Finals are set

All of the Canadian Men's Eight was down at the course today to have a look at the repachage and see who would make it into the Olympic final. Only the top four would qualify so it set up for a barn-burner of a race.

Here us the play-by-play from the rep

The USA got out to a lead and seemed to be moving away from the field as they went through the 500m mark then the Australians decided that they would follow them and kept right on the heels of the US. This trend continued to the 1500m mark then the Aussie's moved through the US and I thought they would take it home for the win but the US answered them and again pushed their bow out into the front and won the race. In behind all of this Poland was set in third with the Dutch and Chinese fighting it out for the final spot. The Chinese gave up too much in the early going to overcome the deficit they had found themselves in and came up about 1 seat shy of making the final. That was a huge blow to Chinese Rowing after having had such a good World Cup season. Just goes to show you though.....don't rest on your laurels and don't wait for things to happen for you.....make them happen, because if you don't someone else will control your fate....and that's never pretty.
The Germans never stood a chance. They changed their entire crew after Lucerne leaving all eight of those guys at home and bringing in fresh young blood for the Olympics...they even sacked the coach! It obviously didn't pay off for them...but maybe it will in the future.

So now the Olympic final is set and here are the boats that will be at the start line.

Poland, USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Netherlands

Not sure of the lane assignments just yet, but we will definitely be in the middle lanes with Great Britain. The lanes are seeded from the middle out. In the event of a crosswind, the top crews would get the advantage of rowing nearest to the shore so as to avoid the wind.

Thats about it for now....I will put up another post in a few days.

Hope you are all enjoying the Olympics as much as I am!!!