Ourc At World University Championships
Sept. 17, 2014
The A and B finals of the 13th World University Rowing Championships were held today at the windswept Le PAarc des Rives de l'Aa, in France. Both of the New Zealand University Rowing team crews were competing in the finals.
Lisa Owen from Otago University contested the A final of the women’s lightweight singles sculls against Poland, Great Brittan, France, Czech Republic and Russia. Bryce Abernethy (Otago University) and James Moody (Lincoln University) were in the B final of the lightweight men’s double scull event, competing for world rankings with crews from Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Poland and Belgium.
Bryce Abernethy and James Moody were confident of a good performance in the B final, aiming for a top 3 placing in this race. However, the field was a bit too quick for them and the finished in 5th place giving them a world ranking of 11. The race was won by the Italian crew 9 seconds ahead of the Kiwis in 6 minutes 45 seconds. The Slovakian crew who the Kiwis had beaten in the semi-final yesterday were second 2 seconds off the winning crew.
The New Zealand crew had a good start and were well positioned in the first half of the race, coming second with 500 meters gone. They paid the price of this aggressive start which sae their 500 meter split time for the second 500 meters 6 seconds slower. From then on in their splits over 500 meters were 1.44.51, 1.45.25 and for the final 500 meters 1.46.27. So they proved they were capable of reaching good boat speed, but lacked the racing to carry this through.
Speaking after the B final Bryce commented “we had a real strong start and we paid for it”. Their race plan was to “control the race from the start” James then added “we ran out of gas in the last 500, we tried to lift the rating in the last 500 but we couldn’t gain more”.
They were disappointed with the overall 11th place at this regatta, however, greatly valued the chance to compete on the world stage, against quality crews who were vastly more experienced.
Lisa Owen had to front up to the tough cross wind conditions, being the 6th fastest qualifier Lisa had the nastiest lane for the conditions, lane 1 (just one crew in the 13 A finals raced won a medal today rowing in lane 1, Italy in the lightweight men’s four). Not helping the situation was that as soon as Lisa put her boat on the water, the wind picked up making conditions even more challenging.
Despite the handicap of the dreaded lane 1, Lisa finished a credible 5th in the final in the field of experienced scullers, who had been competing regularly at international regattas this European summer. The race was dominated by Emily Craig of Great Brittan who won by 8 seconds. She had achieved a 6th placing at the 2014 World U23 Championships in the single and a bronze in the 2013 World U23 Championships in the quad.
The minor places were filled by France and Poland, both of these scullers had competed in the 2014 World U23 Championship’s as well as the elite world cup regattas in France and Switzerland this year. The Polish sculler was in a crew that placed 6th in the double sculls at the Lucerne world cup in Switzerland.
Lisa had a good start and was with the chasing pack after 500 meters, however the pace was too hot and despite a relatively fast last 500 meters, where the water flattens a little (as the regatta buildings provide some wind protection) she finished back in 5th , 3 seconds ahead of the Russian sculler. The last quarter of the race, Lisa rowed 6 seconds faster than either of the 500 meter sections in the middle section of the race.
After the race Lisa was upbeat, “I was amped in the starting blocks, it was exciting and I enjoyed the experience” commenting about lane 1, it was not just the wind she had to contend with “it was really discerning to have foreign coaches yelling next to me in all sorts of languages the entire race” as the coaches cycle next to the crews on a track just meters from the water. Also Lisa naturally rows the boat to stroke side, which was the same direction as the crosswind “keeping the boat straight was hard, my stroke side arm was under pressure”.
These championships were dominated by European countries, of the 13 events Great Britain headed the medal table with 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze, closely followed by Poland with 4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Just 5 of the 39 medals on offer went to crews outside of Europe (13%).
The World University Championships are a useful event for rowers on the cusp of their countries elite teams to help them get noticed. The quality of the competition in the top half of all events is extremely high and provides a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable international racing experience. All the members of New Zealand’s team competed with dignity and will be much better off for having participated in this event.
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