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Index:
Junior Rowing World Championships, Amsterdam 2nd-5th August 2006
Wednesday 2nd August, heats Very British of me, but I have to mention the weather first. It's absolutely p*ssing it down in sharp squally showers with hardly a break between. We had a flash of sun for 2-3 minutes this morning, but now it's tipping stair-rods out of a grey sky every few minutes, drenching competitors, coaches and any unwary spectators who get caught in the open. There's a good crowd here already as the opening heats start off, the rowing-mad Dutch keen to support despite a relatively small team. The usual demented foreign parents from all nationalities are also in attendance, including a nervous Craig Ross, NZL rowing CEO, whose son Brad is rowing in the NZL JM2-. The grandstand is slightly to the right of the finish tower, but close behind it, and stretches some 100m down the course with an open area (rather unpopular today) further along. They've sensibly tented as much as possible, and already after a few hours the roof is bending and bellying out under the weight of rainwater which has collected in the troughs. Fortunately for the rowers the sheltering trees and prevailing wind-currents mean it's largely a quick tailwind, and as I check the results many of the heats are breaking the junior course records for the Bosbaan. I wonder if they're best ever junior times - there isn't an official list. More on this later. We have a minor panic with the electrics: as I plug my laptop in at the grandstand, it starts smoking (!!!!) - cue exceedingly hasty pulling out of plug. It emerges the wrong high-low transformer has been installed by the supply company, which could have been serious. Fortunately the Rowing Service laptop is fine, though my power adaptor has unsurprisingly blown. The OC lend me another, and will supply a new one shortly. Very nice guys. There have been an unusually high number of false starts today, which the commentators diligently tell us about, naming and shaming all the crews. These are real ones - due to people galloping off early, not being late lining up - so perhaps there is a problem with visibility up at the start, or wind giving everyone the jitters. Though fast, the conditions are also difficult, and it's no surprise there is some very dodgy bladework and several fairly serious crabs. Nobody falls in (that I know about) but it comes fairly close at times, especially with the singles. I think it's Lithuania's JW1x Donata Vistartaite who was leading her heat at halfway but was overtaken, then just before the grandstands hooked an absolute boat-stopper to put her well off qualifying. Getting going again, she veered worrying close to Ilze Leoke from Latvia in the next-door lane, and the two scrabbled to the finish right alongside one another, both having trouble with the frisky wind and waves. The umpire's boat wasn't able to get close enough really, because Dimitra Triantafylopoulou from Greece (fabulous name) was half a minute back so they had to avoid washing her down. Fortunately Latvia and Lithuania managed to avoid crashing, and crossed the line for a 3rd/4th photofinish which Vistartaite won. There was more trouble for the men's singles. Germany's JM1x Hans Gruhne had equipment trouble (something up with his rigger) hampering his efforts in heat 3 just after 350m gone. In order to carry on to the repechages he had to complete the race, which he was up for attempting, and was proceeding slowly along the course. However, the jury asked him to stop and be picked up so that they could ensure the safety of the rest of the racers (umpire's and rescue boat issues again). Because his lack of a finish wasn't his fault the rules can be applied to let him back into the regatta, and he takes up a rep place as if he had finished last. However, to make certain he ended today as tired as the rest of his rivals, an umpire and a member of the Fairness Committee supervised him racing the course at a good speed (not far off flat out, it looked like) at 2pm today just after racing. A good case of the system working well, which is satisfying. In the next heat Christian Nollnielsen of Denmark got a repechage place for his birthday. The other birthday boy was Valent Sinkovic of Croatia's JM2x, who won his heat easily. A few races later Jan Spik was making waves in the Slovenian JM2x - taking after his (much) elder brother and world/Olympic champion Luka. Spik minor clearly has the same fast start since he and crewmate Janez Jurse led the field off, but they were happy to qualify in second behind Poland. I didn't mention Poland earlier - their JM4+ has the youngest person at the regatta, 13-year-old cox Piotr Krolikiewicz whose 14th birthday isn't until December. He's also steering the Polish boys' eight. Mind you, Marin Muzinic, coxing the Croatian JM8+, is only 17 months older, just turned 15; Jakub Gwozdiak (Czech JM8+ cox) isn't 15 for another 24 days, and Leonardo Belluci (Italy's JM8+ cox) won't be 15 until mid-November. Italy, the Czechs and Poland were all in the same heat, so no doubt there was some high-pitched shrieking from the coxes!
