ACOG - News - IBM

(22 July 1996; Day 3)

U.S. Women's Eight Upset in Rowing Preliminaries; Men Advance

In a day of competition highlighted by surprising upsets, the United States women's eight fell victim to the trend, losing their heat. The popular eight events (men's and women's) have seen the United States women's crew emerge as a favorite in competition, a position the U.S. women did not plan to concede in the preliminary race.

"We didn't train this long to come out here and lose one race and fall apart," said Yasmin FAROOQ, coxswain for the United States crew. "We are too mature and professional to let this get to us in that way."

The crew started strong in the first 500 meters, but was overtaken by the Belarus crew who finished at 6:24.61, nearly 4 seconds faster than the United States.

"We did not expect to be ahead during the first 500 meters. Belarus had a very fast start and we hoped to wear them down in the middle thousand," said FAROOQ. "But once they got ahead, they got psyched and they got stronger and by then we were too far back to do anything."

In 1996, the U.S. women have proved worthy of the world title they earned in 1995 with their first-place showing at the Lucerne Regatta, where they set a Lucerne record of 6:03.33. The U.S. crew did not do well in the heats at Lucerne but had a "big win" in the final.

Coach Hartmut BUSCHBACHER said the crew will make a few changes before their repechage on Wednesday. "We will make a few adjustments and we'll be back to where we were four weeks ago. It's not too complicated, I'm not worried."

FAROOQ is confident her crew will advance to the medal races. "We want to win the final. It will now take us one more race to get there."

The United States men's eight lived up to home crowd expectations, qualifying for the finals on Sunday by winning their heat during the preliminaries. With a time of 5:44.87, the U.S. crew ousted the Germans by a mere 1.17.

"We were focused," said Porter COLLINS. "We've been coached for Atlanta so we were ready to go."

The American men have not won a gold in the eight since 1964 and will hope to bring home the gold in 1996. The crew finished first at the World Championships in 1994 but relinquished its title in 1995, placing third in Tampere. The crew feels their training will pay off at home.

We have had only one race this spring and we were last on the first day and third in the final. We knew we had been improving, but we hadn't had anyone to race against and find out if that was true," said COLLINS. "This is a great course. It really helped us having raced here before (1995 U.S. National's) we knew what to expect."

And the United States men's have high expectations for themselves, hoping to win the gold.

The favorite Dutch eight, top finishers at Cologne, Duisburg and Lucerne in 1996, won their heat to advance to finals.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Lynne Bragg.


Return to Olympic News Menu

Select another day:
Pre July 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 August 1 2 3 4 Post


Olympic Factoid
Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park.