Setembro 3, 2009
Worlds Finals- 4 is the number of the day
Our international season is all finished once again and we are all officially on holiday until the 28th September.
It’s been a great year for the team and personally, it was great to finish it off with the most successful World Championships New Zealand has ever had.
It was a credit to the team that everyone managed to step up on the big occasion. The fact five of the kiwi crews went into the Championships as the favourites for gold and we won four gold medals and a Bronze will be a great learning curve for everyone and will prepare us to handle the added pressure that comes from being the crew everyone wants to beat (World Champion) when we start racing internationally again next year.
This year I have been very impressed with everyone in the team, firstly how everyone has got out and pushed themselves to new heights. What makes the results more remarkable is this team is very young (I am the oldest by 2 years), there are only 5 members (before this world championships) that had previously won a medal at world championship or Olympic level. In November last year it was looking like we would struggle to win two medals, let alone five and that’s neglecting the fact we have other crews also very much in the medal hunt. It is for these reasons I think this team has a very good future between now and 2012.
Now for the results, Robin Tinga started the New Zealand day off on Saturday with a solid 5th place in the adaptive single, he was in 3rd for the first half of the race.
The Woman’s Pair were next, what a race and a way to start the Olympic event program. This was the tightest woman’s pair final I have ever seen, our girls lost half a length in the first 500M. While this usually wouldn’t be an issue, in this race it was the difference between Gold and Bronze. All six crews were involved in battling it out all the way down the course, Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery tried everything to get back on terms with the USA and Romania. Try as they might they couldn’t quite get level, in the end the top three crews opened close to a length on 4th and all finished within 0.7 sec, that is a very tight race and while they still came away with Bronze (which is an awesome result for a first time combination) I think they will feel it could have been even better. They will come back stronger and more determined next year.
The Men’s Pair raced next. Eric Murray and Hamish Bond were unbeaten this year and with the margins they had beaten their competitors by in the build up races, were very strong favourites for the gold. They flew out of the start and opened up a big lead going through the 1000M mark, being well under world best time speed. The Brits are a very strong crew and weren’t going to let them have it easily, they fought back and at one stage closed the gap to under a length, it was a nervous moment for the spectators but our boys were just playing and soon started to open the gap. They won by around a length to remain unbeaten and take away their second World Title (first in pair), they both were in four that won in 2007.
Next up were the Men’s Double, this is a tight field with the top four all finishing within half a length in Lucerne. This was going to be a tight one, it ended up a battle between Estonia, Germany, France and our boys (Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen). All crews led at some stage during the race, into the last 500M the lead was still changing. In the end half a length separated all these four crews. Unfortunately our guys were the crew that missed the medals with a very credible 4th (this is the best ever worlds result for both athletes). While fourth is a good result, any other day they could have been in the medals and it is always hard when it is such a close race, as you will always think through the what ifs.
Emma Twigg has had a good year this year, stepping up a new level and showing she can compete with the best. Saturday was no exception. Emma got out with the rest of the field and it ended up as the tightest Woman’s single sculls race I have seen in recent years. The Chinese sculler led out before blowing up, Katherine Grainger the experienced GB sculler took the challenge next, Karsten sat within striking distance, Twigg was sitting next to Karsten. Knapkova (who has dominated all year) seemed happy to let others control the race. In the end the wily old Karsten sprinted through for Gold, Grainger held on for Silver while Knapkova just held off Twigg for Bronze. Twigg went 11seconds faster than she has ever gone before and missed out on Bronze by 0.5sec so overall a great result but again there will be a little disappointment as she would have felt she was so close to the podium. It is however a big improvement on her 9th place at the Olympics.
Men’s Single was the last A final race Saturday. Conditions were very bumpy in the last 500M caused by a side tail wind that was pretty strong. Going onto the water I was feeling fairly confident and wanted to finish off the season on a good note. A win would give me four world titles (one off the record 5 by Kolbe) but also get me through the season unbeaten (something I’ve never achieved). The conditions reminded me a lot of Eton (where I set the World Best time in 2006, 6:35.40) and after looking at some of the times of the day I thought it might require the World Best time to win it. As usually happens in the single, in the final it quite often comes down to a two horse race at the end and I predicted Campbell or Synek were the likely challengers although you never write Tufte off.
As expected Campbell led off. I was right with him and Synek was also in the picture. It was pretty tight and going through the 1000M I just had my bow in front. The third 500M is my strength and I managed to open up the lead to about a length over Campbell with Synek still in touch. By this stage the water was getting tricky, the body was starting to scream and concentration was very important to make sure there were no mistakes. Synek started to struggle and it was down to Campbell and me for the gold. Campbell continued to push and we were both having some bad strokes as the waves increased in size. About 300M from the finish I was still in front, Campbell was within striking distance and wasn’t going to give up his chance at gold. I had two pretty bad strokes and Campbell started to close the gap. I tried to take the rating up but was struggling to keep it clean, Campbell was still closing. With 100M to go I still had a lead but it was being closed. I’m not quite sure what happened, either Alan caught a bad stroke or he ran out of gas and the gap stopped closing. From here it was a matter of getting to the line without an error. Thankfully the first buzzer was mine, I had done it, first unbeaten season and fourth world title. The icing on the cake was lowering the world best time by a further 2 seconds to 6:33.35. I am not surprised that it was beaten considering the conditions, the competitiveness of the race and my times in training this year. What I was surprised about was how much I beat it by. To be honest I didn’t believe I was capable of going 6:33 this year.
