After a morning training on the Marina Bay Reservoir rowing course, the Australian pairs look to be in sizzling form leading into tomorrow’s competition at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

Fresh from the Junior World Championships, Emma Basher, Olympia Aldersey, David Watts and Matthew Cochran each have a junior worlds bronze medal in the bag and their eyes are set on gold.

“Most of the countries we’re racing against are the same as at the world champs,” Basher said. “So, we know who we’re up against, but we don’t know how they race over 1000 metres.”

Rowing is one of a few sports at the Youth Olympics which has a varied format with athletes not racing over the normal 2000 metre distance.

“It’s so different,” Basher said. “No one can predict what is going to happen.”

Helping close the gap on the unknown is rowing coach Tom Morris. Using specialised rowing GPS devices on the boats during training, Morris will receive data on everything from time and distance to which rower was pulling harder during the race.

“With races won or lost by a matter of seconds, this valuable data could be the difference between standing on the dais with a medal or not,” Morris said.

In another first for a rowing meet of this calibre, all competitors will row in identical boats provided by the Organising Committee.

“They’re not what we would normally race in but everyone is in the same type of boat so they’re won’t be any advantages,” Morris said.

“It’ll be an even playing field which we’ve probably never had before so it will be an interesting race. It will all come down to talent.”

Both crews go into competition with a firm idea of the pairs they want to beat.

“New Zealand!” Basher said when asked of her biggest rival. “Definitely the Kiwis! They won the gold at the World Championships and we won bronze so they are definitely who we want to beat.”

Friends once racing finishes, the New Zealand crew had game faces on when they walked past Aldersey and Basher preparing their boat for training.

“We won’t look at them,” Basher said with a laugh. “Not until we’ve finished racing.”

In the men’s, the Aussies biggest rivals come in the form of Greek pair Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis. The duo recently won gold in the men’s pair at the Junior World Championships and they are the ones to beat for Youth Olympic glory.

Neither Aussie pair have drawn their biggest rivals in the heats so they will go into tomorrow’s race calm and collected.

“We’ll race hard but not at 100 per cent tomorrow,” Watts said. “We want to avoid repechage so we can have a rest day and prepare for semis.”

The top three boats will go direct to the semi-finals taking place on Tuesday 17 August, whilst the remaining crews will have to complete a repechage round on Monday vying for another shot at a Youth Olympic final.

Alice Wheeler
AOC