Finals...finally.

Having weathered a swift kick to the groin in our heat, the trip is back to fun again, and we've had some purposeful rows the past couple of days. At this point, we have to execute our race plan and be ready for any storm mother nature or the competition brings (tomorrow and Saturday look potentially ugly).

After practice the last couple of days, I've been able to catch most of the midday racing programs. Today in particular had some spectacular racing:
-In the M2-, NZ ran a clinic in dominating the top British athletes in the pair
-In the M8 rep 1, Canada let it all hang out, settling below 40spm for only about 100m in the 3rd 500, before the US and NZ went through in the final portion of the race and traded leads until the American horsepower punched first across the line.
-The M8 rep 2 was one of the best 8's races I've seen. Australia won by a canvas over the Netherlands, who just nipped the Chinese by 0.03 seconds. All 6 crews in the A final are probably within 2-3 seconds of one another on any given day, and the medals are wide open.
-Karsten showed her power yet again in the W1x over Knapkova and Emma Twigg in the semi...most likely the medals will all come from this semi.
-Drysdale, after stopping within the 100m breakage zone due to a floppy FISA sticker dragging off his boat, handed Synek is first loss of the 2010 season. However, Synek appeared composed and didn't fully press the last 500m.

Tomorrow morning, we'll go for our final race walkthrough before Saturday's final. If races are on schedule, I'll probably watch them on tv back at the hotel to rest up.

The posted video will show you the grandstand, and what the scene looks like for spectating - it will be a lot more packed Fri/Sat/Sun.

Later!

Pete