Campbell has certainly come on this year, this is his first world’s medal and he has shown that he will be one of the toughest competitors in the next three years. Alan was under the old best time by about 1 second and Synek also finished under 6:40 being the first time 3 people have gone sub 6:40 in the same race, making it undoubtedly the fastest race in history. Its looking like sub 6:30 has to be possible between now and London in the right conditions.
This year has been a bit of a dream for me really. I took a big break after the Olympics last year, reflected and made some decisions for the future. In December I had a sit down meeting with the High Performance group at Rowing NZ and discussed my last four years in the single and my future. It was a very honest and open discussion and from my point of view I came away very excited about the future and for the first time I felt like we were both working toward the same goal and I had their support. Since then I have been very happy and our relationship has been the strongest it ever has, there are still things we disagree on but that will always happen and is a positive. That is the basis to my happiness this year. Add to that a young team that are very enthusiastic, have fun and are a joy to be around, some added motivation after last year and a renewed vigour after my break and it all adds up to a very fun and successful year.
It sometimes takes a failure for you to step back and review things. Beijing was my wake up and I am pretty confident I know what it is going to take to be at my best in London 2012. There is no room for excuses or compromises at this level. I have a great team behind me and have Dick Tonks coaching me again (He has 3 Olympic gold medals as coach and too many world championships to count) and it seems the technical changes are paying dividends early on. There is no room for weakness and one of the things I realised after Beijing was I need to step up a couple of levels. One level to stay ahead of the competition and the second level to allow me a little bit of buffer room in case something unexpected happens. I feel like I have improved already this year and my times have been the best they ever have. The exciting thing is I can improve even further. As I get older physical improvements get less and technical improvements become more important. Physically this year I was in good shape but not at 100%, I am still suffering a bit with fitness after the time I had off last year, plus the last four weeks I have had a stress fracture in one of my ribs. While I have managed to get through this without it greatly impacting on my performance, it has been very painful and getting worse as I kept training with it. Thankfully during the races I only noticed it for the first part of the race before the pain in the rest of my body took my mind away from it. Once I improve my fitness and get my rib right it should give me a little more speed, however having the rib issue and still winning certainly built my confidence after last year. It showed I could handle the unexpected.
Saturday afternoon was good fun as we caught up with all the supporters that came over and enjoyed watching the rest of the kiwi crews complete their B finals. The woman’s double performed well, it was a tight race but they managed to sprint to the line to just take the win to finish 7th overall. The woman’s quad repeated that feat with a comfortable win and 7th Place. The Men’s four were next, it was again a very tight battle, unfortunately they couldn’t get through the other crews in the final 500M finishing 3rd and 9th overall, still a great effort for a young crew.
Sunday dawned a new day and after Saturdays results our lightweight boys were keen to join the success, we only had two crews racing. Duncan Grant in the lightweight men’s single was first, he dominated his race, leading from early on to end up winning his third successive title in the lightweight single, this was arguably his greatest win as he beat some very tough competition with two scullers from the 2nd and 3rd place doubles at the Olympics competing and finishing behind him with the silver and bronze.
Last kiwi crew to compete were the lightweight men’s double. Pete Taylor and Storm Uru were another crew that have dominated their event this year. Sunday was no exception; while they didn’t lead from the start they soon made their presence felt in the second half of the race and won by around a length to make it New Zealand’s most successful World Championships.
We took home 4 gold’s, 1 Bronze, 2 4ths and a number of crews on the edge of the A finals (equal 1st on the medal table with German). It’s a great start to the new Olympic cycle but also only step 1. We have a lot of work ahead of us and have to try and keep the environment and attitudes in check to make sure we can continue this type of success over the future years. It is very exciting when you consider that there is not a huge amount of experience at the top level in this team and I was very impressed with the way the younger members held themselves and performed despite it being the first time a lot of these athletes have gone into a world champs with high expectations on their heads. This was a very special win for me personally, it’s my best ever season internationally and a great way to start the new Olympic cycle. While I was pretty happy winning and you could see the smiles to prove it, I got more joy out of watching the younger crews do well and seeing the elation on their faces when they achieved their goals.
Just before I go I want to thank everyone that made an effort to come to Poland to support us, its great to have the biggest support group in the crowd being kiwis. I would also like to thank everyone that sent texts and emails to support me during the week it is awesome having everyone behind you. I would also like to thank SPARC, my sponsors and the individuals that support me in what I do. These people all make it possible for me to focus 100% on my rowing and are a major part of why I am now a four time world champion. Thank you and I look forward to racing in front of all of you next November at home in Karapiro, hopefully making it number five.
I will be back after my holiday when I embark on my overseas trip again to compete in the international long distance circuit. It all begins on the Gold Coast in an NZ eight when we go to take on the Aussies on the 10th of October.
Mahe
