Thursday 27 August
RA caught up with men’s lightweight four coach Chris O’Brien, following his crew’s win in the C/D semi-final. Here is his take on the regatta and year so far.
1. Another improved performance today from your crew, so you would be pretty happy with their effort?
It’s good for them to be able to go out there and race against other crews who are in a similar situation. The early rounds have been pretty tough but only a couple of seconds again and that is the difference between going through to an A/B semi.
You’ve got to be happy they are improving with every race and just pleased they are going to have another race tomorrow and see if they improve again.
2. Tomorrow you have GB in the C Final. They would seem the crew to beat in that?
We had GB in the heat and we think they possibly got a bit better run of conditions and came through us in the last 500.
We had a couple of seconds on them through [the] third 500 and hopefully tomorrow we get a good even race and pretty confident we can have a good crack at them.
3. Overall it has been a fairly difficult year but they have held their heads up high and the future looks bright?
It’s been pretty tough throughout the year. It hasn’t been straight forward. Obviously we’ve had some injuries but you don’t make excuses with those things, you just get on and do what you have to do.
The four guys that have hopped in the boat this week have had some close calls on racing and they’re getting better race by race and they will continue to improve and be an important part of our lightweight group moving forward.
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Thursday 27 August
Two days ahead of the women’s four final, RA caught up with half of the women’s four crew following their training row on Thursday morning.
All four members of the crew are debuting at senior World Championship level. Here is what Sophia Robson and Emily Rose had to say.
1. The crew had a pretty slow start to the regatta with your first race only on the third day. What were the nerves like heading into the opening race?
ER – They were definitely there. Even though it was only a race for lanes it was all our first senior world championships race so we were all pretty nervous and had no idea what to expect and where we would be. We just wanted to have a good race and see where that left us and we managed to do that and we are all excited for the final now.
2. What’s your preparation like on a morning before a race?
SR – Just the usual preparation with a good breakfast after a good night sleep. Hanging out with team in the morning making sure we are all nice and relaxed and treat it like any other race. We were all excited as it was our biggest race to date but it was important we stayed focused. There were a few nerves but we calmed ourselves down.
3. It looked like the Dutch were the crew to beat, while the United States was also fairly strong. What’s the plan to catch those two crews?
ER – We are just going to approach the race with our own plan, as usual. We will focus on ourselves. They do seem like the main opposition but in saying that you can’t discount any of the other crews, they could all be up there come the final few strokes.
4. How have you enjoyed your first Senior A World Championships?
SR – It’s really good. It’s only my second Australian team for any level. I was only in the Under 23’s for my first time last year but loving it so far. There is a great atmosphere and it is a good team to be part of.
5. Emily, you won a silver medal last year in the women’s pair at the Under 23’s. What would the feeling be like receiving a Senior A world championship medal?
ER – It would be pretty exciting to make that step in one year. I’ll keep that in the back of my mind, but first we have to all concentrate on the race and see where that takes us.
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Tuesday 25 August
RA caught up with national men’s head coach and men’s eight coach Noel Donaldson ahead of the repechage for his crew.
1. Firstly how does it feel coaching an individual crew again?
Like where’s the last eight years of my life gone! It’s been a very easy transition from the old days because in some ways I have always been coaching for the past few years but not as actively as I am now. It’s been good.
2. You have a pretty young group of guys. Has it been enjoyable trying to bring them up to speed?
That’s probably been the highlight of the whole thing. The enjoyment of working with a very youthful and enthusiastic bunch of guys has been a highlight.
3. How have you seen their progress come along this year?
It’s been good. I had my coaching colleague Rhett Ayliffe call yesterday and was on the phone for half an hour with him going through different stuff because he knows them pretty well. I think the thing I would probably agree with him is that because we’ve worked together with this group from January, and not just since selection, is that we have been able to give them some clear messages about rowing and that has allowed them to change from rowers to oarsmen.
We’ve just got to keep that thrust going. Yesterday we pulled up a little shy in the end but if you review the video we rowed as well as anyone else out there so that’s a good starting point.
4. These guys are part of the four-year plan heading up to London in 2012. Do you see most of them making the grade in the next couple of years?
I think more of that will be up to them. Part of their learning this year is about mental application and a lot of the future will be about how strong they are mentally and how determined they are because there will be a couple pushing up from underneath and a couple who are coming back. So across the whole sweep team there will be a limited number of seats available. Statistically some of them are going to miss out. It’s up to them to decide.
