Rowing 2022 Discussion Thread

[vinipereira 3,462]

I remember to this day people complaining about the Rio 2016 venue because of the climate (too rainy, too windy, too whatever). This is worse...

[phelps 8,388]

if the problem of the new venue is that fuckin' bridge shortening the course, just throw it down!!!  

 

p.s. by the way, I'm asking myself why the organizations run by French and/or German presidents are always the worst in the world? (remembering the damage that Rene Roch did to fencing during his infamous tenure...and watching FIL-Luge and IOC's current top managers, for instance)

[heywoodu 16,142]

39 minutes ago, phelps said:

if the problem of the new venue is that fuckin' bridge shortening the course, just throw it down!!!  

 

p.s. by the way, I'm asking myself why the organizations run by French and/or German presidents are always the worst in the world? (remembering the damage that Rene Roch did to fencing during his infamous tenure...and watching FIL-Luge and IOC's current top managers, for instance)

Did Sebastian Coe or Gianni Infantino change their passport?  

 

[phelps 8,388]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Did Sebastian Coe or Gianni Infantino change their passport?  

 

naaaa...they're a lot less worse than those I mentioned above...

[heywoodu 16,142]

2 minutes ago, phelps said:

naaaa...they're a lot less worse than those I mentioned above...

Agree to disagree, I suppose  

[Dragon 2,057]

33 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Agree to disagree, I suppose  

I'd say Coe is the best leader World Athletics has had in over 40 years.

That may sound like I'm praising him, but to be honest,  if you had put a potato on the end of a stick, smeared it with dog muck and set fire to it, you'd have a more appealing president that Nebiolo or Diack who preceded him.

[Dragon 2,057]

13 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

For me, the boat sports are biggest challenge facing LA28. Obviously, there are strong concerns about water use in the state at the moment. There’s a possibility things improve in the future, but there’s also a possibility they get worse. It’s a tough environment to navigate.

The lake they used for rowing in 1984 no longer suitable, correct?

[Olympian1010 8,274]

2 hours ago, Dragon said:

The lake they used for rowing in 1984 no longer suitable, correct?

As I understand it, there are serious concerns about the water levels at Lake Casitas. Casitas is also relatively removed from all the other venues. Likewise, with Lake Perris. 

[Makedonas 2,239]

In other rowing news, the European U23 Championships are currently underway in Belgium 

[Makedonas 2,239]

We finished with 3 gold and 1 silver 

 

GOLD for Bourmpou/Fragkou in W2- which was obviously expected as they dominated the World U23 Championships this year with a world record.

 

GOLD for Gkaidatzis in LM1X. He hadn't competed with the national team since 2019, so it was nice to see him come back and win another medal. Hopefully he can reunite with his old partner Papakonstantinou and try to qualify for Paris together in LM2X (Papakonstantinou won gold this year at the European Championships in LM1X and gold at last year's World U23 Championships in LM1X).

 

GOLD for Kontou/Natsioula in W2X. They are really impressive, Kontou is 16yo and Natsioula is 17yo, so for them to both win a U23 gold medal in such a challenging boat class is really special. Natsioula has won 4 gold medals in her last 4 regattas, all in W2X (2022 European U23, 2022 World U19, 2022 European U19, 2021 European U19). And for Kontou this is her first medal as she did not compete at the U19 level this year, and instead was focusing on U23 Worlds (in W1X) and the World Cup. I think it will be the first of many gold medals for her...

 

SILVER for Anastasiadou in LW1X. Really shocking and disappointing. Did not expect this at all, she has been winning gold at the European U23s since she was 18, and this year won gold at the World U23s with a world record and silver in W1X as a lightweight (!!!) at the European Championships. Not sure what happened but at least she won another medal.

 

4th places for Angou/Varelopoulou (LW2X) and the Boukouvalas brothers (M2-). Both missed the podium by less than one second. As I've said, we are really Canada 2.0 here...also not sure why we sent Angou who is only 17 yo and has never won a medal at anything before, I think we had better options for Varelopoulou to have a partner to reach the podium.

 

5th out of 5 boats for our W2-. They are all U19s so it's not a big deal, and two of them (Argyraki and Asvesta) won gold in W2- this year at both the World and European U19s. The Papaioannou sisters were clearly too inexperienced to do better at this level.

 

6th for our M2X. Not much to say. We had Iasonas Exarchou last year win silver in this event as a U19, not sure why he wasn't selected again this year.

 

11th for Papazoglou in M1X. He is only 17 yo so I didn't expect much, he won medals at both the World and European U19s this year and probably will do the same next year.