Youth Olympic Games 2010: Race reports and images

In wet and blustery conditions Australia has won a silver and bronze medal in the rowing at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

Olympia Aldersey (SA) and Emma Basher (SA) combined to win a silver medal in the women’s pair, while West Australian duo David Watts and Matt Cochran grabbed the bronze medal in the men’s pair.

Aldersey and Emma Basher had qualified in the top spot for today’s final but a virus that had bothered Basher for a few days, flared up overnight and it was touch and go as to whether they would even compete.

“I just asked the doc to get them to the start line,” coach Tom Morris said. “I knew they could do it from there.”

It was a tight for the full 1000 metres, with Australia sitting just outside the medals for the majority of the race.

“We’re stoked!” 18-year-old Aldersey said. “When we crossed the line, we thought we’d won bronze then when we found out it was silver we were ecstatic.”

“Great Britain got off to a good start and we just tried to hold them,” Basher said.

“We were coming fourth and we decided to step up when we had 400 metres to go.

“I made the call to step up the line, we released our secret weapon and gave it all we had.”

The girls powered home in three minutes 29.34 seconds, snaring a Youth Olympic silver medal just one second behind the Team GB rivals.

The most anticipated final of the day followed, with the men’s pairs lining up on the choppy Marina Bay waters for a shot at gold.

The Australian pair of Matthew Cochran and David Watts had the race of their life, finishing in 3:07.52 to take home bronze.

“We’ve been working so hard to get good results,” an elated and exhausted Cochran said.

The medal was the perfect end to great Youth Olympic campaign for the West Australian rowers.

“I couldn’t be happier,” David Watts said. “That was one of the best races we’ve put together. We stuck to the race plan and produced a medal. We’re really happy.”

Having dominated racing all week, and the recent Junior World Championships, the Greek pair of Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis were tipped by all as the ones to beat.

“The Greeks came out strong from the start and we chased but we just couldn’t catch them,” Cochran said.

The Slovenian crew chased, and eventually caught the Greeks, crossing the line in first place with a scorching time of 3:05.65, edging them out by 1.2 seconds to grab gold.

Images courtesy Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee

Great Britain set the pace in the women’s pair with Australia lurking just behind

Emma Basher and Olympia Aldersey with their silver medals

The women’s pair medallists pose for the cameras

Watts and Cochran battle the choppy waters

Matt Cochran and David Watts celebrate bronze in the men’s pair

It was a twin-turbo charged semi-final of the women’s rowing pairs this morning with Australia’s Olympia Aldersey and Emma Basher snatching prime position for tomorrow’s final at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

The South Australian duo blitzed the field to win their semi in a time of three minutes 36.83 seconds.

It was not just Singapore’s overwhelming humidity making people see double at the course today, with two sets of twins lining up in the Australian girls’ semi.

The Tikhanova sisters from Russia and the Misachenka sisters hailing from Belarus may have been carbon copies of each other but it counted for little on the water, where the Aussies showed you didn’t need to be identical to paddle in sync.

“It was what we wanted to achieve,” Basher said of the convincing win. “We came in first and that’s what we wanted so we’re really happy.”

The Aussies edged out Greece and Hungary to take the win, with both sets of twins relegated to the B-final.

Happy with their race and their ultimate result, Basher and Aldersey are not complacent about tomorrow’s final.

“We had a steering issue,” Aldersey explained, “We headed for the buoy and overcompensated. We didn’t think it would be an issue so we’re going to have to bear it in mind for tomorrow’s final.”

In the other women’s semi, Italy were the heroes producing a solid victory in 3:37.29 ahead of Romania and Great Britain. Interestingly, the New Zealand crew who the Aussies had pipped as the ones to beat failed to make the A-final.

“It just shows you don’t know what is going to happen, so it makes it even more exciting,” Basher said. “You can’t judge the race on how big boats go and also the different distance.”

In the men’s semi-finals that followed, Australia’s David Watts and Matthew Cochran also crossed the line in first place, in a time of 3:18.50.

“We came away with the result we wanted but we have a few things to work on,” Watts said.

“It’s always good to come out on top and hopefully we can do that again in the final,” Cochran added.

