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Time trials decide fate of Kiwi big boats
Course conditions prompt change to different qualifying system.
Three of New Zealand's crews were thrown into a race against the clock on the penultimate day of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
The risk of unfair conditions across the lanes led to the usual heats format being abandoned in favour of time trials, each crew racing solo at one-minute intervals.
The Women's Eight of Olivia Hay, Isla Blake, Alana Sherman, Veronica Wall, Stella Clayton-Greene, Beckie Leigh, Ella Cossill, Kate Haines and cox Harry Molloy, were put into a bracket alongside Romania, China, the Netherlands and USA. Another bracket comprised Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Canada and Italy.
The two fastest crews from each bracket earned automatic entry to the A Final, the remaining spots went to the fastest two remaining boats.
Cox of the Women's Eight Harry Molloy says they got the news just 20 minutes before getting on the water. But he wasn't caught out by it, having experienced the system while racing in the UK.
"It would have been pretty daunting if I had never done it before and then had to do it in the biggest moment of my career.
"The only thing that really changes is you want to blow up a little bit earlier, you don't want your peak speed to be across the line, you want it 50 metres before that."
New Zealand was last to set off in their bracket. Unbeknown to them, USA had already crossed in 6min 01.63 sec, Romania in 6:03.41, the Netherlands in 6:07.11 and China in 6:22.05.
The suspense continued long after they got off the water, as the times across the two brackets were compiled.
"Then we got told like six minutes later, and everyone's just jumping up and down. Pretty stoked, as you'd imagine."
Their time of 6:11.11 enough to get them into the A Final, which starts just after midnight tonight NZT.
Previous experience had also worked in stroke and former University of Washington athlete Liv Hay's favour, despite this being her first senior world championship.
"It was a challenge that I was ready to step up to. It was a big honour to be able to be in that seat. There's quite a few of us who've raced eights for four years in America, so I think we all have that experience but just haven't touched on it recently. We had to pull it out of our back pocket, but it was there.
" I think we were all pretty happy with how it went and knew we'd raced our hearts out."
Olivia Hay, Isla Blake, Alana Sherman, Veronica Wall, Stella Clayton-Greene, Beckie Leigh, Ella Cossill, Kate Haines and cox Harry Molloy had a long wait to find out if they'd made the A Final.
The Men's Eight of Ben Taylor, Oli Welch, Matt Macdonald, Ollie Maclean, Josh Vodanovich, Harry Fitzpatrick, Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch and cox Oliver Duncan also advanced, their 5:34.30 good enough to take them into tonight's semifinals.
"A lot of the stuff we do in the eight, a lot of the pieces are pretty much a time trial anyway, so we're pretty used to just doing our own thing," says Oliver. " We knew we'd done enough before we even got off the water…[it] made the warm down a bit nicer."
The Men's Eight of Ben Taylor (str), Oli Welch, Matt Macdonald, Ollie Maclean, Josh Vodanovich, Harry Fitzpatrick, Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch and cox Oliver Duncan racing against the clock in their time trial.
Ben Mason and Sophie Egnot-Johnson posted the fourth-fastest time in their bracket (6:50.52), putting them into tonight's C Final.
Ben Mason and Sophie Egnot Johnson will race the C Final of the Mixed Double.
Earlier in the day, Matt, Harry, Ollie and Fred lined up for the A Final of the Men's Four.
They were out in lane six in the conditions that prompted the later move to time trials.
The Netherlands had the favoured lane one, the USA in two and the world champion British boat in four. The Netherlands had never won the coxless four at a world championships and led through the first 500m with a stadium full of home supporters waiting up at the finish. There were multiple lead changes over the middle K before the USA launched with 350m to go, winning in 5:41.57. The Netherlands finished second (5:41.84), Great Britain was third (5:44.16).
New Zealand, a crew that's been together for only six weeks, finished sixth in 5:59.88.
Matt Macdonald, Harry Fitzpatrick, Ollie Maclean and Fred Vavasour finished sixth in the A Final of the Men's Four.
The Women's Four of Alana, Isla, Kate and Ella found themselves in a duel with Ireland in the B Final. New Zealand led to halfway but couldn't hold off the charge from the Irish boat over the last 1000m. Ireland won in 6:26.34, New Zealand crossed in 6:29.00 to finish eighth overall.
The USA won the A Final, setting a new World Best Time of 6:09.87, shattering the previous record (6:14.36) set by New Zealand's Kerri Williams, Grace Prendergast, Kelsey Bevan and Kayla Pratt on the same course in 2014.
Alana Sherman (str), Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill finished eighth overall in the Women's Four.
Kathryn Glen finished sixth in the C Final of the Women's Single Sculls. She was originally selected in the Women's Quad but had to withdraw just before the team left for the World Cup series in May. A winter on the gym bike got her back on the plane for these championships and she now has her sights set on trying to make the quad next season.
Kathryn Glen finished sixth in the C Final of the Women's Single Sculls.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
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- International Regattas
- /
- Time trials decide...
