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Medals Time at 2012 Club National Championships
July 14, 2012
CAMDEN, N.J. – It took nearly four full days and 336 separate races to sort through the field to get here, but the finals of the 2012 USRowing Club National Championships got underway this afternoon on Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
And the first gold medal went to the men’s intermediate eight from the Vesper Boat Club. The race went off exactly as scheduled despite a day of rain followed by heat and humidity. Vesper took the lead early in the fist 500, pushed into open water halfway through the course and finished that way in 5:57.346.
Penn A.C. Rowing Association of Philadelphia chased and cut into the Vesper’s lead, but it was only enough for second. Vesper finished in 6:02.104 with USRowing’s Junior Men’s Development Camp, competing up a level, following in a very close third in 6:02.333.
“The win was really a year in the making,” said Vesper under23 men’s heavyweight coach, Al Monte. “Several of the athletes were in the eight that took fourth last year and really got a sense of what it takes to be at this level of competition, so taking first was a great example of their hard work. Coming here we just tried to get them all on the same page. The great thing about summer rowing is that they’re rowing because they want to be rowing so it’s fantastic.”
Also competing up was the USRowing Junior Women’s National Team, which took gold and silver in the women’s senior pair, finishing in 7:41.886 and 7:46.123. The USRowing Development Camp – Washington Women finished third in 7:51.442.
“It was great,” said junior women’s national team head coach, Liz Trond. “Our goal was to break the straight four into stern pair and bow pair because the straight pair is our priority for this summer. So they did not have a lot of pairs experience and didn’t race at pair trials and they got better every day.
"To come in first and second after never racing in a senior’s pair event before and to see where they’ve come in one week and for them to finish pretty close together, stern pair, bow pair, was amazing.
"The training has been going well. The white pair, the pair that came in second, has been posting a little bit faster times in the separate heats and semifinals. The red pair is more powerful and today they got their technique together and so power and technique over rowed everybody and they won open water.”
All four women will race in the senior straight four and intermediate pairs tomorrow.
As in the three proceeding days, the race card was filled with heats and semifinals, right up until just before four p.m. After that, and through tomorrow morning, the regatta will be all about crowning national champions in 69 events.
Twenty-five of those titles were awarded today. The remaining medals will be distributed to the victors tomorrow.
In addition to national titles, team points trophies are on the line. Boston based Community Rowing Inc. came to Camden as both the defending overall team points champion, and the women’s points trophy winner. With more than 90 entries, CRI should be in the running again this year.
CRI won it’s first medal of the regatta in the women’s junior A eight, but was unseated as the champions in the event, finishing second in 6:53.864 to Pelham Community Rowing Association, which won in 6:43.381. Sagamore Rowing Association took third in 6:56.054.
Penn A.C. is the defending men’s point trophy champion and should also contend.
One title awarded today went to Providence, R.I. based Narragansett Boat Club’s entry in the men’s junior A quadruple sculls. Two of the athletes in that boat, Chase Buchholz and Richard Wagner, won a spot on the U.S. World Rowing Junior Championship team Wednesday and then came straight to Camden to compete here in multiple events.
“I think it was kind of confusing to come off of trials, which we were super excited about, into more racing,” said Buchholz. “But it’s actually been fun and reinforced the positive experience. I think we’ve really become conditioned this week and it’s been great race experience. And obviously it’s still nationals so we are really excited that we still have the double and single’s race tomorrow.”
Racing will resume tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.
For event information and a full, detailed schedule of the 2012 USRowing Club National Championships, visit: http://www.usrowing.org/Events/ClubNationals.aspx
Live streaming of the finals can be seen at: http://www.ustream.tv/usrowing
Following the event, video clips can be purchased http://www.usrowing.org/Multimedia/VideoDownloads.aspx.
About USRowing
USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing’s official suppliers include Boathouse Sports, Vespoli, WinTech, Filippi, Croker Oars, Rudy Project, Concept2, Nielsen Kellerman, PowerHTV and Ludus Tours. USRowing also receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners ANXeBusiness Corp, Voxer, EZ Dock, EMCVenues and The Perfect SNAQUE. For more information, visit www.usrowing.org. USRowing has created The Row to London to engage sponsors leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, with proceeds going to help ensure the U.S. team’s success. Opportunities also exist to partner with America Rows – supporting diversity initiatives and adaptive programs. For more information, please contact Beth Kohl at beth@usrowing.org.
Ed Moran, photots by Monica Worsley
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