Windy day capsizes rowing schedule
Peter Cookson grabbed at the bill of his cap as a strong gust threatened to blow it into the nearby Olympic rowing lagoon.
“Anybody up for a row?” Cookson asked a small gathering of reporters stationed along the water’s windblown shore.
Rowing Canada’s high-performance director was very much joking. With persistently high winds turning the usually tranquil lagoon into a reasonable facsimile of a raging, white-capped sea, organizers deemed Sunday’s conditions unfit for competition. The day’s schedule was cancelled. And Cookson, while he called the move “very unusual,” said he couldn’t disagree with the logic.
“You cannot row in these conditions,” Cookson said.
“They made the right decision to postpone.”
The nixing of the slate threw a wrench into the preparations of Canadian medal contenders that had been scheduled to compete in their opening heats, among them the lightweight women’s double of Patricia Obee and Lindsday Jennerich and the men’s four of Will Crothers, Conlin McCabe, Kal Langerfeld and Tim Schrijver.
Some among the oars-pulling crowd figured the decision came too late. Saturday’s wind, while it wasn’t as strong as Sunday’s, was stiff enough to cause problems on the water. One crew, a Serbian pair, capsized. Irish sculler Sanita Puspure likened navigating the frothing course to a combination of “sailing, surfing . . . and a little bit of rowing at the end.”
Australian sculler Kimberley Bren- nan said there was widespread “discontent” among fellow athletes that Saturday’s proceedings should have been halted.
“I was pretty close to sinking out there, which would generally be an indication that the course isn’t rowable,” she said. Emma Twigg, the New Zealand single sculler, suggested races only continued at the behest of the broadcasters who pay the freight and not in the best interest of the competition.
“At what point is it for the athletes?” Twigg wondered.
Cookson wasn’t disagreeing with any of it.
“I was arguing all morning (on Saturday) that there should have been more consideration for postponing the races. I think the international federation’s position was that the athletes were safe, that it was fair. But that’s different than being rowable,” Cookson said. “My feeling is, I’m very much a purist, and I believe that rowing should be done in the conditions it’s meant for, which is flat water, or as flat as the water could be.
“Athletes were really struggling out there . . . For them to struggle like they were, it’s difficult for all of us to see.”
Cookson said organizers deal with these types of situations more than you’d think. There were high winds at the 2012 Olympics on the outskirts of London, for instance.
“Many of us thought (racing) should have been postponed (in London). (The races) weren’t,” Cookson said.
“They had to change some of the lanes around but they did not postpone.”
While Cookson said he’s confident that there’s enough time to fit in the entire rowing program between now and the end of Saturday, when racing is scheduled to conclude and the Olympic canoeists and kayakers are set to take over the course, he acknowledged it’s possible that organizers could eliminate some of the second-chance repechages from the slate if things got tight.
“They could lop off the repechage if need be,” Cookson said.
Ideally, though, Cookson said Sunday’s setback will go down as “one of those minor bumps along the way” for Canada’s top oarsfolk.
“In four years it’s not all smooth sailing. You have some days and you have some times where things aren’t going as smooth as you want. And this is just one of those periods,” Cookson said.
“All the athletes, they just want to have one time to get on the water and show their stuff. And I think that if they get at least one more opportunity, I think they’ll all be good with that. I’m confident we will get to that.”
Well, “confident” might not be a word everybody in the vicinity of the rowing course was comfortable using Sunday. While weather forecasts are as reliable as guesses, this week’s outlook — which called for more wind combined with a chance of rain Monday — wasn’t exactly a picture of optimism. Cookson acknowledged as much and suggested everyone hang on to their metaphorical hats.
“I thought being a Sunday and having the Christ the Redeemer statue over top of us, we’d be fine,” Cookson quipped, referencing the religious icon that towers above the lagoon. “We’re at the mercy of the weather gods.”