Preliminary Entry List for the Lucerne World Cup

I’m on the road again – for 10 days so far I’ve been living out of my duffel – 11 more days to go.  I thought this was the lightest I’ve packed… turns out I’ll still return home only using half my kit.  I’ve learned though that half a dirty kit packed with half a clean kit means the whole kit will need a wash when I get home.  Ironic!

The entries for Lucerne came out today.  So far there are 16 boats entered from 10 countries.  I assume the number will go up over the next couple of days.  Notably missing are 3 of the 11 qualified countries: USA, Serbia and Hungary.  There are still 2 Olympic spots that will be fought over at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta happening May 21 – 23 in Lucerne.  There are 12 countries vying for those two spots.

Last year at the World Championships the 11 countries to qualify were:

New Zealand, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Canada, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, United States, Serbia and Hungary.

I’ll keep the website as updated as I can over the next week and a half.

Dave

A Tribute to Randy Starkman

Randy was a friend.

It was hard to know how much to share with Randy because I felt like he was a friend first. I came to learn I could completely trust him. I can’t tell you how many times we just chatted for hours, face-to-face or over the phone, about everything and anything. So often he was simply a sympathetic ear that I could vent to, as opposed to a sports reporter looking for a dirty scoop.

Although we first connected around his passion for sport, including rowing, we really connected around our families. I think we shared more stories about our daughters over the last 8 years than we did about sport. When I called a colleague today at the COC she said it perfectly: “Although I’ve never met Randy’s daughter I feel like I’ve known her for years.” That’s exactly how I feel.  We often swapped children’s book titles – we knew each other would appreciate hearing about the victories, small and large, of our girls.

Randy often provided me insight into what to expect in the years and months to come as his daughter is a few years older than mine. No matter what the ‘heads up’ was that he provided, his daughter was as close to perfection as he could imagine.  You could hear his love for her in the words he chose when he shared stories – but more than that you could see it in the way his face lit up and in his body language.

I will miss Randy. I will miss not seeing him each time I’m in Toronto. I will miss not sharing my final ‘Olympic-experience’ with him this summer in London. I know that I speak for so many Canadian Olympic athletes when I say he was one-of-a-kind, trust-worthy and his character was of the highest integrity.

But most importantly, Randy was a friend.

My most sincere and heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with his wife and daughter.

Dave

(Read more Tributes to Randy at the Toronto Star’s website.)

Memorable Races from my Rowing Career: 1999 Vienna World Cup, M2-

In the summer of 1999 Morgan Crooks and I were named to the pair for Canada after narrowly winning the Canadian Speed Order Regatta.  Rowing Canada stated that the winner of Speed Orders would be permitted to choose which boat they raced, the 2- or the 8+.  We chose the 2-.

With his hands full preparing Derek Porter (M1X) and the M8+, Deithelm Maxrath (aka Max), the men’s coach at the time, brought Tony Carr on staff to prepare Morgan and myself domestically.  Tony had coached both Morgan and myself in high school and was keen and able to help prepare us for racing.  We only had 2 weeks to figure things out before we headed overseas to race, and Tony’s departing words to us were: “Never doubt yourselves and learn everything you can each step of the way.”

First stop: Vienna.

Morgan and I took heed of Tony’s advice.  We knew enough to keep our heads down – but it was hard knowing that the field was pretty deep.  Entries in the event included the 1996 Olympic Silver Medalists David Weightman and Robert Scott (AUS) and 1997 World Champions Jean-Christophe Rolland and Michel Andrieux (FRA) to name a few.

What else can a young crew do but get stuck in?  And that’s what we did.  We had a rough start to the regatta in the heat and had to race through the reps.  Max was pissed at us for not ceasing the opportunity better – but as the eternal optimist, he refocused us on the rep.  We justified having to race the rep as an opportunity to ‘learn more about ourselves’ as Tony had told us.  We won our rep, and I remember Volker Nolte cheering for us as we walked our boat from the dock to the boat area: “Keep it rolling, Big Boys!”  Max was all smiles too, but he knew we had a big job ahead of us to get through the semis.

The draw for the semifinals came out and we had an unlucky draw – that said, any draw would have felt unlucky for us at that point.  We had to race France, Croatia (World Cup 1 winners) and the USA – who had already beaten us in the heat.  We managed to get the lead off the line and hold it for the first 250 meters…then the field rowed through us!  It wasn’t until the 1000 meter mark that we start to work our way through the field again.  With 500 meters to go we were in third, with 250 we were in second and at the line we got through the Americans by 0.01 seconds – the closet race I’ve ever been in.  The overall finishing order, CAN, USA and Slovenia in third ahead of France and Croatia was a surprise to everyone.

Lining up in a middle lane for the final felt strange – it was a first for me.  We had the USA on one side and GBR on the other.  Slovenia, Greece and Australia were the other boats in the final.  Morgan and I got off the line fast again – leading to the 250.  Almost expecting it, the field rowed through us again.  From there to the 500 we dropped back to 5th, only staying in front of Greece.  We stayed in 5th through the 1000 meter mark.  I was in stroke seat and I remember Morgan saying: “If we’re going to make a move we have to go now!”

In the next 10 stokes we moved past the Slovenians.  We felt super charged – like nothing could stop us!  By 1250 we were in third ahead of the Australians.  Morgan’s calls kept coming and we kept pushing.  With 500 to go we slipped past the Brits and were head-to-head with the USA.  It felt like we were tumbling towards the finish line – a bit like running down hill.

We kept pushing though.  Our last 500 meters were simple: 15/15, 10/10/10, each step trying to go harder!  With 250 left we were moving faster than the Americans and I knew we were going to win.  At the finish line we had beaten Adam Holland and Cyrus Beasley (USA) by just over a second with Stephen Williams and Simon Dennis (GBR) another 0.7 seconds behind them.

That was the first time I had won a Senior World Cup race – and it felt good.  I remember sitting at a street-side cafe later that afternoon with Derek Porter, Marnie McBean, Emma Robinson & Theresa Luke (W2- winners) and Morgan.  Marnie jokingly welcomed us into ‘the winner’s circle’.  At 21 I felt like I had entered a new phase of my rowing career – for the first time I felt I was in control of my destiny.

If you had asked me then if I’d still be chasing after my dream 13 years later I would have laughed!

Dave

16 Weeks & 2 Days

Time marches on.

I remember when we hit the 1-year count-down to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.  Those games came and went so quickly. That pride Canadians felt now a memory, a sweet taste in our mouths.  It seems like just the other day we hit the 1-year countdown to the 2012 London Olympic Games.  Where have the past 36 weeks gone?

We live workout to workout.  Yes, we have 4-year goals, and we follow strategic plans that carry us year-to-year, month-to-month, but week-in and week-out and day-to-day we have our heads down.  We get into a mindset that allows us to only focus on the work right in front of our noses.  Sometimes I feel like I’m just hanging on – sometimes I feel like a machine that can roll over any obstacle.  That feeling changes depending on what day of the week you talk to me, even what time of the day it is.

I’ve just finished a two hour session that buried me.  It took everything I had to eat after my session, but I did so that I could be ready for the next one.  Now I have a few hours.  I’m going to close my eyes, let my body sink deep into the mattress and when I wake up I’ll be that much closer to being ready for my next session.

At the end of today there will only be 113 days left before the heat in London.

Dave

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