5. As you said, they narrowly missed out yesterday. How did you spend the afternoon to get their heads around it and get them positive for the repechage tomorrow?
I think we probably did that before we even left the course. It wasn’t a difficult task. We came back and had a late lunch, went for a walk in the afternoon. It’s a bit difficult to go back and row again after getting back at 3 o’clock in the afternoon but we had a normal meeting which included reviewing the video, reviewing the GPS. We always talk realistically to them and show the strengths and weaknesses and set a very clear plan for the way forward.
6. What will the plan for the repechage be tomorrow?
Not much different probably in terms of the structure of the heat, but just to row a little bit better once we settle and for them and/or Toby to be a little bit more astute about the opposition. Toby needs to be a little bit more external about who we’re racing and expect the other guys to have a red hot dip in repechages to put it up you and we must just stay steely through the middle there.
7. As the national men’s head coach how have you seen the performance of the other male crews so far this regatta?
Well its early days in some senses. We know we’ve got a good quad but they got squeezed yesterday, but only two and a half seconds behind the Olympic champions so it’s a bit early to get too concerned. They will get through the repechage alright but then the semis will be pretty tight.
The four has shown a bit of form at the right time and trained pretty well today also and I think we should always have expected that if they prepared properly.
The lightweight four has improved out of sight and they will probably have their toughest ever race in the repechage and if they can get through there it will be a real credit to them and Chris O’Brien for bringing them this far. A/B semis would be a great effort and we can work our way up if we get there.
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Monday 24 August
RA caught up with Alexandra Green, member of the adaptive mixed coxed four, shortly after their race today.
Alex, 22, is racing in her first world championships, rowing bow seat, and helped the crew to a second-place finish in their heat behind the Italians.
1. How exciting was your first world championships row today?
Very! Pretty nerve wracking as well but it was good to get out there and also to see so many different countries and we totally killed it and can now look forward to tomorrow’s race.
2. What was your preparation like this morning?
I was a bit more nervous this morning and so a bit more quiet than normal. Usually I am a bit more energetic but didn’t really know what to expect so just listened to my ipod and chilled, got together with the team, wandered over to the boat and that was it!
3. What was your race plan for the heat?
Pretty much squeeze out the 1000m and sprint for the whole thing. Our third 250m is usually the worst so we could feel that we had to push out the last half of the race and Lisa called out let’s make this third 250 our best so we all pushed and that did the job.
4. How did you find the windy conditions out there?
Hectic! It was pretty windy, not quite as choppy as nationals this year. It was a nice little head wind and we usually do pretty well in a head wind.
5. How have you spent time outside of rowing so far this week?
So far it has been rowing, eating and sleeping. I’m going to wait until the rowing is over and then see as much of the city as I can!
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Sunday 23 August
RA spoke with men’s four coach Tim Conrad, shortly after his crew won through to the semi-finals in first place.
1. You would be happy to get the first race out of the way this week?
It certainly is. Not having really raced at internationally since Beijing, even though we’ve done a lot of race work at home, it is a different story when you get to race internationally so getting that first one out of the way will help the boys to be a little more composed ahead of the next one
2. What was your race plan coming into the heat?
Look we wanted to win it and assert ourselves from the first race. We didn’t want to muck around at all and we wanted to progress well.
As it turned out, the lane we were in was quite tricky out there and they find it technically quite hard to keep the boat speed up through the middle, so I think they did a pretty good job and going on from there.
3. Germany came out pretty strong in the opening but you responded well?
It’s a bit hard to estimate what lanes did to things but with the strong cross breeze they had quieter water I think and they’re a very good crew and as soon as we got into more protected water I think we had the wood on them.
4. What will you do over the next three days ahead of the semi-final on Thursday?
We’ll have a quiet afternoon today and pretty light paddling tomorrow and just getting their heads around a good semi final. The semi is always the really scary race. They deserve to be in the final but you can’t afford to make any mistakes, otherwise you miss out.
The men's four powered home to win their heat
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Saturday 22 August
Men’s Eight Toby Lister gives his take on the World Championships, coxing the men’s eight and life in Poznan.
1. Firstly, what was your feeling after being selected in the Senior A team for the first time this year?
It was a good stepping stone for me. It’s the thing I had in mind coming off a couple of B teams and not being that successful last year, so it was a great relief to get selected after trialling against one other cox.
2. The crew is fairly young and inexperienced, with seven guys making their senior A world championships debut. How has it been and do you think this has allowed you to fly under the radar a bit?