Junior best times What else? The rain cleared up for a while, long enough for the impressive Bosbaan water-removing devices to be employed on the grandstand tent. These consist of lengths of heavy-duty hose, which hapless volunteers slide up onto the tent roof and suck at to start siphoning the puddles out. Highly effective, rather funny to watch, and much classier than the Henley-Royal-Regatta-broom-handle technique many members of BARJ will be familiar with. Once racing was over, naturally a few more rainstorms gave the course a thorough re-soaking, so we're back where we started now. For the Euro-pop watchers amongst you (see other 2006 blogs) the standard has been reasonably high: plenty of current international chart material, and played at an almost subliminal low volume between races so that those who don't like it can still hear themselves think. Not up to the classic rock standard shown when the right DJ is put in charge at Munich, though. Enthusiastic crowds so far, particularly a keen Swiss posse who took flags down to the waterside whenever one of their crews was going past. The huge medal-podium area and landing rafts are already in place, and without any billboard clutter, so they've made a good stopping point for ultra-keen parents to yell from without bugging their neighbours in the grandstand. Everything is pretty well organised - the local team are very used to big regattas, and last year was a good practice. The only visible loose end is the flagpoles facing the grandstands, on the lane-6 side of the course. Most of them have Bosbaan-tree-itis, a clearly contagious affair which makes all the nearby trees lean slightly towards the finish line. The pole carrying the Spanish flag is particularly drunken, and I wouldn't be surprised if it falls over tonight. At least there is a proper-size British flag this time. Best race in my opinion was the Uruguay/Lithuania photofinish in JM4x heat 1. Uruguay ended up quicker by 0.25 seconds, but the two young crews panted their way over the line so locked in combat that they took 3 extra strokes more than they needed - I don't think they even realised they'd passed the tower. Both, fortunately, qualified direct to the semi. About to finish up for the afternoon, the course is empty of boats - well almost everyone has raced today - and another swift shower tracks through, a fair blast of rain. The press centre is buzzing with the latest exploits of two of the Italian journalists, who faxed FISA with their unfavourable impressions of the job the (excellent) Dutch media team have been doing. Not wise, when all FISA have to do is walk next door and present the press team with the fax.... Foot-in-mouth disease? More tomorrow - racing, at least.
Thursday 3rd August, reps Repechage day, a bit quieter at the course for obvious reasons. We start with sun, but fairly soon it clouds over and a fine, persistent drizzle begins to blanket the area, thickening into solid showers occasionally and only drying up for a few minutes at a time. Less wind than yesterday, and what there is is a little cross, making the airplanes landing at the airport come in a bit skew, so as not to be pushed off course. I'm told the flagpoles leaning is because students try and climb up to nick flags off them at the Bosbaan Regatta - flag-stealing is an official sport with complex rules and boat club rivalries. Anyway, the Spanish flagpole has been pushed back into line, and looks less insecure. I said yesterday the British flag was a decent size - but others aren't. Slovakia's and Croatia's are pretty small (about 1/3 size) and there are three which are miniscule - perhaps as little as 1/8th size. One is definitely Egypt, another probably Belgium and the third either Poland or Indonesia - more likely the former. I'm trying to work out what to count in the commentary at the moment. Yesterday's 'word of the day' was "debut" since the commentary team had gone to the bother of working out which rowers and scullers had never raced at the junior worlds before. and were mentioning every single new debut. Today it seems to be "representative", while the Swiss commentator Markus Binder likes 'cracking' - one of my favourite words when blogging races. More fun is listening for the "oooh-er" change of tone in the commentator's voice when the car they're in swerves rapidly round the loop at the end of the course to head full-tilt back up towards the start. If they haven't finished speaking it makes for a startled hiccup. I'm surprised to see only two races being very close for qualification, which is unusual in repechages. These are the first JM4+ repechage - Poland second to Ukraine beats the USA by only 0.51 seconds - and the second JM2x repechage, in which South Africa wins, Switzerland comes second and Latvia go to the D/E semi only 0.3 seconds into third place. The USA win the W8+ race for lanes - if they were to win Saturday's final it would leave the senior women's eight under pressure to make it a clean sweep of golds this year - not that they are by any means slow. Now that the U23s is a full worlds, I wonder if that would be a first - all three golds in the same event class? Can only be done for heavyweight events, of course, because of the lack of junior lightweights. I'm sure some statsmeister will work it out (to be honest I can't be bothered). There are a lot of newer rowing countries here, including Bolivia - FISA thinks this is a first - with a junior single sculler. However, it must be said not many are still in the medal running. Yesterday only Uruguay went straight through - all