In a busy day on Saturday US athletes got their Olympics underway in a large range of sports. Medals were up for grabs in a few one-day events and the US didn’t wait long to win their first gold. The first medal of the Olympics for the US was gold and it belonged to Ginny Thrasher, a 19-year-old West Virginia sophomore who had won NCAA championships this spring and ended an incredible six month by winning Olympic gold in the women’s 10m air rifle on the first day of the Olympics. The US would have more chances at gold later in the day but would only take home silver in three swimming events as well as men’s team archery. Continue reading Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 6th
Category Archives: Rowing
Rio 2016 Daily Update – August 5th
Friday was the end of the three day lead-in to the Olympics where a couple of sports get underway but not very much is happening. From beginning to end the US action on Friday lasted only about six hours with a good break in there was well. On Saturday the action will be nearly nonstop from 7:30 AM to 8 PM with a bonus beach volleyball night cap three hours later.
August 5th Recap:
Archery
On the last day before the Olympics really swing into action there was just one event going on in Rio. The archery competitors all participated in a 72-arrow ranking round to set the seedings for the individual and team events to be held over the next week. The men went first and Brady Ellison was in top form posting a 690 that was second only to a world record 700 from Kim Woo-Jin of Korea. Finishing 15th with a 674 was Zach Garrett while Jake Kaminski ended up 31st with a 660.
Now if you focus on those seeds.. #2, #15, #31… you may quickly realize that they are closely bunched on the bracket. Indeed if Ellison and Kaminski both win their first matches they will face off in the second round. And the winner of that would face Garrett if he wins his first two matches. Unfortunately the US has three of the eight in one eighth of the bracket and thus only one will be able to reach the quarterfinals and try to medal. As far as matchups go it’s Kaminski vs. Marcus D’Almeida on Tuesday at 3:18 PM, Ellison vs. Ali Elghrari on Tuesday at 3:31 PM, and Garrett vs. Haziq Kamaruddin on Wednesday at 3:18 PM. I believe the round of 32 matches for all of them would be later on those days.
In the meantime the three will team up to try and secure a medal in the team event on Saturday. The US is seeded second after posting a score of 2024 and has a bye to the quarterfinals where they will face Chinese Taipei or Indonesia at 2:15 PM. The entire team competition is tomorrow so they will keep competing as the day progress if they advance.
On the women’s side the only one competing is Mackenzie Brown who was up and down at times in her ranking round but finished 19th with a 641 score. She’ll face Claudia Mandia in the first knockout round on Monday at 8:26 AM.
August 6th Preview:
All times ET!! All events should be available online via NBC’s Olympic website and apps (assuming a cable package that gives you access). What is live in ET/CT is often tape delayed in MT/PT. Yell at NBC for their ridiculous decision to tape delay an Olympics happening one hour east of ET, it’s insane.
Archery
As mentioned previously, Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski, and Zach Garrett will begin the men’s team event at 2:15 PM against Indonesia or Chinese Taipei. Semifinals and a bronze or gold medal final will follow if the US advances. The archery matches should be live as part of MSNBC’s coverage from 2:15-5 PM.
Basketball
The first of many beatdowns of the Olympics is expected on Saturday when the US men face China at 6 PM. This matchup doesn’t feature much intrigue as these two sides met twice in warmups for the Olympics with the US winning by 50 and 49 points. The game will be shown live on NBCSN.
Beach Volleyball
It won’t be until 3:30 PM before beach volleyball gets underway for any Americans when Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson take on Jefferson Pereira and Cherif Younousse to open up their pool play. The sport will keep us up late on several occasions though and Saturday is one of them as April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings won’t hit the sand until 11 PM when they face Mariafe Artacho and Nicole Laird. The Gibb/Patterson match will air live on NBC as will Ross/Walsh Jennings later in the evening.
Boxing
Two Americans will enter the ring for round of 32 matches on Saturday. Carlos Balderas starts the lightweight division with a match against Berik Abdrakhmanov at 11:15 AM while Nico Hernandez has a late afternoon 4:30 PM matchup with Manuel Cappai in the light flyweight division. You might be able to catch the Balderas fight live on Telemundo while NBCSN will have them tape delayed as part of their coverage from 9 PM-12 AM.
