Rowing: Gold for Women's Eight
The U.S. women's eight won the Olympic gold medal in competition this afternoon at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park. They led from wire to wire, using a strong second 500m to build a 1.78 second lead at the halfway mark. Their final time of 6:05.34 was 1.88 seconds faster than the Netherlands, which had the fastest final 500m to surge from fourth place to claim the silver medal with a 6:07.22, edging out Romania by 0.03 seconds.
The U.S. boat was crewed by Erin Cafaro, Lindsay Shoop (Charlottesville, Va.), Anna Goodale, Elle Logan, Anne Cummins, Susan Francia, Caroline Lind, Caryn Davies and Mary Whipple.
The U.S. men's eight stormed back from last place to win the bronze medal. In sixth place at the 500m buoy, the Americans dug deep and used the second-fastest time over the second 500m to move into fourth place. From there they found yet another gear, cranking out the two fastest 500m splits over the final half of the course (1:21.38 and 1:20.21) to hit the line with a 5:25.34, 1.45 seconds behind the gold medal time of 5:23.89 from Canada. Britain took the silver in a time of 5:25.11.
The American boat was crewed by Beau Hoopman, Matt Schnobrich, Michah Boyd, Wyatt Allen, Daniel Walsh, Steven Coppola, Josh Inman, Bryan Volpenhein and Marcus McElhenney (Philadelphia, Pa.).
The United States placed fifth in both the men's and women's quad sculls.
The men's boat of Matt Hughes, Sam Stitt (McLean), Jamie Schroeder (Potomac Boat Club) and Scott Gault crossed in a time of 5:47.64, 6.31 seconds off the pace of Poland, which took the gold with a 5:41.33. Italy earned the silver with a 5:43.57, while the bronze medal was won by France in 5:44.34.
In the women's race, the U.S. boat crewed by Lia Pernell, Lindsay Meyer, Jen Kaido and Margot Shumway crossed the line in 6:25.86, 9.80 seconds behind the gold-medal boat of China (6:16.06). The silver medal went to Great Britain (6:17.37) and the bronze medal was won by Germany (6:19.56).
By
Tracee Hamilton
|
August 17, 2008; 6:14 AM ET
| Category:
Rowing
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Posted by: john p.evans | August 17, 2008 8:01 PM
Margot Shumway is a DC area resident also and rows out of Potomac Boat Club as well.
This year was the first time that the US rowing team had both men's and women's quad sculls and 8-oars shells in the finals. This year was a strong showing for our team.
Posted by: dsc546 | August 18, 2008 12:30 PM
As long as we are mentioning local rowing personalities: Matt Madigan and Cameron Kigegolous (sp) are both locals who are coaching the US rowing team. They both coach locally for Potomac Boat Club. Madigan is a former US National Team member. Charlie Butt, III is the coach for US single sculler Michelle Guerette, and is the son of local rowing legend Charlie Butt, Jr. He is a McLean native.
Posted by: Jorge Gortex | August 18, 2008 2:12 PM
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With regard to your all-time top performers piece, one can understand a certain jingoism, even myopia. But myopic jingoism is not acceptable. How on earth could you leave Lance Armstrong out of your all-time, best performing athletes?
Thank you, John Evans, Bethesda