The Australian crew posted the fourth fastest time overall with Greece again dominating the race. The Greek and Australian crews will line up against Great Britain, Turkey, Slovenia and Serbia in tomorrow’s final, all hoping for a spot on the podium.

The Australian rowing crews have pulled strong results in the pairs heats at Marina Bay Resevoir, both crossing the line in first place.

Olympia Aldersey and Emma Basher drew the second of three heats in the women’s pairs, lining up against Bulgaria, Belarus and South Africa.

The Aussie pair got out to a strong start and led the field for the 1000m course, finishing in a time of three minutes, 30.09 seconds – the fastest women’s time of the day.

“It’s always good to get the first one over, to break in the nerves,” Basher said of the heat. “I’m glad it’s over so now we can focus on the semi.”

“We were a little nervous,” Aldersey added. “I was expecting it to be really close. Now we’ve worked out what the race feels like and how the competition is going and we have a feel for the field.”

Following the women’s pairs, David Watts and Matthew Cochran of Western Australia took to the course.

Buoyed by the women’s win, the pair blitzed their heat to win in a time of 3:10.92, four seconds ahead of their Croatian counterparts who came in second.

“It was pretty decent,” Watts said of the race. “We’re a heavier crew so the tailwind doesn’t really suit us but we got out to a pretty good start, hammered it through and came home to the finish.”

“It’s really going to give us more confidence going in and hopefully our times show we are close to the rest of the field,” Cochran said of the win.

The Aussies’ biggest rivals, Greece, also came home in first place in a time of 3:08.28, winning the fastest heat of the day.

Watts and Cochran snatched the fourth fastest time of the day, placing them in a good position going into Tuesday’s semi-final.

“It is so good to have the Australian support in the crowd,” Cochran said. “We’re looking forward to a sleep-in tomorrow and then racing the semi.”

A total of nine crews from each race, including the Australians will progress directly to semi-finals on Tuesday, with the remaining four contesting the repechage tomorrow.

After a morning training on the Marina Bay Reservoir rowing course, the Australian pairs look to be in sizzling form leading into tomorrow’s competition at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

Fresh from the Junior World Championships, Emma Basher, Olympia Aldersey, David Watts and Matthew Cochran each have a junior worlds bronze medal in the bag and their eyes are set on gold.

“Most of the countries we’re racing against are the same as at the world champs,” Basher said. “So, we know who we’re up against, but we don’t know how they race over 1000 metres.”

Rowing is one of a few sports at the Youth Olympics which has a varied format with athletes not racing over the normal 2000 metre distance.

“It’s so different,” Basher said. “No one can predict what is going to happen.”

Helping close the gap on the unknown is rowing coach Tom Morris. Using specialised rowing GPS devices on the boats during training, Morris will receive data on everything from time and distance to which rower was pulling harder during the race.

“With races won or lost by a matter of seconds, this valuable data could be the difference between standing on the dais with a medal or not,” Morris said.

In another first for a rowing meet of this calibre, all competitors will row in identical boats provided by the Organising Committee.

“They’re not what we would normally race in but everyone is in the same type of boat so they’re won’t be any advantages,” Morris said.

“It’ll be an even playing field which we’ve probably never had before so it will be an interesting race. It will all come down to talent.”

“New Zealand!” Basher said when asked of her biggest rival. “Definitely the Kiwis! They won the gold at the World Championships and we won bronze so they are definitely who we want to beat.”

Friends once racing finishes, the New Zealand crew had game faces on when they walked past Aldersey and Basher preparing their boat for training.

“We won’t look at them,” Basher said with a laugh. “Not until we’ve finished racing.

In the men’s, the Aussies biggest rivals come in the form of Greek pair Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis. The duo recently won gold in the men’s pair at the Junior World Championships and they are the ones to beat for Youth Olympic glory.

Neither Aussie pair have drawn their biggest rivals in the heats so they will go into tomorrow’s race calm and collected.

“We’ll race hard but not at 100 per cent tomorrow,” Watts said. “We want to avoid repechage so we can have a rest day and prepare for semis.”

The top three boats will go direct to the semi-finals taking place on Tuesday 17 August, whilst the remaining crews will have to complete a repechage round on Monday vying for another shot at a Youth Olympic final.