Olympic Impressions from Schinias/Athens. Day 5 - Wednesday 18th August 2004.
This is not intended to be commentary, as that is well covered via TV, radio, the FISA website and the newspapers. Plus it's difficult to get time amongst the other jobs. Here are odd bits and pieces those following the Games may find interesting.
Which is shaping up to be a cracking race. Sculling coaches, get your videos set for the final - Rutchow looks almost unbeatable, but Karsten vs Neykova will be special, and something to inspire any budding Guin Battens/Frances Houghtons in your club. Karsten and Neykova slug it out in the semi, Neykova putting the Belarussian under extreme pressure, and only just running out of lake and failing to overhaul her to the line. Photofinish, 7/100ths in it. My bet is on another Olympic photofinish, but this time reversing the Sydney order - I reckon Rutchow gold, Neykova silver and Karsten bronze. If any of the three muck up, young Miriam Knapkova from CZE will be waiting to pounce.
The men's singles is even more exciting, Juri Jaanson continuing to prove there's nobody as good as an old hand, and Chalupa having to floor it to keep off upstart Fernandez. But the middle semi (two to qualify) is the cracker: Marcel Hacker has a rare off-day, and is dropped by Tufte (no surprises there) and the ever-ready Ivo Yanakiev, who has caught the big guys napping before. I'm pretty sure the wind changed for Jaanson's race - Tufte looked the quicker and much more likely to hold off Chalupa and the rest for the gold.
Then things get very silly. While I'm trying to get over the misery of poor Toby Garbett and Rick Dunn missing the coxless pairs final by half a second despite posting the quickest 1000m of the semis to try and catch up, things go completely pear-shaped in the second semifinal. I look up from my desk at around 20 metres to go, to see the umpire in front of me, warning two crews scrapping for the third A-final place. He's definitely got his flag out to the right, which means he's warning the lane 3 crew, South Africa. They're embroiled in a battle with Canada, and the winner of this will get the third spot for Saturday. I look at the crews - they're clearly still very close together, and I could swear they are both very close to the buoys dividing their lanes - from here it is impossible to see who is in the wrong. Suddenly two strokes from the line, Di Clemente and Cech stop dead, something happening with the strokeside blade, and while Canada's Calder and Jarvis peg over the line, RSA float past, really upset. Up goes the red flag, obviously, and eventually we hear that Canada have been excluded. Which we think means they are not allowed to row the B-final even - they are out.
Naturally, it doesn't end there. There is some confusion about what the umpire did, there is a press conference (at which as many Canadians as possible ask FISA difficult questions), and as I write in the afternoon, the situation is still rumbling on, with maple-leaved supporters loitering all over the place and doing a good impression of refusing to leave the venue until they have Satisfaction. I think handbags at dawn would do it, myself.
But that's not all. The very next race, a huge scrap between the USA and Norway men's double sculls (again for the last qualification place) ends in yet another photofinish. This time the result, when announced on the big boards after checking, is 6:14.70 to both the USA and NOR. Dead heat. At some point this alters, and they say that the USA are going through with 6:14.69. Norway then start arguing that since on the photofinish the distance is not a full 0.01 seconds, they have the right to be in the final. Latest I know is that they have succeeded, and the men's double will be raced as a seven-boat final to accommodate both crews. Who's betting that because they will undoubtedly end up on opposite sides, they will then dead-heat again for 6th/7th?
The fours race, predictable wins for Canada and GBR, then ice-jacketed interviews on the back docks. The USA men's and women's eights are in seclusion, not talking to any reporters until after their finals: sometimes I think they are doing it right. But the Brits are very used to this, and completely professional - even those who lost today have been extremely dignified, and generously talked to the BBC and reporters to explain their perspective.
The last qualification races are huge: the Danish women's quad miss getting to the final by a snip, and Romania win the women's rep with some solid hard work - watch out USA and Netherlands. Finally in the men's eights, Italy and Britain are devastated to lose out in very tight races, Italy in particular since they had a very good start which is crucial on this course.
Slight modem connection problems at my room, so I'll sling this up now and then get to work on Redders' diary - the jobs never end.
Rachel Quarrell at the 2004 Olympics.