Rowing towards the Olympics
● SA head coach Roger Barrow’s six-boat fleet powers into action in Austria today, competing at the biggest-ever world rowing championships.
A record 80 nations have entered the event, and for two of Barrow’s three main boats, the gap for Olympic qualification is a lot smaller than it has been in the past.
The showpiece in Ottensheim is all about booking spots for the Tokyo 2020 Games, and Barrow has gone into this regatta with more uncertainty about exactly where his crews stand than he did in 2015 or 2011.
Coming from behind
“I don’t have a main boat,” said Barrow, a perfectionist. In the past he’s had at least one-world class crew in his squad that he measures the other boats against.
Kirsty McCann and Ursula Grobler in the lightweight double sculls were one of the powerhouses in the build-up to Rio 2016, but Grobler has only recently won her seat back after returning from a break of nearly two years.
Olympic medallists Lawrence Brittain and John Smith have yet to taste top international competition as a men’s pair.
The men’s four of Jake Green, Kyle Schoonbee, Sandro Torrente and David Hunt ended sixth at the World Cup regatta in June.
Barrow didn’t know how to rate their performances as they left their training camp in Tzaneen, where times were generally fast.
“I think the boats are going reasonably well.”
He’ll start finding out today.
McCann and Grobler, who needed to be top 11 in 2016, must now finish top seven.
The four saw their qualifying hurdle rise from top 11 to top eight.
The men’s pair remains at 11, as does the women’s pair, in which under-23 world championship silver medallists, US-based students and teammates Tayla-May Bentley and Jessica Schoonbee, the sister of Kyle, will see how far they can go.
SA has had a women’s pair at four of the last six Olympics.
Growing band of heavyweights
For the main crews missing out on qualification in Austria, there will be second chances down the line.
Mzwandile Sotsaka and Bradley Betts in the men’s double sculls are unlikely to qualify, but Barrow’s thinking is that the boat offers an extra outlet for his growing band of heavyweights.
Nicole van Wyk is racing in the non-Olympic lightweight singles sculls class.