Time trials decide fate of Kiwi big boats
Course conditions prompt change to different qualifying system.
Three of New Zealand's crews were thrown into a race against the clock on the penultimate day of the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
The risk of unfair conditions across the lanes led to the usual heats format being abandoned in favour of time trials, each crew racing solo at one-minute intervals.
The Women's Eight of Olivia Hay, Isla Blake, Alana Sherman, Veronica Wall, Stella Clayton-Greene, Beckie Leigh, Ella Cossill, Kate Haines and cox Harry Molloy, were put into a bracket alongside Romania, China, the Netherlands and USA. Another bracket comprised Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Canada and Italy.
The two fastest crews from each bracket earned automatic entry to the A Final, the remaining spots went to the fastest two remaining boats.
Cox of the Women's Eight Harry Molloy says they got the news just 20 minutes before getting on the water. But he wasn't caught out by it, having experienced the system while racing in the UK.
"It would have been pretty daunting if I had never done it before and then had to do it in the biggest moment of my career.
"The only thing that really changes is you want to blow up a little bit earlier, you don't want your peak speed to be across the line, you want it 50 metres before that."
New Zealand was last to set off in their bracket. Unbeknown to them, USA had already crossed in 6min 01.63 sec, Romania in 6:03.41, the Netherlands in 6:07.11 and China in 6:22.05.
The suspense continued long after they got off the water, as the times across the two brackets were compiled.
"Then we got told like six minutes later, and everyone's just jumping up and down. Pretty stoked, as you'd imagine."
Their time of 6:11.11 enough to get them into the A Final, which starts just after midnight tonight NZT.
Previous experience had also worked in stroke and former University of Washington athlete Liv Hay's favour, despite this being her first senior world championship.
"It was a challenge that I was ready to step up to. It was a big honour to be able to be in that seat. There's quite a few of us who've raced eights for four years in America, so I think we all have that experience but just haven't touched on it recently. We had to pull it out of our back pocket, but it was there.
" I think we were all pretty happy with how it went and knew we'd raced our hearts out."
Olivia Hay, Isla Blake, Alana Sherman, Veronica Wall, Stella Clayton-Greene, Beckie Leigh, Ella Cossill, Kate Haines and cox Harry Molloy had a long wait to find out if they'd made the A Final.
The Men's Eight of Ben Taylor, Oli Welch, Matt Macdonald, Ollie Maclean, Josh Vodanovich, Harry Fitzpatrick, Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch and cox Oliver Duncan also advanced, their 5:34.30 good enough to take them into tonight's semifinals.
"A lot of the stuff we do in the eight, a lot of the pieces are pretty much a time trial anyway, so we're pretty used to just doing our own thing," says Oliver. " We knew we'd done enough before we even got off the water…[it] made the warm down a bit nicer."
The Men's Eight of Ben Taylor (str), Oli Welch, Matt Macdonald, Ollie Maclean, Josh Vodanovich, Harry Fitzpatrick, Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch and cox Oliver Duncan racing against the clock in their time trial.
Ben Mason and Sophie Egnot-Johnson posted the fourth-fastest time in their bracket (6:50.52), putting them into tonight's C Final.
Ben Mason and Sophie Egnot Johnson will race the C Final of the Mixed Double.
Earlier in the day, Matt, Harry, Ollie and Fred lined up for the A Final of the Men's Four.
They were out in lane six in the conditions that prompted the later move to time trials.
The Netherlands had the favoured lane one, the USA in two and the world champion British boat in four. The Netherlands had never won the coxless four at a world championships and led through the first 500m with a stadium full of home supporters waiting up at the finish. There were multiple lead changes over the middle K before the USA launched with 350m to go, winning in 5:41.57. The Netherlands finished second (5:41.84), Great Britain was third (5:44.16).
New Zealand, a crew that's been together for only six weeks, finished sixth in 5:59.88.
Matt Macdonald, Harry Fitzpatrick, Ollie Maclean and Fred Vavasour finished sixth in the A Final of the Men's Four.
The Women's Four of Alana, Isla, Kate and Ella found themselves in a duel with Ireland in the B Final. New Zealand led to halfway but couldn't hold off the charge from the Irish boat over the last 1000m. Ireland won in 6:26.34, New Zealand crossed in 6:29.00 to finish eighth overall.
The USA won the A Final, setting a new World Best Time of 6:09.87, shattering the previous record (6:14.36) set by New Zealand's Kerri Williams, Grace Prendergast, Kelsey Bevan and Kayla Pratt on the same course in 2014.
Alana Sherman (str), Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill finished eighth overall in the Women's Four.
Kathryn Glen finished sixth in the C Final of the Women's Single Sculls. She was originally selected in the Women's Quad but had to withdraw just before the team left for the World Cup series in May. A winter on the gym bike got her back on the plane for these championships and she now has her sights set on trying to make the quad next season.
Kathryn Glen finished sixth in the C Final of the Women's Single Sculls.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
