Goodbye

Today is the last day of the 2014 U23 World Championships. After today our boat will no longer be a thing. We are both going to compete in the Champ 1x at Canadian Henley in about a 2 weeks, and then that is it for the summer. We ended up getting 14th overall, which is not the result i was hoping for. However, we did all we could do, and now the only thing to do is to try to get better. Tomorrow morning we fly back the States and return to Craftsbury where we will start training in singles again. It will be nice to be back. Thank you to everyone who rooted for us and helped support us.

C Final

This morning's race was an exciting one. The C final included us, South Africa, Latvia, Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic. Denmark started off quickly and led the race through the beginning portion. At the 1000 we started our move and led the race until the sprint. Latvia, a crew we saw several times throughout the week put on a sprint we were unfortunately unable to keep off. We finished the race in second with a time of 6:36.

Overall, while it would have been ideal to make the A/B semifinal and see what we could do from there, we  can hang our hat on the fact that we beat more crews than any U.S. double since the first double that came from the United States to U23s in 2009.

The experience has been both incredible, but also a huge learning experience. We could not give enough thanks to all of the people that have donated to the National Rowing Foundation page. These donations made this whole experience a lot easier and allowed us to focus more on the rowing and less on finances. We are grateful for all the help and support from the donations, but also Craftsbury Sculling Center and of course our coaches Steve Dani and Dan Roock.

Once we're back in the States, Walter and I will be getting in the single and competing in the Championship Single at the Canadian Henley from August 3rd to August 10th.

Thanks again to everyone who donated and hopefully Walter and I will be able to see you all to tell you about our experiences in-person.

From Varese, ciao!

Erik

Semi

Our C/D semifinal went as of planned this afternoon. We looked to focus on the first 500 to 1000 of the race and get ahead quick. With each race our rowing has been clicking a little bit more and hopefully we can put it all together for tomorrow's C Final tomorrow morning at 10:54.

The C Final includes crews from South Africa, Austria, Latvia, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

Reps

The race this morning felt much better than heats yesterday, but we were still unable to find a way to beat Italy for the second position. Italy jumped ahead quickly on the start and was able to stay ahead through the duration of the race.

This afternoon at 3:56 we have the C/D semi. To move on to the C final we have to get third of four. Our race includes us, Brazil, Austria and Latvia. Of the three crews Brazil is the only team we have yet to face.

The C and D finals are both tomorrow.

Check out our GPS data here:

http://www.worldrowing.com/assets/pdfs/U23WCH_2014/ROMB22851_MGPS.pdf

Heats

We had heats this morning, marking my first international race and Walters first international race at the U23 level. Spain and Russia jumped out quickly, while we stayed in-front of the rest of the pack. It seemed like we were going to walk on the Russia boat, but they maintained their lead throughout the middle of the race. It was certainly not our best race and we are looking forward to the Repechage tomorrow morning at 10:33.

We are facing crews from Hungary, Italy, South Africa, the Czech Republic, and Austria. First two move on to the A/B Semi and everyone else goes to the C/D Semi.

This afternoon we're going out for a short row.

You can check out our Repechage here: http://www.worldrowing.com/assets/pdfs/U23WCH_2014/ROMB22851_C51A.pdf

Look at our race splits from this morning here:
http://www.worldrowing.com/assets/pdfs/U23WCH_2014/ROMB22901_MGPS.pdf

Tuesday afternoon

On Tuesday afternoon we did a quick lap of the course practicing some starts and race pace. It all felt good and we are ready to go on Thursday. Also, Heat sheets were released by the time we got back to the dock. We are in the first heat at 10:30 Italian time in one of the middle lanes. We get to go up against Russia, South Africa, Latvia, and Spain. It will be a tough race. One boat scratched from our event making it a 20 boat event, which means that now the top 2 boats from heats goes straight to the A/B semi-final. The opening ceremony was also that afternoon. It was help in the garden of a palace in the city. It mostly involved an orchestra and quire playing a bunch of songs including all the major songs from Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Draw

This afternoon we got news of who would be in our heats on Thursday. We will be lining up against Spain, Latvia, Russia and South Africa. Top two move on to the A/B Semifinal and get the day off and everyone else goes to Repechage to race on Friday.

Interesting fact, I'm the oldest athlete in our heat and Walter is the youngest in the heat.

http://www.worldrowing.com/assets/pdfs/U23WCH_2014/ROMB22901_C51A.pdf