Friday was a busy day at the US Olympic Rowing Trials as fields were trimmed and some qualified for the Sunday finals in a variety of events. In the men’s single sculls the field of 14 was cut to eight for Saturday’s final. 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski won his heat with the third fastest overall time of the day and advanced into the semifinals. Three of the heats were won by over seven seconds while Justin Keen held off Hugh McAdam by just 1.81 seconds in the other heat.
Greg Ansolabehere had the fastest time, just like in the time trials. This time it was by 0.07 seconds ahead of Keen. Three of the four repechage heats were decided by at least four seconds while in the final heat Erik Frid beat Nathan Lado by just 1.72 seconds to advance to the semifinals. Saturday’s semifinals will pit Ansolabehere and Jurkowski together in a semifinal but both can advance to the final by finishing in the top two.
2012 Olympian Genevra Stone advanced to the women’s single sculls semifinals with the top overall time. Stesha Cole was second fastest, 1.05 seconds back. The 11 woman field was cut to eight for Saturday’s semifinals. The closest battle for a semifinal spot was between Mary Foster and Emily Schmieg in a repechage. Foster was ahead after 500, 1000, and 1500 but Schmieg closed stronger and topped her by 0.92 seconds to stay alive in the competition.
In the men’s double sculls two front runners emerged for the final. William Cowles/Stephen Whepley and Lenny Futterman/Jonathan Kirkegaard both dominated their heats winning by at least 13 seconds. While the other four teams will all have a chance to get into the final in the repechage tomorrow it sure looks like they face an uphill climb to compete with the front runners for the Olympic spot.
Ellen Tomek/Meghan O’Leary posted the top time in the women’s double sculls while in the women’s lightweight double sculls it was Kate Bertko/Devery Karz posting the top time. Finally in the men’s lightweight double sculls Austin Meyer/Nick Trojan had the top time of the day. In all of these events no one was eliminated today.
Saturday is the semifinals as 16 more boats will advance to Sunday’s final.
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