Cycling
Cycling will begin on Saurday with the men’s road race, only 150.1 miles. Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney will be racing for the US and the race will include Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Great Britain. It begins at 8:30 AM. The road race will be covered live by NBC during their coverage from 8-10:30 AM and by NBCSN in their coverage between 10:30 AM and 3 PM.
Equestrian
The start of the eventing competition will take two days to get through all of the dressage programs but two Americans are in the ring tomorrow. Boyd Martin is the first American out at 10:36 AM while Clark Montgomery goes at 3:14 PM. You’ll be able to catch the equestrian coverage on USA between 3 and 4 PM. One would think they might get Montgomery’s on live, but that’s not certain.
Fencing
The first gold of Rio in fencing will be handed out on Saturday in the women’s individual epee event and two American sisters are in contention. Courtney Hurley will start in the round of 32 at 9:45 AM against Yana Shemyakina while Kelley Hurley faces Nathalie Moellhausen at 10:15 AM in the same round. The other American is Katharine Holmes and she takes on Erika Kirpu at 9:45 AM as well. The round of 16 and quarterfinals proceed pretty quickly after the round of 32 before the semifinals and finals come later in the day. You won’t get much fencing coverage on TV tomorrow as the only scheduled coverage is the final on tape delay during CNBC’s coverage from 5-8 PM.
Field Hockey
Competing in the third straight Olympics for the first time the US hopes to build on a competitive showing in London as they open up with a must win matchup against Argentina at 4 PM. The US has defeated them in the Olympics four years ago as well as in the Pan American games so it’s a winnable matchup and with the top four in the group of six advancing a win in this one could be a difference maker in the quest for the quarterfinals where anything could happen. This one will be shown live on USA.
Gymnastics
While there isn’t really and drama about how the US team will do in qualifying for the men’s event (hint – they’ll make it) the real question on Saturday is how individuals do overall and in each event because Saturday’s qualifying round is what will determine who gets to compete for individual all-around titles as well as individual event titles. The US competes in the second group to take to the apparatus at 1:30 PM. Chris Brooks, Jake Dalton, Danell Leyva, Sam Mikulak, and Alex Naddour make up the team this year. Looking to watch it live? Your only chance will be online as NBC will delay their coverage until the evening telecast from 8 PM-12 AM.
Rowing
No medals at stake in rowing tomorrow as all we will see is the opening heats of several events. Gevvie Stone is in the second heat of the women’s single sculls which begins at 8:30 AM. In the men’s pair at 9:30 AM Nareg Guregian and Anders Weiss are in the first heat. Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek will be in the second heat of the women’s double sculls at 10 AM while Anthony Fahden, Edward King, Tyler Nase, and Robin Prendes in the men’s lightweight four will have to wait to the third and final heat of the 11 AM event. Finally in the 11:50 AM women’s quadruple sculls Tracy Eisser, Megan Kalmoe, Grace Latz, and Adrienne Martelli will be in the second heat. Rowing will be covered in two places tomorrow, live on NBC between 8 and 10:30 AM and delayed on NBC between 3 and 4:15 PM.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby makes its return to the Olympics on Saturday with the beginning of the women’s event. The US will compete twice on Saturday, opening at 12 PM against Fiji and closing the day against Colombia at 5 PM. The Fiji match will be shown live on NBCSN while the Colombia match will be live on CNBC.
Shooting
The shooting events get underway with two events beginning and being decided on Saturday. Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher will take part in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification round at 7:30 AM with hopes of advancing to the final at 9:30 AM. The other event being held is the men’s 10m air pistol with the qualification round at 12 PM featuring Will Brown and Jay Shi and that event’s final at 2:30 PM. The women’s rifle final will be live on NBCSN but there is no planned TV coverage of the men’s pistol event.
Soccer
Having already secured a win over New Zealand on Wednesday the US could more or less lock up the group by beating France on Saturday in their 4 PM game. The matchup of the #1 and #3 teams in the world according to the FIFA rankings could be a final four preview and was a great contest in 2012 when the US went down 2-0 early but rallied for a 4-2 win. NBCSN will be your destination for this game.
