Going for gold: the Olympic diary of rower James Chapman (Part VII)
Roar Rookie By James Chapman, 9 Jun 2008 James Chapman is a Roar Rookie
This is my first entry since the Luzern World Cup.
Regret and disappointment are the first emotions I felt after the final in Luzern, where we placed fourth.
I regretted the missed opportunity to, firstly impose psychological pressure on our opposition that will be in Beijing, and secondly to win a race at, probably, the greatest natural (opposed to man-made) race course in the world.
There’s clearly no need to explain my emotions of disappointment.
Some people I’ve spoken to since the race have tried to butter me up by saying that fourth isn’t a bad result. I can appreciate their perspective…and their desire to put me in a better mood…but I’m most disappointed that the result isn’t reflective of what we were capable of achieving as a crew at this point of our preparation.
We won our heat on the Friday by executing our plan for that row. We raced out hard and were probably only a few feet in the lead, but we were comfortable enough in our rhythm and our position to keep racing in that position until the second half of the race.
Moving through the 1000m mark, Marty Rabjohns (our cox) called for us to push ahead and we moved out to about half a length’s lead over Great Britain & Germany and stayed at this margin until the finish. This was a solid heat row and I was happy that I had a race under my belt now after being sick in Munich.
In their heat, the Canadians beat China comfortably with a quick time of 5m:25s. They were clearly making a statement about their arrival on the international racing program. This definitely created a distraction for us in our lead-up to the final.
There were no real surprises in the qualifiers for the final based on the results in Munich. China, Great Britain, Germany and Poland qualified through the repechage.
The French and Dutch raced the B Final and will be racing for the final qualification spot in two weeks at the wildcard races in Poland.
Throughout the weekend we watched the boys we’ve trained with all season competing in the coxless fours event (made famous in Australia by the Awesome Foursome) and after they stayed in Canberra training rather than race in Munich, everyone was keen to see how they raced as a new combination.
They kicked arse. They won their heat, semi-final and final. A comprehensive, confidence-building weekend of racing before they chase an Olympics berth in Poland.
It was inspirational to watch. I think our crew can learn from the way they’ve gelled as a crew as well as the way they raced – taking no prisoners and no mercy all the way down the course. They didn’t give the other crews a chance.
Our final was not indicative of what we are capable of doing over 2000m. It was a poor representation and we all hung our heads in shame after the race.
Sport is like that. You put all your abilities out there to be evaluated by all and there’s no hiding when you fall short.
We didn’t race out well from the start and after that struggled to get into a racing rhythm that could race down the opposition. We focused on the Canadians too much.
We learnt a lot about the way we race and our opposition. This is reason we fly over to Europe, to see where we stand at this point, 8 weeks out from the Olympics and to learn how we race as a, relatively, new crew. This is all part of the planning process that’s required for the event that culminates four years of preparation.
We’re now back in Varese, Italy and have spent the last week getting smacked around by our coach.
We’re back into voluminous training loads, like yesterday where our first rowing session was 4 x 15mins of rate changes at full pressure and today we did a three-and-a-half hour bike ride.
No doubt there’s going to be a fair bit of pain over the next few weeks, but none of it can hurt like racing poorly did.
The result in Luzern can guarantee there’s no hubris that creeps into our training.
James has been selected in the Australian men’s eight for the Beijing Olympics. He will be producing a diary for The Roar in the lead-up to the start of the Games on August 8. You can receive emails of James’ column by signing up here.
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June 28th 2008 @ 4:22pm
garry said | June 28th 2008 @ 4:22pm | Report comment
james, if the Australian Mens 4- proves to perform better than the 8+ in beijing, will the omissions of forsterling, mckenzie-mcharg and marburg vindicate the opinions of some in Australian rowing that those 3 victorians in particular should have been included? no doubt such an outcome would begin to question the subjective nature of athlete selection in rowing and the vulnerability of character clashes being reflected in the final selections…
June 29th 2008 @ 2:49pm
James Chapman said | June 29th 2008 @ 2:49pm | Report comment
Taylor…I think this is the video you’re looking for.
There is also a few more videos now on the abc.net.au website after Lisa Millar from ABC spent a day with su during the week.
June 29th 2008 @ 2:56pm
hugh said | June 29th 2008 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
james, thanks so much for posting the video on my youtube account! i uploaded it hoping one of the guys in the eight might see it haha
June 29th 2008 @ 2:57pm
James Chapman said | June 29th 2008 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
Sammy Smith,
It is the same Dave! He’s now living over in Holland and it appears has done an amazing job with the Dutch VIII. He did a similar job with their LIghtweight VIII last year at the World Champs. Dave is a great rower and I always knew I was in for a tough race whenever we raced domestically. I’m not sure if there’s an advantage to knowing how we train & race as these things change with every crew and every season. We’ll be trying to make ourselves go as fast as possible in our lane, we can’t affect anyone else’s performance (i.e. make them go slower). Likewise, they’ll be trying to go as fast as possible in their lane, unlike sports such as footy, you can’t have much of an impact on other crews’ speed.
I think the showdown will be great for the all the countries at the Olympic regatta. The Dutch qualified through the wildcard in 2004 and went on to win the silver medal. I think any crew that makes it to the Olympics will be tough competition.
June 29th 2008 @ 3:20pm
James Chapman said | June 29th 2008 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
Garry,
I believe all the countries go to Europe to test their combinations under race conditions and to see how advanced other countries are in their preparations. Everyone likes to win these events, that’s why we compete at the elite, international level, but anyone would give up a medal in any of the World Cups for the one that counts in Beijing. As you’ve mentioned there’s not always a direct correlation as mentioned in the article below;
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/24062008/21/canada-s-olympic-hopefuls-7-series.html
We’ve gained a lot from racing in Munich and Luzern. We acquired some confidence from Munich, since last years World Championship results and we’ve also learned about some of the challenges we face as a crew from our final in Luzern. You’re right though, the one that counts is the finish line at the Olympics.
Apropos crew selections, it appears you’ve aready come to your subjective opinion. What I hope for is that all AUSTRALIAN crews outperform all other countries and Australia can be the No. 1 rowing nation in the world and contribute to the Olympic Medal tally…especially my mates in the four.