RowingRelated

There he is again! Eric Murray is having an epic offseason following an even better season (and before what could be his best season yet), jumping into the men's single and edging reigning world champion Mahé Drysdale by roughly three feet to take bragging rights for winter training on Lake Karapiro. The footage comes from the North Island Club Championships, courtesy of johnrothery's YouTube Channel . While we're sure Murray enjoyed this, we're pretty certain that he'll be sticking to the pair–a crew that has been so dominant that we are seeing a reshuffling of the GB Rowing squad's priorities in the build-up to 2012 (as is discussed in today's Rowing News eNewsletter ). And don't forget to check out an interview with Eric Murray regarding his recent 60-minute performance in the current issue of Rowing News magazine! Want to suggest the next 'Video of the Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your sugge...

Warren Anderson, who began his rowing career in Southern California, is ready to make waves in London. Since his outstanding performance at Crash-B's in 2006 (where he won the men's collegiate event with a time of 5:54.3), Anderson has dedicated much of his time to sculling, and has produced some of the US National Team's best results in the 1x since Jamie Koven in the late 90s. In 2008, he was named as an alternate to the US Olympic Team. Most recently, Anderson and new partner Glenn Ochal  (from CRC and PTC respectively) put their names on the map in the 2x, taking 7th in Karapiro after narrowly missing a shot at the medal round in their first World Championships together. Here, Warren tells us what is was like to come from a small program on the West Coast and find yourself a member of the 2008 Olympic squad, as well as what may be in the cards for the coming year. RR: You began rowing for the Loyola Marymount University Lions, a small program in Marina Del Rey, Calif...

Monaghan (left) and McEachern (right), racing NSR III last Spring [Photo Credit: Oklahoma City National High Performance Center] Ryan Monaghan has built himself an impressive résumé in rowing over the past few years. After graduating from Cornell with a degree in Physics (yeah, he's pretty quick in the classroom too), he moved on to Cambridge, where he was in the stern pair of the Blue Boat in both 2008 and 2009 (the 2009 CUBC VIII had a stern pair made up of two current US National Team members, in Monaghan and Stafford -- coincidentally the first two RR interviewees). Since coming back to the US, Ryan made the move to Oklahoma City, and has taken full advantage of the new facilities developing there. This year, he and another American veteran of Cambridge, Deaglan McEachern, combined to form the US Men's 2-, which battled through a great deal of adversity to place a very respectable 9th in one of the fastest fields in Karapiro this year (remember, this category had the fam...

The US men's squad came home from Karapiro without a single medal, of any color, to show for its efforts this year. However, there were some crews who showed that they have potential, this being their first chance at the World Championships. Which entries earned another trip around the international circuit? In my view, the crew that most deserves some time to stay together and develop is the M4- . This is a group that got together only weeks before Worlds, and, despite having no international experience as a unit, managed to place a very respectable 5th in what is one of the most hotly contested Olympic events on the men's side. Also, looking at the way the final played out, it seems that there were some serious issues with fairness and wind interference, so we may not have seen all that this group was capable of this time. I know that the event was slightly weaker than it might have been, had the GB squad not taken Reed and Triggs-Hodge out of the 4- and put them...

The US men's squad emerges from the competition in Karapiro with very little to show for its efforts this year, though this does not do justice to the improvements that have been made over the past twelve months. The cold, hard fact is, this year's team did not take a single medal of any color home from Karapiro, failing one of the major criteria laid out as a basis for saying McLaren's program is working as we head toward London. Even in events that were not well subscribed (the 2+ and the LWT VIII), the US couldn't manage a podium finish, and of the boats that made A Finals (including final-only events, this amounted to four) the best finish by a US crew was 5th place. Now, as far as improvements go, there are a couple of things to talk about, most notably the 4-, which didn't even make the B final last year, and which finished in 5th place overall during this year's campaign. A great deal of work has gone into this boat, and the results show that a tremendous...