Swimming
Six events begin on Saturday with four of those ending later in the day and two more moving into evening semifinals. Things start off at 12:02 PM with Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland in the fourth and final heat of the men’s 400m individual medley. Next up is Dana Vollmer in the fourth heat and Kelsi Worrell in the fifth heat of the women’s 100m butterfly at 12:28 PM. Starting at 12:48 PM Connor Jaeger takes part in the sixth heat with Conor Dwyer in the seventh heat of the men’s 400m freestlye. That’ll take a little while and it’s not until 1:32 PM that we’ll see Maya DiRado in the fourth heat and Elizabeth Beisel in the fifth heat of the the women’s 400m individual medley. The final individual event to start is the 2:04 PM men’s 100m breaststroke where Kevin Cordes and Cody Miller are together at the center of the fourth heat. The afternoon will wrap up with the US 4x100m freestyle relay team competing in the second heat of that 2:15 PM event.
In the evening we’ll see finals of men’s and women’s individual medley events as well as the men’s 400m freestyle and the women’s 4x100m freestyle. With no semifinals in those events swimmers will need a top eight time in the heats. In the other events it’ll be an evening semifinal so the heats in the afternoon only require a top 16 time to advance. The swimming events will all be live for ET and CT with afternoon heat coverage on NBC as well as the evening coverage.
Table Tennis
One of the more interesting potential storylines on Saturday will be that of 16-year-old Kanak Jha in the table tennis event. He starts the men’s singles competition with a matchup against Nima Alamian at 9:30 AM and would expect to have one more match later in the day if he wins. Jha is supposed to be a potential star but this is certainly not the Olympics where he will be in his prime. Lily Zhang opens her women’s singles competition by taking on Gremlis Arvelo at 10:15 AM while Jennifer Wu faces Eva Odorova at 11 AM. Much later in the day Yijun Feng is the last of the individuals to start as he faces Zhiwen He in the first round of the men’s singles event. NBCSN is planning to show the Zhang match on delay during their coverage from 1-4 PM while Jha’s and Wu’s matches will be on delay on MSNBC’s coverage from 2:15-5 PM. Any second round matches the US athletes would compete in would be shown on delay on NBCSN between 9 PM and 12 AM.
Tennis
It’s hard to talk about exact start times in tennis since matches do vary in length quite a bit and they don’t make any promises that you won’t be on an hour after the match before you started if it goes quickly, but we do know that Madison Keys will lead off the day with her singles match against Danka Kovinic. It’s a busy day for the US on the tennis court as in addition to Keys we’ll see Jack Sock take on Taro Daniel around 11:30 AM, Sloane Stephens take on Eugenie Bouchard in a tantalizing North American matchup around 2:30 PM, and three men’s matches around 1 PM: Brian Baker against Yuichi Sugita, Steve Johnson against Darian King, and Denis Kudla against Andrej Martin. Later in the day, not before 5:45 PM, Venus Williams will face Kirsten Flipkens. If it’s tennis you want it’s all live and on Bravo, though you’ll only get a single match at a time of course.
Volleyball
The US will start their quest to take home gold for the first time by battling potential 51st state Puerto Rico in their Olympic opener at 4:05 PM. Puerto Rico has never been to the Olympics so this will be a big moment for them. Telemundo will have coverage from the start while NBC will have most of it live but won’t have the very start.
Water Polo
Water polo will get underway with the US men taking on defending gold medalists Croatia at 9:20 AM. With four of the six teams in the group moving to the knockout round it’s certainly no must win for the US but it would be a great way to start their Olympics. The match will be live on NBC.
Weightlifting
The US only has four athletes competing in weightlifting in Rio and one of them will get it over with on the very first day. Morghan King will take part in the women’s 48kg competition at 6 PM. There is only one group of competitors in that weight class. Coverage of the event will be delayed on NBCSN between 8 and 9 PM.
Rio 2016 – Rowing Preview
Rowing has been a part of every Olympics, though it was not held in 1896 due to bad weather. Women’s rowing didn’t begin until 1976, and has six events compared to the eight the men have though the Olympics are working to at the very least increase the size of field for women while decreasing it for men. The competition will be held in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. The US qualified all but one of their boats at the World Championships in 2015 with the men’s eight qualifying at the final qualifying regatta in May.
