Going for gold: the Olympic diary of rower James Chapman (Part IV)

Many of you highly intelligent and in tune Roar readers may already know that the Australian Eight raced the weekend just passed, and won.

This is pretty, no, very exciting for our debut. What wasn’t exciting was that I had to sit on the bench whilst my crew mates took on the countries that turned out to race.

We trained relatively hard compared to the usual taper coming into International Regattas and after long-haul flights upon our arrival in Munich.

This suppresses everyone’s immune system and I became the proud host of a virus – I like to think of it as a super virus – that knocked me for six. Despite me trying to convince the coach, and myself, that I was ok to race, I was ruled out by the team doctor for the heats.

I was ambitiously hopeful that I’d be okay for the final. This was shattered when I attempted an ergo-fitness test the evening before the final and my heart rate went ballistic at an intensity that I’d normally be able to hold for close to an hour.

I must thank Karsten Fosterling for filling in for me with such grace and success, not withstanding I was insanely jealous of him.

The crew raced the final with aplomb and won the Munich World Cup.

The major threats in the race were expected to be Great Britain (last year’s World Championship Bronze Medallists) and China, who won the two heats.

The Australian Eight, despite it not being their tactic, raced out to an early lead and had half a length (which is quite a big margin in men’s Eights rowing) by the 500 metre mark (quarter distance).

The Chinese were in second and the Brits very close behind them.

By the 1000m mark, the Aussie crew were at almost one length lead. The Poms moved through the Chinese and started to close in on the Aussies. At 500m, the Aussies only had about one-third of a length lead. This is when the crew pushed against the attack by Great Britain and was able to hold them off until the finish line.

Interestingly, the French and Croatian Eights qualified for the final in Munich and these two countries are yet to qualify for the Olympics.

They will be competing in the Wild Card race for the one spot available in June. It was good to see what they are capable of at this stage as we will probably be racing one of these countries during the Olympic regatta.

The crew and coach have been very philosophical about the win in Munich, commenting how we would all trade the win in Munich for the right coloured medal in China. This means that this result is just a vindication of the training and technical focuses we’ve been concentrating on since the crew’s selection and that we have to keep training, keep striving and maintain our major goal of our best performance in Beijing.

Citius Altius fortius, faster higher stronger … the Olympic Motto.

The Women’s Eight also won their race, which made it a historical day for Australian rowing as it was the first time both crews have won at the same international event.

For those of you that haven’t been able to sleep at night since the news of my convalescence, you can rest easy now as I was back in the boat this morning for our first row at our European base camp in Varese, Northern Italy.

I don’t think I stopped smiling all training session.

More of James’s photos from the Olympic trail

Sam Loch with a quick hit of authentico Italian life before training revs up

The crew preparing the oars and boat for training in Varese. (L-R: Stephen Stewart, Dave Dennis, Me, Sam Loch. Remaining crew member in background)

You can read the previous blogs by James Chapman here.