Trivia Night, Rio Regatta, a great book, missing lights
Trivia Night
This Saturday’s Trivia Night is now a sell-out at 120 tickets. Congratulations to the organising committee and thank you to everyone who bought tickets or made a donation. A report of the event will follow next week.
Olympic Games
If you stay up till 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning you will get to see all the Australian rowers race their heats other than the men’s coxless four (Sunday night) and women’s eight (Monday night). I have attached a more user-friendly race schedule than the one I sent last week. It’s been prepared by Rowing Victoria.
Gen Horton races at 12.20am (Sunday morning)
Aisyah Gala (of Singapore) who trained out of MRC races at 11.00pm
Here is the official on-line draw.
Coverage is only on Channel 7’s channels and via their app Olympics on 7. I have downloaded the app and it looks pretty good.
You will find a World Rowing clip, How to Watch a Rowing Race, here . It might help deter channel surfers in your household if you distribute it before Saturday night.
Nick Garratt and Will Liley who were both at the recent Lucerne regatta have been kind enough to share their tips for the Olympics. See below.
Sports Illustrated magazine has also published their tips for the rowing here. Their tips are very similar to Nick’s and Will’s.
| Event | Nick Garratt | Will Liley |
|---|---|---|
| W1x | Kim Brennan ( née Crow): strong Gold medal favourite, with NZ’s Emma Twigg the only person to have beaten Kim since 2012. Kim is unbeaten for 2 years, and current World Cup Champion and World Champion. |
Comment: Convincing last 500m by Kim over NZL – did not give up any margin. NZL not at Lucerne. USA 2nd at Lucerne, not at Posnan. CZE not at Posnan. |
| M1x | Is it a bridge too far for current Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale who turns 38 this year? Write off a five- time World Champion at your peril. Has the Czech master tactician and current World Champion Andre Synek been keeping his powder dry so far this season? I wager that the Croatian Damir Martin who put on another sculling Masterclass in winning the European Championships in Brandenburg earlier this year, might just upset the aforementioned giants. |
Comment: 3.3 and 1.2 second margins 1st to 2nd at Lucerne and Posnan. Drysdale is a proven champion but was well beaten by Obreno of BEL at Henley. |
| LW2x | NZ? Netherlands |
Comment: Always hard to pick clear favourites in this event – it’s always close – but NED won impressively at Posnan while CAN won at Lucerne in a much closer race. |
| LM2x | France. long shot South Africa maybe? |
Comment: FRA are lay down favourites, winners at Lucerne & Posnan. |
| W2- | Great Britain are World Champions and unbackable favourites |
No one else will be close. Comment: GBR unbeaten since 2011 but were ill at Lucerne, won by USA by 1.2 secs over NZL who were 1.6 secs behind GBR at Posnan. This could be an upset, with either of USA or NZL finally getting them. |
| M2- | Silver for Australia. Despite the Kiwi’s crazy persistent penchant for bike riding and subsequent falls just a week out from Olympics and World Championships, barring further accidents, no one is going to beat Bond and Murray, holders the Rowing World’s longest unbeaten streak of 68 races over 6 years. NSW’s Alex Lloyd and Spencer Turrin are aiming to repeat their World Cup silver medal. |
Comment: AUS a convincing 2nd at Posnan over GBR racing desperately for selection, but no NED, who were closer to NZL at Lucerne. |
| W2x | Stroked by the youngest member of the rowing team, Mosman’s Gen Horton. Silver medal at Lucerne’s World Cup II, a timetable delay and subsequent race time confusion affected the race preparation and thus the race for the crew in Poznan World Cup III. We’re hearing that things are back on track and anything is possible for this crew if they get their pacing right. |
Comment: Convincing 2.1 secs margin by AUS over GRE at Lucerne and Posnan race tactics didn’t work. LTU too fast for everyone in the last 500M. |
| M2x | I expect we’ll see a better performance from the Aussie crew which is comprised of David Watts who stroked last year’s silver medal quad, and Chris Morgan, a long-time member of Noono’s quads and who has trained here at Mosman.
But I think no one will get near the Sinkovic Bros of Croatia, who have dominated this event for 2 years. |
Comment: LTU were 3rd at Lucerne, beating GER & GBR, and were not at Posnan where GBR led until the 1750. NOR (Olympic M1X Champion Olaf Tufte stroking) is also a wild card. |
| LM4- | NZ, Denmark, Switzerland, GB ?… Too close to call for me |
Comment: NZL clear winners; won at Lucerne & Posnan, both by over a length. |
| M4- | Silver: led the Lucerne World Cup for 1975 of the 2000 metre race until the strongest erg puller in Aus history (5:37) Josh Dunkley-Smith crabbed two strokes before the line. Three weeks later In the 3rd and final World Cup in Poznan they were in the Silver medal position with 150 metres to go when the current World Champions, Italy , unleashed an extraordinary sprint to grab silver ahead of our crew. We need to have added a sprint to our kitbag of tricks to be confident of silver. |
Comment: GBR have the wood on AUS, out-thinking them every big race; ITA could get 2nd (World champions in 2015). No one else is close, except maybe NED. |
| W4x | This race has been Germany’s for ages, but Australia have shown much improved form this season. Our own Amy Young was a member of the last two Olympic quads, stroking both crews, and one of her crew mates, and a member of this year’s crew Kerry Hore trained here at Mosman for Beijing. Australia- just! |
Comment: A brave pick for an AUS gold but they are coming up nicely; POL were 1st at Lucerne but couldn’t repeat even at home in Posnan. |
| M4x | Also in a very good place to snare Gold: stroked at the last Olympics to a bronze medal by our former World Champion Dan Noonan. The Rio crew has the experience of two London crew members on board in Karsten Forsterling and James McRae, and two powerful young guns in Sasha Belonogoff and Cam Girdlestone. Our crew were extraordinary in Posnan: not only did they go 1:24, 1:24,1:24, 1:24, they actually went- as I found out after the regatta – 42,42,42,42,42,42,42,42 for each 250m! |
Comment: AUS definitive favorites: dominated both Lucerne & Posnan to win by clear water. |
| W8+ | We simply just can’t go past what has been described as the most dominant team in World sport. Period. Undefeated in World Championships or Olympics for 10 years, they suffered a sole defeat in the Sydney World Cup in Feb 2013, in what was for them an out of training reward trip. GB maybe for Silver, but Romania always threaten. |
Comment: GBR came closer than anyone to USA in the past 4 years at Lucerne but were beaten by NZL by 2.0 seconds at Posnan. |
| M8+ | The US has a fine history here, winning every year from 1920 to 1964 inclusive, although only two Golds since then. Their strong tradition of college eight competition will have produced a good crew. But it’ll need an upset to dislodge the current great rivals of Germany and GB, and that may well come from the Netherlands, who are my tip. |
Comment: The reign is over; NED’s 1.8 seconds over GER at Lucerne, all in the last 300M, is convincing. NED & USA not at Posnan. |
Great book now a documentary
Like many members I have read The Boys in the Boat, an account of the US eight that won at the 1936 Olympics. It was published two years ago and is a fantastic read covering much more than just rowing. I have passed it on to a number of non-rowers and they all loved it. You can find more details here. A second print run is in Sydney bookshops at the moment.
Anyway, a documentary based on the book’s account has just been released by PBS. It’s available here during August.
Missing lights
A few people have left their boat lights at the club and found when they returned that the lights had vanished. This is only a half-Wombat offence, I feel.
More seriously, if you have found (or find) lights lying around please put them on the workshop bench under the stairs and let Nick Garratt or me know.
All the best
Ed