the rest were from countries which do win medals at least once every few years - and today only Israel stands out, for their JM2x winning their rep. It's good to see the likes of Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova, Brazil, Algeria and Peru appearing, but they're finding it hard to make medal races at the moment. Still, 52 countries at the juniors isn't bad - and when Serbia and Montenegro split it should add another. Apparently they're waiting for the IOC change, then the rowing federation will make the shift with FISA. I suspect this won't be until after the senior worlds this year. That will also mean a change of kit, which won't be a bad thing. The current SCG kit includes a very light-coloured all-in-one bottom half, which I hope is double-padded since otherwise it probably goes see-through in all this rain. The SCG JM4x comes in a length behind Greece, whose crew scull really rather well. I think this is going to be one of the most competitive events in the regatta - 26 quad's entries is a huge number. The JW1x record I mentioned yesterday turns out to have been set by Femke Dekker in 1997, which isn't much of a surprise - a very strong oarswoman. The weather forecast is for loads more rain tonight, and then strong wind tomorrow - not sure if it's straight or cross - up to 25-30km/h some forecasts are suggesting, with stronger gusts on Friday morning and even worse in the afternoon. Could get pretty difficult on the course. There seems to be more chance of a cross/head-wind than a tail, which means Dekkers' record might stand. Fortunately now - after racing - the wind has died down, and the British JM8+ comes down to the finish line on a practice paddle, doing rather picture-perfect square blade low rate. The girls' four is just going out too, as the eight turns round, and a cluster of GB coaches gathers on the bank discussing options and yelling instructions across the lake. Yup, that looks like pretty well the whole team on the water now, excluding the JM4+ who sank into obscurity this morning with 5th in their rep, after leading early on. More mizzle (miserable drizzly rain) as they finish their trips and go in, which clearly discourages anyone else from having an outing. The Dutch keep calling it 'British weather' but I didn't ask for it to rain on me, I wanted it to rain on my garden. Humph. It's gone a bit grey and 'orrible now, pretty depressing after this morning's sun. Not at all inspiring. Just before I go.... - the weather forecast is obviously being taken seriously, since at 2pm a large team of local rowing youngsters drives a club truck over to the far side of the course and sets about the task of taking the 53 flags (participating NFs plus one for the rowing club?) down and packing them away. Clearly high winds expected overnight: I hope the many boats racked outside are being tied down as hard as possible. So that's one area taken care of. I wonder what else could blow over during the night?
Friday 4th August, semis, and B/C/D finals Semifinals day, and although the crowd takes a couple of hours to amass (having a lie-in instead of watching the C/D semifinals) there's a good spread of nations represented amongst the spectators as the A/B semis - the ones which matter for hopeful medallists - get started. Instantly there's a different buzz around the course - crowds flock down to the landing pontoon in front of the grandstand, to wave flags and cheers; the commentators stop sounding like holiday camp hosts trying to energise bored vacationers and start sounding genuinely interested; and the bike posses on the far side suddenly swell in numbers. The single sculls are solid but provide only one exciting finish, but things kick off more with the pairs and doubles, and suddenly everyone wakes up. Romania's JM2- are incredible: middle pair of the 2005 champion JM4-, and frighteningly speedy. They do a burst to the line which appears largely unnecessary, as they've already broken Greece and Germany, but it's extremely effective. Ionel Strungaru and Marius Luchian - keep an eye out for the names, as they'll be too old for juniors next year. In the same race little Brad Ross misses out on the A final by less than a length - but he has several more years as a junior, so we probably haven't seen the last of him - and his edgy dad Craig cycling along beside the Kiwi coaches. Women's quads slide past the grandstand, on their way to warm up for their semis. The Ukraine girls are doing a backstops hands-only rate exercise, and whip it effortlessly up to 70 strokes a minute (not as hard as it sounds with such short strokes). Still in perfect unison, and demonstrating good multi-tasking skills by grinning and exchanging comments with supporters in the crowds at the same time. Nerves, what do you mean? Mind you they are in an outside lane for their semi, so perhaps aren't expected to reach the A final. Some brutal qualifying for the JM2x comes next, that difficult 2-to-A, 2-to-B and 2-to-C final arrangement they're trying to ditch for the big senior events. Coming in quite far back third in the first JM2x semi, one of Austria's scullers appears to give up at the wrong point - just before the line, and scrambles over alongside Hungary and Israel with nobody quite sure if he and his crewmate have even stayed clear of the last two places and the C final. Phew, yes they have, third by a smidge. Not in the medals, but then they never looked like they would be. At least not dumped out the back. The next race, 'baby Spik' (Big Spik's younger brother) is cruising along leading the Slovenian