US races small boats for team selection

An extremely tight battle in the men’s single pitted 2008 US Olympic representative in the single, Kenneth Jurkowski, against last year’s national team single sculler, Warren Anderson. Anderson edged out Jurkowski in the final by just half a second over the 2000m distance.

Post-Beijing retirement by Olympic medallist Michelle Guerette in the women’s single has left a hole in the US rowing squad in this event. Genevra Stone may be the answer. Stone, like Guerette, is from Boston, training on the Charles River. Stone, 24, has raced in team boats at the under-23 level but is yet to break into the senior national team. At this regatta Stone finished five seconds ahead of Kathleen Bertko. Bertko raced last year in the US women’s quad, finishing second at the World Rowing Championships.

World Champions Susan Francia and Erin Cafaro won their signature event, the women’s pair, ahead of teammates Amanda Polk and Jamie Redman in second with Lindsay Shoop and Caroline Lind finishing third. These athletes all train at the Princeton Training Centre under coach Tom Terhaar and are likely to be the athletes that will be part of the US rowing squad’s pair and the eight.

The men’s pair was won by Jacob Cornelius and Charles Cole over Ross and Grant James. The James brothers had a ding-dong finish against Steve Coppolla and Silas Stafford who were just 1/100th of a second back in third.

New world record holder for lightweight women on the indoor rowing machine, Ursula Grobler, won the lightweight women’s single. Grobler, formerly of South Africa, got her United States citizenship last month and is intent on competing for the US team at the 2012 London Olympics. Grobler finished ahead of Meghan Sarbanis and Abelyn Broughton. Earlier in the regatta Grobler competed in the open women’s single time trial where she finished first.

The lightweight men’s single was won by Kenny McMahon with Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg and Jonathan Winter following in second and third respectively. Urevick-Ackelsberg has raced internationally in the lightweight double with Cody Lowry who raced at this regatta in the open men’s double. Lowry, along with partner Jon D’alba finished an easy first, 10 seconds ahead of Edgars Boitmanis and Drew McNichols. This is the first time for Lowry to race at this level in the openweight class. Last year he competed at the World Rowing Championships in the lightweight single.

The next national selection regatta will be held from 13 to 15 May with some crews then finalised to race at the first Rowing World Cup in Bled, Slovenia, which starts on 28 May 2010.

For full results: https://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=243.

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