The Team:
This year’s team is made up of 21 men and 20 women despite the fact that there are six women’s boats and only five for the men. There are more men because the US has two four-man and one eight-man boat but just one four-woman and one eight-woman boat. 12 of the 41 have Olympic experience with most of that in London but one woman who was not part of the team in London but was in Beijing as well as two others who took part in both London and Beijing. Steve Kasprzyk is the oldest on the team at 34 while Andrew Weiss won’t turn 24 until this November.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Rowing
Men:
Nareg Guregian – Coxless pair
Anders Weiss – Coxless pair
Andrew Campbell – Lightweight double sculls
Joshua Konieczny – Lightweight double sculls
Anthony Fahden* – Lightweight Four
Edward King – Lightweight Four
Tyler Nase – Lightweight Four
Robin Prendes* – Lightweight Four
Charlie Cole* – Four
Henrik Rummel* – Four
Matt Miller – Four
Seth Weil – Four
Mike DiSanto – Eight
Sam Dommer – Eight
Austin Hack – Eight
Alex Karwoski – Eight
Steve Kasprzyk* – Eight
Rob Munn – Eight
Glenn Ochal* – Eight
Hans Struzyna – Eight
Sam Ojserkis – Eight
Women:
Gevvie Stone* – Single Sculls
Grace Luczak – Pair
Felice Mueller – Pair
Kate Bertko – Lightweight Double Sculls
Devery Karz – Lightweight Double Sculls
Meghan O’Leary – Double Sculls
Ellen Tomek^ – Double Sculls
Tracy Eisser – Quadruple Sculls
Megan Kalmoe** – Quadruple Sculls
Grace Latz – Quadruple Sculls
Adrienne Martelli* – Quadruple Sculls
Amanda Elmore – Eight
Tessa Gobbo – Eight
Eleanor Logan** – Eight
Meghan Musnicki* – Eight
Amanda Polk – Eight
Emily Regan – Eight
Lauren Schmetterling – Eight
Kerry Simmonds – Eight
Katelin Snyder – Eight
* – Was part of the team in 2012 – London
** – Was part of the team in 2012 and 2008 (Beijing)
& – Was part of the team in 2008 – Beijing
Format:
All the events follow the same basic format of many Olympic racing events… heats, semifinals, finals. In rowing there is a repechage after the heats so those who don’t reach the semifinals on the first try get one more chance to advance. These events also feature additional finals past the main one to determine positions all the way down the line.
Schedule:
All Times ET
Saturday, August 6th
8:30 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Heats
9:30 AM – Men’s Pair – Heats
10 AM – Women’s Double Sculls – Heats
11 AM – Men’s Lightweight Four – Heats
11:50 AM – Women’s Quadruple Sculls – Heats
Sunday, August 7th
8 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Repechage
8:30 AM – Men’s Pair – Repechage
8:40 AM – Women’s Double Sculls – Repechage
9 AM – Men’s Lightweight Four – Repechage
9:10 AM – Women’s Pair – Heats
9:40 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Heats
10:20 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Heats
11 AM – Men’s Four – Heats
Monday, August 8th
7:50 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Semifinals
8:10 AM – Women’s Pair – Repechage
8:20 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Repechage
8:40 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Repechage
9:10 AM – Women’s Quadruple Sculls – Repechage
9:20 AM – Men’s Four – Repechage
9:30 AM – Women’s Eight – Heats
9:50 AM – Men’s Eight – Heats
Tuesday, August 9th
8:10 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Quarterfinals
8:50 AM – Men’s Pair – Semifinals
9:10 AM – Women’s Double Sculls – Semifinals
9:50 AM – Men’s Lightweight Four – Semifinals
10:10 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Semifinals
10:30 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Semifinals
Wednesday, August 10th
7:30 AM – Women’s Pair – Semifinals
7:50 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Semifinals
8:10 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Semifinals
8:30 AM – Men’s Four – Semifinals
8:50 AM – Women’s Eight – Repechage
9 AM – Men’s Eight – Repechage
9:34 AM – Women’s Quadruple Sculls – Finals
10:30 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Semifinals
10:50 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Finals
11 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Finals
11:30 AM – Women’s Pair – Finals
Thursday, August 11th
7:30 AM – Men’s Pair – Finals
7:40 AM – Women’s Double Sculls – Finals
8 AM – Men’s Lightweight Four – Finals
8:30 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Semifinals
Friday, August 12th