double into the last quarter of their race when Croatia rush through from third to first. Trying to get them back nearly has Slovenia overtaken by France, who sense an opportunity, but it's both Balkan doubles through a second apart, with France 0.3 secs into third. Women's quads races, and a sudden very hard shower dumps tons of water on the course within seconds, and everyone scurries for shelter. Very little visibility indeed - the rowers probably need to be reintroduced to their blade handles as it stops. The girls scull down ignoring the conditions, but no doubt the men's eights are quickly bailing out, up at the start. At least it mean very little wind. The race includes Slovenia's JW4x, with stern pair sisters Magdalena and Katharina Lobnig, younger sis Magdalena stroking. New Zealand's JW4x look excellent, and should have a great fight with Germany tomorrow. They have the Athens-inspired bow wave/windbreak on their boat. A short break, then the men's quads - more two-through qualifying. We're all sad to see Uruguay trailing in fifth from their semi, after such a good performance on Wednesday. Commentator Robert Treharne Jones mutters "well that's a pity for Uruguay" as his car turns round, clearly not expecting it to be broadcast, but he's absolutely right. Slovenia celebrate delightedly after coming second - quite a young crew, perhaps they didn't expect to get through to the medal final. In the next race one of the Lithuania scullers crabs early on, from which they don't recover. Some thrilling eights races, turning the form from the heats rather on its head, and we're done. At which point the sun, predictably, comes out again.
Saturday 5th August, finals A glorious morning - the strong wind blew last night, and there's a cobwebs-lacking feel to the air, with a bit of sun, bundles of fluffy cotton-wool cloud, and the feeling the weather could get even better. Photographer Pete Spurrier and I go for a long wander around the boathouse-area at the lake end behind the finish, so he can get a few shots generally setting the scene for finals day. C/D/E finals are all happening, and the place is full of crews: coming in after racing, getting ready to race, checking their boat rigs, shifting blades about, and in some cases already packing up to go. All the bustle of the last day at a championships. One of the oddities at a junior worlds is the variety of athletes - in size, despite the lack of weight classes. Just as you're thinking that person must be a cox, s/he pushes off in a pair or quad, and undoes all your expectations. Nor are the little rowers necessarily going slower. Although in a year's time most of them will be deciding whether to go light or heavyweight, not all the top medallists here will be big hulking powerhouses. Boat-moving, keeping your head and being able to race, all count for just as much, which is encouraging. Junior boats often don't perform to form - those who go fast on the first day may never reproduce it, and early heat losers often get it together and turn their championships around, overnight. That makes it a lot more interesting, especially in the close races, though no doubt nerve-racking for the poor coaches. A set of Russian lads wanders by, making me feel like a dwarf by comparison. Then the Spanish scullers, very retro in all-lycra rather than cotton-lycra kit. Some countries seem to have borrowed their kit styles from the football team, all loose baggy shiny breathable tops, over clashing figure-hugging shorts. One double comes in after their D race and immediately untuck yards of baggy top from their shorts. Better introduce them to the all-in-one manufacturers. The Bosbaan boating area is nicely designed, with a slope leading down from the road-level above, so that the boathouses are dug back into the bank and the pontoons feel cradled in a pair of rocky arms. A couple of inlets either side act as wet docks for launches to be stored, and create inlands, the left-hand of which as you look out towards the start is occupied with square tents for teams to relax and hide from the sun. The GBR tent is incognito for the first time I can remember, no Union Flag displayed. Other teams hang banners, or use a couple of spare sculling blades to keep their tent upright and signal nationality at the same time. One pair are led off the return pontoon by a FISA official: I suspect she's taking them for boat-weighing, and must accompany them all the way so that there is no chance for them to lose weight from the boat before it's checked. Other than the coxes, the boats are the only things weighed at this regatta, again because no lightweight categories. Probably means the jury members don't have to get up quite so early, a great advantage. Imagine rising at 5am so you can be at the course in time to have checked the scales and be able to weigh lightweights in at 6:30am - it's not exactly a sinecure. Yesterday we had an excellent FISA/Nations' Dinner trip, which started with a fascinating boat tour of the Amsterdam canals, and ended at the Maritime Museum with a slap-up dinner. Hundreds of houseboats line some of the bigger canals: it's a complete way of life for thousands of locals. There was talk of the organising committee (largely ex-internationals) challenging FISA's ex-rowers to a race this morning at 9am, but apparently they all chickened out on the grounds that they couldn't risk something going wrong just before racing. Shame, but fair enough. After the dinner I walked back to the main Amsterdam station in a long curve around the harbour area: some great architecture. We