The Men's VIII will join the list of US men's crews in the A Finals this year, winning their rep just ahead of NZ, and sending the Canadians to the B Final. So far the A Finals tally is two, not counting the boats in events with six entries or less (the Men's 2+, the LWT 4x and the LWT VIII). The 2-, 2x, LWT 4-, LWT 2x, LWT 2-, and the 1x have all landed themselves in the B Final, leaving the US men with four shots at the medals, and two chances at Olympic-class medals so far. This could grow to six chances at the podium, should Anderson and Ochal make the A Final in the 2x (another Olympic event), and should Urevick-Ackelsberg make the A Final in the LWT 1x (though in field with Jonathan Koch, Peter Chambers and Duncan Grant, medals will be tough to come by). The 2010 regatta is certainly an improvement from last year, when the US men were completely shut out of the A Finals in Olympic events, and finished second-to-last in the VIII -- an event in which they took the br...

The performance of the day for the US men's team was turned in by the 4-, led by Silas Stafford of Stanford. The crew placed themselves firmly in medal contention with a solid performance, holding off a late sprint from the Italian crew immediately to starboard. It's a great sign moving forward and exactly the type of performance needed to set the tone as we draw closer to London. Stafford, Stitt, Rummel and Lanzone also make up the first of the US men's Olympic-class boats to make the the A Final this year -- something that is extremely important for Tim McLaren as he tries to harness the potential of the US club system in preparation for 2012 (as I've discussed ). Tomorrow will feature a very tough race for the Men's LWT 4-, in a heat with Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and France -- all perennial powerhouses in the event. If the US can make it through to the A Final from this semi, they too will have placed themselves in medal contention, having raced some of t...

The US men's team has opened up very well across the board thus far in Karapiro, with the LM4- making a big statement in their heat, finishing second and going straight to the A/B semi. The LM 2- finished third in their heat (behind quality entries from NZ and France), and will be heading to the reps, as will the M4-, stroked by Silas Stafford, who also opened up very well, finishing 2nd behind an excellent NZ crew. In the 2-, Monaghan and McEachern took 3rd, placing themselves in semifinal A/B in one of the toughest events at the regatta, and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg did just enough to take the 3rd qualifying position in the LM1x as well, landing himself in the A/B semi. The 2x combination of Anderson and Ochal competed very well in their opener, taking 2nd behind another quality entry from Great Britain. They'll now set their sights on the A/B semi along with many of their teammates. The toughest result for the US to this point has come in the M1x, with Ken Jurkowski coming acr...

As the US men take to the water in Karapiro, the looming questions about current Head Coach Tim McLaren are: can he have the same success in the US 'system' (really a euphemism for a random selection of clubs and athletes all over the country who come together, usually at the last minute, and are thrown into lineups largely based on erg scores) that he had in the much more structured Australian one? Can he impose that same kind of structure on the truly amateur sport in the US? How will the US Team fair in the second year of his coaching regime? What are acceptable results? Last year's performance at the World Championships did not make a sterling impression on his adopted home, as none of the camp boats medaled -- in fact, the only boats that took home any hardware at all were the victorious Coxed Pair (Henrik Rummel and Troy Kepper), and the second-place Lightweight VIII. Neither is an Olympic event, and the Lightweight VIII had only 9 entries (though, to be fair, it'...

This video, posted in the lead up to the British victory in the Lightweight Men's 2x in Beijing, is the best rowing training video online. The two scullers involved, Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase, exhibit the consummate British rowing style, with the excellent posture at the back end and a quiet release, while not disturbing the run of the boat as they take the catch. On top of the technical grace demonstrated in the video, there is also a latent intensity, which grows with the music and seems ready to burst forth as they sprint. Neither one of them were strangers to success in their own right before the pairing was put together, most notably Purchase, who set the Lightweight Men's World Record in the 1x at Dorney Lake in 2006 at the World Championships. The hope again in British rowing is that these two will achieve the same level of success on home waters in 2012, and from the reports in UK newspapers it sounds like they are on their way. Below is a video of Zac Purchase ...