USRowing Under-23 Trials Blog: Entry 5
7/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
Rising seniors Sarah Gribler (Marysville, Wash./Marysville-Pilchuk) and Ashley Kroll (Edmonds, Wash./Kamiak) are in the midst of the FISA World Rowing Under-23 Championships after being named to the U.S. roster on July 13. The duo spent the spring in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where they attended the USRowing 2009 Under-23 National Team Camp. They then made their final bid to make Team USA at the USRowing Under-23 World Championships Trials, July 6-10, in West Windsor, N.J. Having enjoyed success at the trials, Kroll and Gribler were chosen for the eight and four, respectively. Gribler and Kroll have been blogging about their experiences; Gribler discusses her experience in the Czech Republic.
Arriving to the World Championships brought back a lot of memories of the time I spent with the Junior National Team but also brought back the nerves. Rowing at the World Championships is an experience that no one can forget. Walking around the course, you hear all sorts of languages and boats are everywhere. Since the course at Racice is onlyeight lanes with no room to spare, the practices can be very stressful. Everyone is trying to get their last few rows in before the races and there are many close crashes since there is no way to really communicate besides making lots of noise so they know that you are there. After a few days of practice, race day was soon here, July 23, the day we all had marked on our calendars long ago.
Our pair and eight with Ashley Kroll advanced right out of their heats into the grand final on Sunday. My boat, the straight four, had to take a slightly different path. We had a really tough heat, we had last year's champion with some other really strong crews. We came off the start right with everyone but as we lengthened out we seemed to lose contact, and even though we had the fastest third 500 of the day it wasn't enough to catch up. We ended up fifth in the heat, but our time would have gotten us a close third in the other heat. So we would have to continue our journey through the reps or "second chance" to try to advance to the grand final. Even though we were disappointed about not doing well in our heat we knew there was still hope for us and that we could do well the next morning.
The next morning came and the wind changed from the small head wind the day before to a 20 mph tail wind and some very rough water conditions. We all knew what we had to do and take a risk in the first1,000 to get ahead. We were fast off the start and stayed right with the Netherlands who typically have a very strong four. Out in laneseven we were right next to land and the bike peloton. There were coaches yelling in all different languages, whistles blowing but we just keyed into our coaches -- Anne and Steve. By the thousand (meter mark) we moved past Belarus and into the lead. We didn't know that we were in the lead and we just kept pushing. By the third 500, we were still in the lead but in the middle of it, because of the rough water, I hit my speed coach and knocked it right out of the boat and we were without ratings for the rest of the race. The last 500 hundred had the worst water and we were even with Belarus. We had some lead on the Netherlands so we tried to keep it clean without pushing it too hard and risking catching a crab. We crossed the finish line with just less than a second behind Belarus and earning a spot in the grand final! The grand finals start on Sunday, our four has the first grand final of the day at 10:48 am!
Entry 4(7/14/09) | Entry 3(6/30/09) | Entry 2(6/23/09) | Entry 1(6/16/09)
Arriving to the World Championships brought back a lot of memories of the time I spent with the Junior National Team but also brought back the nerves. Rowing at the World Championships is an experience that no one can forget. Walking around the course, you hear all sorts of languages and boats are everywhere. Since the course at Racice is onlyeight lanes with no room to spare, the practices can be very stressful. Everyone is trying to get their last few rows in before the races and there are many close crashes since there is no way to really communicate besides making lots of noise so they know that you are there. After a few days of practice, race day was soon here, July 23, the day we all had marked on our calendars long ago.
Our pair and eight with Ashley Kroll advanced right out of their heats into the grand final on Sunday. My boat, the straight four, had to take a slightly different path. We had a really tough heat, we had last year's champion with some other really strong crews. We came off the start right with everyone but as we lengthened out we seemed to lose contact, and even though we had the fastest third 500 of the day it wasn't enough to catch up. We ended up fifth in the heat, but our time would have gotten us a close third in the other heat. So we would have to continue our journey through the reps or "second chance" to try to advance to the grand final. Even though we were disappointed about not doing well in our heat we knew there was still hope for us and that we could do well the next morning.
The next morning came and the wind changed from the small head wind the day before to a 20 mph tail wind and some very rough water conditions. We all knew what we had to do and take a risk in the first1,000 to get ahead. We were fast off the start and stayed right with the Netherlands who typically have a very strong four. Out in laneseven we were right next to land and the bike peloton. There were coaches yelling in all different languages, whistles blowing but we just keyed into our coaches -- Anne and Steve. By the thousand (meter mark) we moved past Belarus and into the lead. We didn't know that we were in the lead and we just kept pushing. By the third 500, we were still in the lead but in the middle of it, because of the rough water, I hit my speed coach and knocked it right out of the boat and we were without ratings for the rest of the race. The last 500 hundred had the worst water and we were even with Belarus. We had some lead on the Netherlands so we tried to keep it clean without pushing it too hard and risking catching a crab. We crossed the finish line with just less than a second behind Belarus and earning a spot in the grand final! The grand finals start on Sunday, our four has the first grand final of the day at 10:48 am!
Entry 4(7/14/09) | Entry 3(6/30/09) | Entry 2(6/23/09) | Entry 1(6/16/09)
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