There are some rowers out there who didn’t get a chance to row at the Olympics, and it’s not because they aren’t some of the best in the world in their class. These rowers are competing in classes that are not a part of the Olympic program and so instead of the Olympics this summer they have been focused on the annual World Rowing Championships. In Olympic years the non-Olympic classes are the only ones who compete at the World Rowing Championships and they are held concurrently with the Junior/Under-23 World Championships. The US has boats in seven classes in the event with heats and repechage rounds being held Sunday through Tuesday.
The setting for the races is pretty unique, an area for rowing seemingly plopped right into the middle of some flat land.
The first US boat in the water was the women’s four team of Molly Bruggeman, Emily Huelskamp, Corinne Schoeller, and Kristine O’Brien. They competed in the opening heat on Monday and won the heat by four seconds over Belarus to advance to Saturday’s final. O’Brien is the only holdover from the gold medal winning team from last summer’s World Championships. The men’s coxed pair team of Yohann Rigogne, Thomas Peszek, and Louis Lombardi Jr also began on Monday and placed second in their heat, just over a second behind the Dutch, and will be in the semifinals on Thursday without having to go through the repechage.
Mary Jones also finished second on Monday in her lightweight women’s single sculls heat, four seconds behind Switzerland, but in that event she was forced into a repechage on Tuesday with that result. Jones won her repechage by over five seconds on Tuesday and will be in the semifinals on Thursday. The US took bronze in this class last year at the World Championships with Kate Bertko competing. In the lightweight men’s single sculls heats Collin Ethridge placed third in his heat, ten seconds behind Slovakia, but qualified directly to the quarterfinal round which will come up on Wednesday.
The lightweight men’s pair team of Andrew Weiland and Peter Gibson finished fourth in their heat on Monday, six seconds behind Denmark, and were forced into the repechage. They stepped up with a strong row on Tuesday in the repechage and finished less than a half second behind China in second and secured a place in the semifinals on Thursday.
The only American boat eliminated from contention in the first two days was the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls team of Tobin McGee, Christopher Lambert-Rogers, Peter Schmidt, and Jacob Georgeson. They finished last in their heat to start on Monday, though everyone but first was destined for the repechage, but were eliminated from contention with another last place finish in the repechage on Tuesday. They’ll have one last row on Saturday in the final B.
The only American action on Wednesday will be Ethridge in the lightweight men’s single sculls quarterfinals.
