The junior mixed double sculls tandem of Britt Wotovich (Redington Beach, Fla./Berkeley Preparatory School) and Brian O'Leary (Port Charlotte, Fla./Jesuit High School) took home the silver medal on Sunday, giving the U.S. its best finish at the 2021 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Oeiras, Portugal.
Fielding its first-ever Beach Sprint National Team, the U.S. came home with two medals this weekend, also winning bronze in the mixed coxed quadruple sculls on Saturday.
Wotovich and O'Leary opened Sunday's racing with a victory over Germany by just over a second in their quarterfinal, advancing to the semifinals against the hometown favorites from Portugal.
The duo then rowed a great race against the Portuguese crew in the second semifinal, executing a perfect turn as Portugal missed the buoy. The Americans cruised home on a straight line to lock up a medal and advance to the gold-medal race.
"The semifinal was definitely an experience," Wotovich said. "We were behind at the starting line and then we pulled it through in the finishing piece. That was honestly crazy to me that we would be in the A final to race for gold or silver."
In the final, France was able to run a clean course to bring home the gold in a 2:49.87. Wotovich and O'Leary finished in a 3:06.33.
"In our race against France, we knew that they were really quick," O'Leary said. "Our team had only gotten a bronze medal, and we knew that we had at least secured a medal and that was our goal. When we came up to the beach, I wasn't at all disappointed in the race. A silver medal – that's pretty great. (It's) the first silver medal the USA has ever gotten at Beach Sprints, so I was very happy even though we came up just short at the line."
The silver medal was the culmination of a great summer of training for the Florida high schoolers.
"We heard about this around May of this year, and we said, 'Well, let's give it a shot,'" O'Leary said. "States and regionals and nationals were coming to an end, and it was going to be a summer of long training. This really gave us a direction to point our training in. It was a great, fun experience."
In the junior men's double sculls, Aidan Ehrismann (Portland, Ore./Leodis V. McDaniel High School) and Joshua Li (Lake Oswego, Ore./Lakeridge High School) got knocked out in the quarterfinals by France. France got out to a slight lead in the launch off the beach, but the American boat was able to close that gap in the race towards the turn. However, the U.S. had difficulty on the spin around the buoy, and France was able to take a couple of boat lengths as the crews headed back towards the beach. Ehrismann and Li tried to cut into the French lead but were unable to make up the time, finishing just over six seconds back. The U.S. finished with a time of 2:44.96, with France finishing in a 2:38.44. France would go on to win the silver medal, dropping the final to Spain. Italy won the bronze medal.
In the men's solo event, Christopher Bak (Cincinnati, Ohio/University of Cincinnati) got knocked out in the quarterfinals by Italy's Giovanni Ficarra. Bak held a small lead as the two scullers worked their way towards the turn, but Bak missed the buoy and had to circle back around the turn to avoid the one-minute penalty. Ficarra was able to run a clean race home to advance to the semifinals. Bak reached the quarterfinals with an easy victory over Ireland in his round of 16 matchup earlier in the day.
Ficarro went on to win the gold medal ahead of Olympic silver medalist Kjetil Borch of Norway. Greece's Ioannis Kalandaridis won the bronze medal.
In the women's solo event, Cassidy Norton (Hamilton, Ohio/Robert Morris University) also fell in the quarterfinal, finishing just a few strides behind Spain's Ainoha Casanova. Norton got off to a solid start and was about even heading into the halfway point. But, the Spaniard was able to take the lead around the buoy and Norton was unable to make up the gap. Casanova hit the beach just ahead of Norton and finished the victory off during the sprint up the beach. Norton finished with a time of 2:57.31, with Casanova clocking a 2:55.50.
Canada's Brienne Miller won the gold over France's Maya Cornut, while Greece's Zoi Fitsiou defeated Casanova for the bronze.
Beach Sprint racing is contested in a run, row, run combination over a 250-meter, out-and-back buoyed course and uses a time trial and knock-out progression system. The format debuted in 2015 at the Mediterranean Beach Games, and the first global event was the 2019 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Shenzhen, China.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|