I'm writing this after the final, apologises for taking so long to post but I didn't have alot of time between the final and the semi and in my paranoia (which seems completely silly now) I didn't want to let any potential competitors in on what we were up to.

 

As it turns out the race went really well. There was a strong tail wind that made the water very choppy especially in the later stages of the race. We tried to get a really fast first 500 metres and apart from the Chinese flying and dying (1:28.8 mins/500metres as opposed to our 1:30.9, world record pace is about 1:33.5) we achieved that. The South Africans seemed to slip back all the way through the race and after clipping a bouy with 400 metres to go they gave up and paddled home. A bit sad to see such legend combination of pairs rowing over the last 7 years miss out on the final like that.

 

We pushed through the Chinese in the second 500 metres and by the 1000 had a good lead and I felt pretty fresh. After that it was more a matter of controlling pushes as the other crews battled for the other qualifying spots. We definately didn't get to button off but could hold pretty steady all the way to the line,bar the occasional crash and bash as the water roughed up.

 

Our final time was 6:19.7, which is pretty respectable for our event and only about 5 seconds off the world record. China came in second after pushing back through the Germans who held on to third. The Auzzies were in the other semifinal and we were able to watch their race come down. At the time it looked like they were struggling with the conditions a bit more than we had though they still came away with a reasonably comfortable win. Their time was 6:22 and we took alot of confidence from that, in that we had proved we would have the speed to match them come finals time.... or so we thought...

 

In other races, Mahe got through after chasing down Marcel Hacker, the K and Georgina held off Australia and Duncan Grant got 3rd to get through in the single. High drama and ultimately disappointment for the mens coxless four. They dead heated for 3rd with USA and were forced to re race head to head for the finals spot 3 hours later, 2nd time round the legs were gone and they went down by half a length. A horrible way to go out and a rule that definately needs a makeover. The womens 8+ were 3rd in their repecharge first up the morning but they need top two to get through so also will be racing a B final, they are a very young crew though had will be hellava faster for the experience next year.