The
Mahe Drysdale Newsletters
| Lucerne Regatta : Finals Day - Another red letter day for NZ Oarsmen and real sweet in Switzerland | |||
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Lucerne 16th July 2007 Sorry about
the delay in getting
The program
was changed around
Well Duncan
certainly didn’t want
Gold and Silver
was certainly a great way to start the NZ
The womens
double were the first New Zealand A final crew to race It was then
the turn of the pairs
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The mens four
were up next after waiting at
the start: Then it was my turn! I can tell you one thing, I have had more than enough losses this year (already 3 more than whole of last year) and going into the race I had a plan. While it sounds funny I was pretty sure I was going to win. I was however a little weary as I have only felt like that once before (in Lucerne 2005) when I “knew” I was going to win before the race and was mown down in the last 100M which was a huge disappointment. I have never won a final in Lucerne and I knew I had to be in touch with the leaders at the 1000M mark.
At the 1000M
the plan wasn’t
It was very
tight at the line with Campbell 2nd 0.29sec behind and Synek and
Tufte both showing the depth of the single this year finishing
within 2 seconds of me. That was
me celebrating the fact that one “I am back” and what
a feeling that was, especially as I
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The exciting thing is I feel Thursday was the day my fortunes changed after talking to Dick with Ferg and I think we all now know what we are working toward and have made the breakthrough of how to find it. Now I can concentrate on improving even more between now and Munich in 6 weeks time.
The single standard has ramped up hugely this year and is very close and competitive with at least 5 real contenders for the title. Whoever steps up the most between now and early September will win the title and the taste of victory in Lucerne has certainly made me very very hungry for more. There is plenty to work on and I did a very unusual thing by going 5 seconds faster in the second 1000M than the first, which suggests I still have more speed to find. The womens eight finished off one of New Zealand rowing’s finest days by coming in a credible 5th and leaving us as the second most successful country on world cup points in Lucerne and most gold medals (4 gold, 2 silvers and a bronze). We are all excited about progress but realise there is a long way to go and lots of improvement still to be made if we wish to emulate such success when it really counts in Munich early September. From here half the team go back to Belgium and the rest of us go to Germany for the final few weeks of training.
We are coming to the end of our three days off after spending a day walking up a mountain yesterday (Pilatus 2130M) and boating around Lake Lucerne today. As we are training for the next few weeks, probably wont be back with more updates until we start our build up for Munich so speak to you again then.
Mahé
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At the regatta: Won their semi....in style
The men's four who won in Amsterdam, gave the world champions
Britain Thank you to my funding
partners who are supporting me to Beijing www.fh.com.au www.banklink.co.nz
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| It was once again awake to a warm and sunny
day, so nice to finally have some settled weather and sunshine. I
love the heat and feel it has always been a big advantage to me, it
seems to take some of the pain away.
I was looking forward to racing today to try and build on the foundations I had started to lay in yesterdays racing and hopefully get closer to where I know I am capable of performing at. My semi looked reasonably tough with Karonen, Synek, Yanakiev and Maeyens all looking like possible contenders for A final positions.
As I went out for my early morning paddle I was fully focused on the job at hand and thinking through what I was going to do later on that day. |
Onto racing and it was very still and pretty hot (around 30 degrees Celsius). It didn’t take much to warm up and as we left the blocks it was all pretty close with a line up of 4 soon developing with Maeyens, Karonen, Synek and myself pushing away from the rest of the field. I was not in a centre lane due to my 2nd place in the Quarter finals and as we approached half way I sensed I was taking the lead. When I had a glance across I realised I had passed Maeyens but Synek and Karonen had both started to slip away from me over the other side of the course.