7:40 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Finals
8:10 AM – Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Finals
8:20 AM – Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls – Finals
8:30 AM – Women’s Pair – Finals
8:40 AM – Men’s Four – Finals
Saturday, August 13th
8:40 AM – Women’s Single Sculls – Finals
10:04 AM – Women’s Eight – Finals
10:24 AM – Men’s Eight – Finals
Past Results:
The US has more medals than any other country, 87 including 32 golds, with Great Britain in second with 63 medals. The US won three medals in London, a gold in women’s eight and bronzes in women’s quadruple sculls and men’s four. Meghan Musnicki and Eleanor Logan are back from the gold medal eight team and Logan won another gold in 2008 as well. Megan Kalmoe and Adrienne Martelli were part of the women’s quadruple sculls team that won bronze while Glenn Ochal, Charlie Cole, and Henrik Rummel were part of the men’s four team that won bronze.
Genevra Stone Reaches Second Straight Olympics
Four boats qualified for the Olympics on Sunday at the US Olympic Rowing Trials but only one is someone going back to the Olympics. In the women’s single sculls 2012 Olympian Genevra Stone held off a Stesha Cole by over seven seconds. Stone was the fastest of anyone in the Olympic finals in 2012 but was in the B Final after finishing fourth in the semifinals.
Also advancing to the Olympics without a close finish were Ellen Tomek/Meghan O’Leary in the women’s double sculls by over 12 seconds, Kate Bertko/Devery Karz in the women’s lightweight double sculls by over 11 seconds, and Andrew Campbell/Joshua Konieczny in the men’s lightweight double sculls by over four seconds.
The Paralympic qualifying on Sunday advanced two athletes to Rio: Blake Hexton by over 44 seconds in the men’s arms and shoulders single sculls and Jacqui Kapinowski by over 15 seconds in the women’s arms and shoulders single sculls.
In the men’s single sculls no Olympic spot has yet been secured but with the last chance for qualification upcoming the US selected the athlete who will compete for that spot and reach the Olympics if they qualify. It came down to a tight race between 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski and Thomas Graves. Graves had been last at the 500m and 1000m marks while Jurkowski led, though it was always very close. Graves had moved up to second, 3.6 seconds behind Jurkowski, with 500m left and closed hard but Jurkowski held on to win by 1.31 seconds. The same qualifying situation applies to the men’s double sculls but the final was not nearly as close. Willy Cowles/Stephen Whelpley cruised to a victory by over 17 seconds.
The last chance to qualify will be in the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta that will take place from May 22nd to the 25th in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
Day 4 Update
Day 5 Update
Ken Jurkowski and Genevra Stone Both Reach Olympic Rowing Trials Finals
With Sunday’s finals looming Saturday was the final day the field would be cut as semifinals were held in a variety of event at the US Olympic Rowing Trials. The first event was the men’s single sculls and in the first heat 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski won and had the top time of the day for the first time in the trials. Justin Keen had the top time in the second heat and was just 0.24 seconds behind Jurkowski. Greg Ansolabehere who had the top time in the time trials and previous round, also reached the final though he was over three seconds behind the top times. The final in this event looks to be an exciting and dramatic one.
Over in the women’s single sculls 2012 Olympian Genevra Stone won her heat to advance to the final without any real challenge but Stesha Cole was the fastest of the day by 3.2 seconds. Stone will probably be a bit faster in the final when finishing first is all that matters.
In the men’s double sculls repechage two more teams made the final. There was a decently close finish as Thaddeus Babiec/Theo Pritz advanced to the final by just 2.4 seconds. It was even closer in the women’s double sculls as Jamie Chapman/Elizabeth Vogt only advanced to the final by 1.88 seconds. Another close finish was in the women’s lightweight double sculls as Rosa Kemp/Monica Whitehouse had only 2.92 seconds to spare. The men’s lightweight double sculls wasn’t quite so competitive as neither heat was decided by less than 4.5 seconds.
