Australian pair at Marina Bay Reservoir

David Watts and Matthew Cochran won bronze in the Junior Men’s Coxed Four just a little over a week ago at the 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. Now in Singapore, they are doing well in the Junior Men’s Pair, having just won their Semifinal today ahead of Slovenia and Serbia. Tomorrow they will be racing in the A-final.

World Rowing met up with David Watts in Racice, asking him how he had been preparing for the World Rowing Junior Championships and the Youth Olympic Games. In Singapore, World Rowing was able to get an update from Watts and his pair partner Cochran and see what their experience of Singapore was like…

Part I – Interview in Racice

World Rowing: Why did you decide to compete at both Junior World Champs & Youth Olympic Games?

David Watts: I took part in the Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney in 2009 and they advertised the Youth Olympic Games there. Afterwards I saw more advertisements about it and so my pair partner Matt and I decided to also go for the Youth Olympic selection in addition to the junior world’s selection, knowing it would take place afterwards.
In Australia the selection criteria was to send the fastest pair from the junior selection trials end of April and since we won the trials in the pair we were selected to go.

WR: How did you combine the preparation for both events?

DW: The preparation for the World Rowing Junior Championships came first. We will first focus on our final on Sunday and then look at racing at the YOG. But since we are rowing in the coxed four here we haven’t been in the pair since over three weeks.

WR: What are your goals for each regatta?

DW: We have the same goal for both events: we always aim for the best. Of course we would like to win the YOG but we haven’t done any international racing in the pair yet. It will be interesting how we hold up against the other countries in the pair.

WR: How do you think you will cope with the change from 2000m to 1000m? Will you have any special preparation in the lead up?

DW: The transition will be interesting. We not only change distance but also boat class and as I said we haven’t done much training in the pair over the last few weeks. But the pair should be easier than the coxed four – it’s just a lighter boat. 1000m will be interesting, especially as we are not the fastest at the start.

Coming from 2000m we will definitely have to change race plan, which might be a bit confusing. But then again over 1000m there won’t be much time to think about anything anyway. It’s actually an awkward distance: we cannot really sprint as we would over 500m or we will die and we probably won’t get into the same rhythm as over 2000m either. I reckon it’s the 400m hurdles of rowing.

We will be flying straight into Singapore from here and will be there as of Tuesday (10 August). We will probably sort out the boat and practice some starts on the training days.

WR: What are your expectations for Singapore? Did you hear about any of the events, such as the Sprint Relay Race taking place on Thursday 19 August?

DW: We actually had not heard much before coming here and sitting in the YOG meeting. But it should be really interesting and we are keen to try anything.

Meeting Usaine Bolt would be very interesting. We heard he will be there!? I can’t really think of any other hero right now. Our coach Tom Morris who will be going with us to Singapore is definitely our hero too.

Part II – Interview in Singapore

World Rowing: What’s up since your medal in Racice?

David: we had a small celebration with the team and flew out on Monday to Singapore. When we arrived here we had to do some rigging of the boat and that took up Tuesday and Wednesday. We therefore did not have that much preparation before racing especially considering that the last time we were in a coxless pair might be about 2 months ago.

Matthew: Yes, and it took us a while to get used to this smaller boat but it’s getting better with each session.

David: That makes us pretty happy but also gives us something to work on.

WR: What is your favorite movie?

Matthew: “Avatar” by James Cameron

David: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” by Adam McKay

WR: What is your favorite car?

Matthew: Aston Martin Vantage

David: Aston Martin DB9

WR: What is your favorite music group?

Matthew: Pendulum

David: John Mayer

WR: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Matthew: I’m actually already working, I’m very lucky to have found a job as an engineer assistant.

David: I’m studying science, but I don’t have a specific idea yet. And I have to leave the YOG early to go back to university. I only got an exemption for this week.

WR: What is cool about Singapore and the YOG?

Matthew: It’s incredibly clean and people are so friendly. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life and it’s really pretty cool for young people. I started the tour to get my stickers now. You have to go to all the stands of the countries, a part of the cultural and education programme and do different activities like finish a puzzle in less than a minute. The YOG also make us step inside more competition and if this is like this here I really wonder what the Olympic Games are like!

David: We are treated very well, I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I also think that setting up that course is incredible. The opening ceremony – as far as we could see as we had to leave early – was amazing as well. The YOG advertise the Olympic values and we get to understand better what the Olympic Games are about.