It was this that fired me up and annoyed me a little. I hate not being part of the action, especially when you loose touch because you don’t see you competitor move. |
I now wanted to win to make sure I would
got a centre lane for the final and guarantee no one would get away
from me in the final without me knowing about it. After a strong 3rd
500M I was back in the action and with a sustained burst soon took
the lead and extended it to a point that Synek decided he wouldn’t
challenge for the win and we both cruised the final 200m knowing we
were comfortably in the final along with Karonen.I was again very
happy with my progress and feel I have made leaps and bounds in speed
since Thursday, to be competitive again. As I said to Ferg as I got
off the water. “I think im back”, although the final tomorrow
will confirm that.
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The second semi saw Campbell and Tufte battle it out for first
while Hamburger made the most of Hackers absence by nabbing the
final qualifying spot and setting up a final of 5 of the 6 finalists
from Amsterdam with all 6 scullers finishing in a tight time band
of 4 seconds.
The rest of the kiwis went well today too. Most are through to A finals with just the Men’s eight and Lightweight double failing to make it through, both of who will look for improvements from Amsterdam when they contest B Finals tomorrow.
Will be back with finals details tomorrow.
Mahe |
Lucerne 140707
We are now in Lucerne and life is great!
Since we arrived the sun has come out, it is hot, there is beautiful scenery with the Swiss alps as a backdrop to the lake and stunning architecture and best of all I feel like I am starting to row and race like I know I can (just been in hiding so far this year).
Now we have had the positives I will touch on a huge negative! Quarter finals, what a complete waste of time and FISA and the rowing federations need to have a serious look at getting rid of them as the athletes I have spoken to all agree they ruin what was a perfectly good and tried progression system.
Basically Quarter finals have replaced repechages for entries of 24-36 to stop having 3 semi finals as that is apparently “unfair”. Well so far I think Quarter finals are definitely worse. We ended with an almost comical situation yesterday where the heats were meaningless as only 2 crews (25-26th place in the world) were knocked out and all of us had to come back to race again to knock another 12 out in the afternoon. This also takes away any second chance crews have, if they have a gear breakage or problem during the heats there out.
Heats are no longer important for most athletes and become a row over. They would be much better to keep repechages and make the progression system tougher eg. 1st from heat and repechage makes the semi if they only want 2 semis.
Now that’s off my chest lets get back to the racing. As I mentioned the heat was pretty much meaningless I was one of 6 heats and drew Tim Maeyens (5th last year). I blasted out into the lead and did enough to stay there. It was slow with a slight head wind and everyone taking it pretty easy. I did however start to feel my race form come back.
It was then up for the Quarter finals and maybe part of my hatred for them is I drew 3 of the eventual A finalists in Amsterdam and this time drew Tufte and Yanakiev (gold and bronze medallist from Olympics). It soon become a two horse race with Tufte leading out till the 1000M, I rowed through him to lead at 1500M then we sat side by side till the finish, both just testing each other out, both wanting to win but without having a full blown race or sprint. After a few pushes from both of us during the last 500M just to test the water we crossed within 0.30sec with Tufte just taking it.
I was more than happy as it’s only the second time this year I have raced to near my capability and the first time I have felt I could compete, compared to most of the year where I have felt like I was holding on for dear life just to keep up. So let’s hope I can keep it going through the semi and final. A big thanks to some wise words from Dick on Thursday who put me back on track and helped Ferg and myself understand the difference between my rowing last year and this year.
I was more than happy
as it’s only the second time this year I have raced to near my capability
and the first time I have felt I could compete, compared to most of the
year where I have felt like I was holding on for dear life just to keep
up. So let’s hope I can keep it going through the semi and final.
A big thanks to some wise words from Dick on Thursday who put me back
on track and helped Ferg and myself understand the difference between
my rowing last year and this year.
The other NZ crews have also all made it through to the semis today. The
Lightweight double and men’s eight the only NZ crews having to deal
with repechages. Therefore it looks like we are all well on track for
some good semi finals racing today with the aim of all making A finals
tomorrow.
Thanks to all who have sent through emails, it is much appreciated, I unfortunately cant reply to them all individually. Due to our problems with one internet connection shared between the 100 odd hotel guests, there could be some delays in these updates too unless I can find an internet café close.
Will be back with semi and final details
Mahe
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