I think it’s quite exciting. We have a young crew, but one that has all done Under 23’s before and I think no one’s got tickets on themselves and everyone is down to earth and there are no expectations on us from anyone around the world. I think it’s allowed us to go under the radar, we’ve got nothing to lose and we can go out there and have a crack.
3. Sam Loch is the sole member from the Beijing campaign last year. Has he been able to provide experience and advice to the crew?
He’s been great. He’s been able to bring in experience and leadership and he has been pretty motivated that he doesn’t have a round two of the disappointment of last year. Between him and Fergus, the two guys who have rowed Senior A before, it’s been great for myself but also the other younger athletes in the crew.
Cox Toby Lister urges the men’s eight on
4. How have you found Poznan outside from rowing so far?
I think it’s great, it’s really nice. The women here are beautiful and I think it’s definitely an eye opening experience being over here. I haven’t spent a lot of time in the eastern bloc countries so it has been a good opportunity. I’m looking forward to the day after racing, a bit of a warm down day, to get out and see some of the sights.
5. Come Monday morning will you be preparing any differently ahead of the heat?
No I don’t think so. We’ve had a pretty disrupted campaign with injury and illness but we’ve stuck together as one crew and one unit and been very supportive the whole way through. We’re pretty motivated to get out there and test where we’re at and just stick to our own guns and be quite process oriented. Monday lunchtime will be very exciting!
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Saturday 22 August
Rowing Australia caught up with the women’s lightweight double scull crew of Alice McNamara and Bronwen Watson two days out from the start of the World Championships.
1. We are two days out from the start of the regatta. How are you both feeling heading into the world championships?
BW – We are trying to channel all our nervous energy into making sure all our rows are really fierce-looking. Because we haven’t had an opportunity to race at the world cups we are sort of not sure how we are going to go against any of the other competition, so just trying to make sure we look stronger and fitter than they do on the water.
AM – Similar to Bron we have got a pretty channelled mindset in our little double. We had a pretty good preparation in Varese and saw some good speed there so we are trying to replicate what we are doing in Varese.
2. The team seemed pretty happy with the camp in Varese. I’m sure it was nice to row on some warm water ahead of coming to Poznan?
BW – Yeah, the weather and water conditions in Varese were pretty much perfect, really hot and still, so I think everyone had the chance to do some fine tuning and get some good speed. It lent a very positive air to the team.
3. Have you had much of a chance to get out and look around Poznan yet?
AM – We love Poznan! We went for a walk the first night and found a big old square with lots of after racing activities! There’s lots of good shopping and we’ve had a good opportunity to get our feelers out there and look around the city.
4. How will your preparations change over the next couple of days heading into the racing?
BW – Well it’s quite a long week as our heat is on Monday, the semis on Friday and then the final on Sunday, so the next couple of days will be pretty quiet ahead of the heat and then still some fine tuning all the way through to thefinal. We’ll just try not to get to distracted by all the shopping and fun stuff there is to do in Poznan to it’s all done!
Alice McNamara and Bronwen Watson pose for the camera
5. Are there any pre race superstitions that you both follow?
BW – We’ve got our own individual little habits that we follow.
AM – But they are probably both so normal to us and other people might find them weird!
BW – We do our pre-race row and then pack our picnic for the day the night before, weigh in on the morning and then eat, pretty standard though!
6. Where do you see the main challenges coming from?
BW – There’s not many crews that can be discounted obviously as we just haven’t raced among them. I think we are in a good position as we are largely unknown to them as they haven’t seen us race so I think we should utilise that and maybe surprise a few people and have a really good heat.
AM – The world cups have been won by the British, the last two of them, and the Canadian double, Polish and Greeks will all be strong.
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Friday 21 August
The Australian Rowing Team was last night visited by the Australian Ambassador to Poland, Ms Ruth Pearce.
Ms Pearce, who was appointed Ambassador to Poland and the Czech Republic in 2008, joined the team for dinner at the Novatel Centrum in Poznan ahead of the 2009 FISA World Rowing Championships.
Australian men’s team captain, David Crawshay, women’s team captain Kim Crow, team manager Ray Ebert and National High Performance Manager Andrew Matheson entertained the ambassador throughout the meal, while beforehand and afterwards she exchanged stories with some of the team members.
Ms Pearce has previously been Ambassador to both the Russian Federation and the Republic of the Philippines.
Andrew Matheson, Kim Crow, David Crawshay and Ray Ebert flank the Australian Ambassador to Poland and the Czech Republic, Ruth Pearce, at the team dinner
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