Sunday will have eight finals. Two of those are for Paralympic spots, four are for Olympic spots, and two are for spots in a final qualifying event for the Olympics.
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
Day 4 Update
Ken Jurkowski and Genevra Stone Advance to Semifinals at Olympic Rowing Trials
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
Men’s Single Sculls Field Trimmed to 14 at Olympic Rowing Trials
The men’s single sculls field was cut from 21 to 14 on Thursday during a time trial the most noteworthy competitor was probably 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski. Jurkowski advanced easily with the fourth fastest time while Greg Ansolabehere won the time trial. The battle for the final spot was pretty intense with Lucas Wilhelm advancing over Matthew Brown by 0.27 seconds.
Friday’s going to eliminate competitors in a variety of events. The men’s single sculls will feature heats and repechages with eight advancing to Saturday’s semifinals. The same will happen in the women’s single sculls though the starting field is 11 instead of 14. The men’s and women’s double sculls and lightweight double sculls will qualify two of the six boats directly to the final while the others go to a repechage Saturday. Competing in the women’s single sculls will be 2012 Olympian Genevra Stone while
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Craftsbury A Wins Men’s Quadruple Sculls at Olympic Rowing Trials
While the Craftsbury A team hasn’t reached the Olympics yet they took an important first step in that direction on Tuesday at the Olympic Rowing Trials. The team led by Ben Davison and featuring 2012 Olympian Peter Graves along with Ben Dann and John Graves weren’t quite as quick as Sunday but their time of 6:05.09 was still almost five seconds ahead of the runner-up California A team and advanced them into an Olympic qualifying event in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 22nd to the 25th.
There are only two spots available in Lucerne (only 12 teams total reach the Olympics) so it’ll be a big challenge but they’ll have their chance to go for it. Their time will certainly need to improve as the qualifying times in 2012 were under 5:50.
Wednesday is a practice day at the Olympic Rowing Trials before time trials on Thursday will trim the field in one events and arrange the heats in others. The men’s single sculls field is 21-deep so they will trim to the top 14 on Thursday through the time trial. In the field for that event is 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski. The other events (women’s single sculls, men’s and women’s double sculls, men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls) will just feature time trials. The US has qualified for the Olympics in the three women’s events and the lightweight men’s double sculls. The men’s single and double sculls are both trying to advance to the same Olympic qualifying event the men’s quadruple sculls team will be competing at.
Also starting on Thursday will be the Paralympic Rowing Trials portion of the week. There are two competitors vying for the spot in both the men’s and women’s arms and shoulders single sculls category.
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Top Teams Impress in Men’s Quadruple Sculls Time Trial at Olympic Rowing Trials
Three teams competed in a men’s quadruple scull time trial on Sunday at the Olympic Rowing Trials but barring a surprise it seems only two of them are real contenders to advance to international Olympic qualifying competition. The top time belonged to the Craftsbury A team led by Ben Davison and featuring 2012 Olympian Peter Graves at 6:03.09. A little less than three seconds behind them were the California A team led by Ian Silveria. The three teams will race for the chance to advance on Tuesday in the final.
Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Gold for US Men’s Four at Rowing World Cup in Varese, Italy
The US men’s four team of Charles Cole, Matthew Miller, Henrik Rummel, and Seth Weil had posted the top time on Friday in the heats which advanced them directly to the final. It wouldn’t matter much unless they matched that accomplishment on Sunday. The US did just that winning the final over Italy by 0.28 seconds.
In the lightweight men’s four the US team of Robin Prendes, Anthony Fahden, Edward King, and Tyler Nase didn’t have quite as much success as just like on Saturday they were well behind the Swiss team. The US also got beat to the line by China (by 0.66 seconds) but finished third to grab the bronze medal.
The first stage of the US Rowing Olympic Trials started Sunday in Sarasota, Florida. The next World Rowing Cup event is in Lucerne, Switzerland starting May 27th.
Previous Coverage of Rowing World Cup:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update