had come in past the amazing NEMO building, which houses a science centre but also has a large artificial beach and sunbathing lawns on its roof. That's not the only great bit of the city, though - the short tour left me keen to visit again one day and sight-see properly. You don't think of Amsterdam being so watery, as an outsider, but it's as aquatic as Venice, perhaps more so. Every inch of water space is used, for living, transport or to create a visual impact. B-finals, none of which go particularly well for the British, but these are highly competitive categories. NED get their best result of the day with 7th in the JM4-, which makes up a little for no A-finalists. It's great to see the crews race these out as hard as if they were going for the medals. The racing ends, and a long break for lunch sees a band (military?) set up right beside the tower and our end of the grandstand. They're very good, playing a selection of big-band hits, classic marching tunes, jazz and segueing seamlessly into a medley which sounds for all the world like it's a film-score or the sound-track to a musical. Nothing I recognised, but I'm sure it has a love scene in it, whatever it is. Three large chaps loiter at the back, so for a while I suspect they are the roadies, helping lug the equipment. Definitely wrong on that, as near the end of their performance, the band go into a sparkling rendition of "Mambo no. 5" and these three start playing expert percussion - the most delicate hand on a glockenspiel you've ever seen, from the one with the biggest muscles. The smallest one naturally plays the big bass drum.... Just the right thing to keep everyone hanging around, lift the spirits during a long wait, and put the crowd in the mood for racing. What's also quite nice is that the bandleader sensibly stops after each number for a good couple of minutes, time for his sweating band to take on water and stretch their legs, and it means we don't feel constantly assaulted with loud noise. A group of spectators has turned up just for this - probably relatives of some of the players - and claps loudly after every solo from the saxophonists, drummer or horns. At last, medal finals begin. A vast crowd of enthusiasts waiting for the moving grandstand first race - the women's 4-. It's a good set-up they don't always manage to provide (depends on having a clear roadway with no pedestrians/bikes alongside the course) but it's a great idea. Big lorry with one side missing, and tiers of bench seats, puttering along behind the commentary car just back from the lead of the race. A very good view of multilane racing, for those who get a chance to try it one day. JW4-, and the British girls are very happy to claim bronze after a bit of a bunfight with Belarus. The band really earn their keep playing the national anthems beautifully. Their bandleader is extremely quick to stop the music when the commentary team needs to get going again: they've worked out some kind of system which makes it all work pretty seamlessly. I talk to the girls during the next two races - they say Belarus were warned, then veered into their lane, hit their stroke's blade, seemed to be disqualified by the umpire, then our girls carried on racing and left them behind. It's not clear whether it changed the outcome - GBR were in second place at the time of the clash, but if we're fair about it Italy looked as if they were already mounting a charge back and might well have got through anyway. Belarus were given sixth in the end, not DSQ'd. The singles are excellent races, with Natalia Madaj of Poland looking completely unassailable. Thomas Gruhne of Germany is equally impressive winning the men's singles. The pairs are a surprise - I could have sworn Romania had a good chance of gold in both, but in the end they win double bronze, slightly against form. Britain's new JM2- race their hearts out, but can't reproduce Wednesday's form and end fifth, very respectable given that one of them has been rowing about 17 months and the other just over 2 years. The doubles go more as expected - Estonia walk the women's, which will have the ten American recruiting teams all drooling over them, and Denmark and Croatia battle it out in the men's, though Germany are a bit sub-par coming third. We get a lot of the German national anthem today - they had a crew in every medal final and by the end have won medals with 11 of those 13 - phenomenal. The four is pretty exciting for me (GBR win, and really win, ie not just happening to go faster than everyone else - they have to think about how to race it). I have to fight off OC dragons to get a word with the lads, who are unpretentiously pleased with themselves. The band nail 'God Save the Queen', in fact they've done all the anthems beautifully. Then the big boat finals, and it's all starting to accelerate towards the end of the day. USA's JW8+ beaten into second by Romania - you have to remember in a race for lanes with Romania that they don't seem to care where they end up, as long as they win the real reace. Kiwis win the climactic JM8+, puts them on a high to finish with. Nice anthem, New Zealand.
So, that's the end. One aspect I was fascinated by was categories where the different age-groups from one country do equally well, even with different people. Here, so far, are the overlaps from juniors and U23s - it remains to be seen if the seniors will match them: Well done the Dutch - it was an excellent championships. Time to hit the road to Calais. Byee.
Table of A/B/C/D final placings
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