Firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent me their support whether it was by text, email or phone. In all the races I have competed in, the support has never even come close to that weekend. I love Molesey boat club with all my heart and that weekend I felt the strength of the best club in the world behind me. Thank you.
I have never been to the Pre-Olympic Qualification Regatta before, and having been, I never want to go back to one again! The feeling there was nothing like any race in the world. The pressure was indeed second to none and every nation that competed raised their game far beyond anything I thought possible.
The run up to our race, as some of you may have known, was far from smooth. We had been at the mercy of several serious injuries along the way and lost one of our guys, Alex Gregory, after Lucerne with a Stress fracture in his rib. It was only 10 days before Poznan when we managed more the 8km on the water due to Bill's recovery from his back injury.
Despite this and many political decisions along the way, our determination to qualify was unfaltering and even when we arrived in Poznan having only done 5x 250m pieces as serious race preparation we still believed that qualifying was more than possible.
Our first race due to this came as a very steep learning curve and we soon realised our start needed more attention. We went through the 1km marker trailing in the field. We pushed here and stepped on and started to chase the Canadians down very rapidly. At half way it was 2.5 seconds and by the finish it was right down to 0.4secs. This gave us huge confidence that the speed was most definitely there.
Coming second put us in the rep and we had to be in the top four to go into the final, which has two places up for qualification. We went out of the blocks with a much cleaner start and by 500m we had a commanding lead on all of the field but Slovenia. We were not fazed as we had already decided to simply come in the top two places and from the 1km we were down at 33-34 virtually paddling home but still putting the Slovenians under pressure.
The final consisted of Egypt, ourselves, Belarus, Canada, Slovenia and Argentina. We knew that by the end of the day we could be anywhere from 1st to 4th and only the very best row would do. Slovenia had come 4th at the Munich World Cup 4 weeks earlier and Canada made the final in Lucerne World Cup 2 weeks earlier. There was no question this would be the biggest race of our lives.
We got out of the blocks well and by 500m we were in third place about a length off Belarus and Slovenia, just leading the Canadians and the rest of field. We pushed at 750m to hold onto the two leaders and again at 1000m, which was the first climb for home. Things from here are not entirely clear for me but we moved on the two leaders stroke on stroke from here in and I did not for one second doubt myself, or the rest of the crew that we could still win. With 500m to go we had over lap and were moving fast.
Sadly we could not bring them back enough and the end result was 1.3 and 1.2 seconds behind qualification and we came in 3rd as the fastest non-qualifier. It has been the hardest defeat I have ever felt.
I am sorry that I cannot take Molesey’s name with me to Beijing and that it will be the second Olympics that I will miss but I am immensely proud of the crew of what we achieved, what with the result and given the situation and run up to the race. I am sure without the injuries or a better run into it we could be telling a different story, but so is life.
Thank you again for all your support and for everything that Molesey taught me in rowing. See you down the club or at Henley.
Simon.
