Rowing FISA World Championships 2019

[phelps 7,825]

  On 8/31/2019 at 2:32 PM, OlympicsFan said:

Yes, before the start of the competition this was considered a safe gold considering that they had been unbeaten the whole season. You have to ask yourself what happened here that they are suddenly beaten by 2 teams. Ireland even beat them comfortably and it is pretty suspicious that, as far as i can tell, the irish team only competed in one world cup. Athletics and cycling get the most heat concerning doping and thankfully it also seems to become a bigger topic in swimming, but there is absolutely no logical reason to think that rowing is any cleaner than those sports. I hope that someone will soon take a close look at the development of the Netherlands, China, Ireland, Poland and New Zealand (at least on the women's side). It makes absolutely no sense that GB, a country that completely dominated this sport just 7 years ago and has a bigger talents pool than for example the Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand combined and Germany (who always used to be great in rowing too) are suddenly chanceless against a nation like the Netherlands. It is especially worrying because the Netherlands have also completely overtaken track cycling at the same time.

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if we start this kind of speculations, we'd better stop watching sports events...

 

it's obvious that some performances are more suspicious than others, but until we find out some serious proof of cheating, we have to accept what happens on the track/field/regatta course and so on...

 

in the specific case of the LM2X here, I expected IRL to win...it's their strategy to race very few times a year (actually, even Italy normally only start at 1 or 2 world cup stages / year because of financial and technical programming)...

and still, they were the defending champions, not just a couple of unknown guys (even if last year the crew was different at 50%, with 2 O'Donovan brothers)...

[OlympicsFan 860]

  On 8/31/2019 at 2:41 PM, phelps said:

 

if we start this kind of speculations, we'd better stop watching sports events...

 

it's obvious that some performances are more suspicious than others, but until we find out some serious proof of cheating, we have to accept what happens on the track/field/regatta course and so on...

 

in the specific case of the LM2X here, I expected IRL to win...it's their strategy to race very few times a year (actually, even Italy normally only start at 1 or 2 world cup stages / year because of financial and technical programming)...

and still, they were the defending champions, not just a couple of unknown guys (even if last year the crew was different at 50%, with 2 O'Donovan brothers)...

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Yeah, it would be better for me to stop watching sport. I think it is impossible to be a person who hates injustice and at the same time truly enjoy watching elite sport, but sadly i am kind of addicted ... Sports are my only drug (no alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, refined sugar or other drugs for me), hopefully i will be able to also withstand this temptation with time.

[szy123 79]

  On 8/31/2019 at 2:20 PM, OlympicsFan said:

Absolutely ridiculous results so far. Ireland, Poland and the Netherlands are suddenly powerhouses.

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Poland had been pretty decent at rowing for years lol. 

[Andry84 104]

Quite good day for Italian crews, Lodo and Vecino next year will be for sure on the podium fighting for silver with NZ, I don't think Sinkovic Brothers are beatable, great silver medal for LM2x and good bronze for 4x even if I expected silver(the gold medal was already assigned before the race, too stron Ned this year). Great to see Italian girls qualifying 4x, until 3 days ago I didn't think it was possible. Pity for 4- men but was quite clear they weren't in their best shape. 

In Tokyo I expect 3 medals for Italy, hoping for the gold medal we are expecting for 20 years, but It won't be easy. 

[Майкл 561]

  On 8/31/2019 at 3:47 PM, szy123 said:

Poland had been pretty decent at rowing for years lol. 

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Winning medals in the Olympics is more than just 'decent'  

[JoshMartini007 2,566]

  On 8/31/2019 at 5:57 PM, Майкл said:

 

Winning medals in the Olympics is more than just 'decent'  

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Obviously it's due to cheating and not about being a sore loser

[Майкл 561]

  On 8/31/2019 at 5:58 PM, JoshMartini007 said:

Obviously it's due to cheating and not about being a sore loser

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 It's a well-known fact that you can't defeat German athletes without doping

[Joshi 126]

So many accusations without any proof is a bit retarded but anyway. The reason for China's shock development if you say is the appointment of perhaps the greatest rower of all time Sir Steve Redgrave (GBR) who oversees Chinese Rowing. Along with former Olympic gold medalist and multiple WC Nathan Cohen (NZL). They have taken rowing to a different ball game by making them live in camp for 50 weeks of the year. Which is I think abuse but anyway.

 

Ireland are there because since the O'Donovan's won silver it's really catapulted rowing in that country in terms of participation and sponsorship wise. Therefore their full-time job now is just being a rower. Instead of working a full-time job and trying to be a rower. It also helps that coaches from NZ and GB are being there too. Thanks to sponsorship.

 

If you look at World Cup results for the past 3 years the NZ women have practically fronted for NZ instead of the men. Last year's WC were an anomaly where NZ were ill and walked away with a poultry 3 medals and not one gold. Our worst result in 15yrs. So a bounce back was always going to happen. So if you think something sinister is going on well so be it. But let's just ignore the fact that NZ has always been good at rowing at WC and Olympic level. NZ men are going through a changing of the guard and it will be after the next Olympiad that we will see them up there again.

 

GB aren't as good at the moment due to injuries particularly in the sweep squad. But what's the bet they will comeback at Tokyo 2020. I think GB have done a stellar job in qualifying a lot of boats with all these injuries.

 

 

[heywoodu 15,351]

Nice to see the Dutch team going pretty well again  Not some insane improvement or something, they've always had several world class boats in Olympic disciplines so it's not like several medals is all too surprising or something, but nice  

[Werloc 3,176]

It's pretty sad to see Lithuanian rowing and canoeing sprint crash and burn so hard in 2019. So many missed quotas and our multi-medalists in world championships and European championships are going to settle for a fight in the B finals and it's not even too clear if they'll avoid the 12th spot.