Competition days in doubt as weather plays havoc with rowing schedule
NOT quite up poo creek, but almost.
With racing at Sea Forest Waterway already cancelled for Monday, Olympic organisers are also discussing postponing Tuesday’s competition as wild weather predictions play havoc with the rowing schedule.
Local weather forecasters have downgraded a typhoon to a tropical storm by the time it makes landfall along the eastern coast of Japan. A meeting will be held late Sunday night with World Rowing and Olympic officials, but tropical storm Nepartak could also have an impact on canoeing and triathlon.
“The forecast looks nice for tomorrow (morning), so we will probably just train tomorrow (Monday) … before the wind picks up,” head women’s coach John Keogh said.
“We won’t be surprised if they bring it forward, but at this point they have said there will be no racing tomorrow. If we lose several days, we are up s--t creek, aren’t we? It’s not just rowing, it’s kayaking, it’s lots of events. The forecast has it moving north, so it looks promising.”
Also looking promising is Australia’s potential medal haul.
Already five of Australia’s nine boats have qualified for finals, including the women’s quad scull, who will now row for a medal.
Ria Thompson, Rowena Meredith, Harriet Hudson and Caitlin Cronin won their repechage in 6min 36.67sec, helped out by Great Britain catching some early water.
“Honestly pretty unreal … a lot of the crews haven’t raced internationally for two years, so it’s pretty good to come out and show the world what we have been doing,” Cronin said.