soon. I’ll fatten him back up with my last can of Sustagen. We put Jonesey and Chris out of the double into the quad, and paddled a lap of the lake this afternoon, and they fitted in well, although our 98 kilo bowman- James Gatti is now not 100%. Must have been the food from the regatta I think.
I’ll send this off now, my typing speed is glacial, and will report in again with the progress of the new combinations prior to Poznan
Cheers
Nick
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