Two Days to the A Final!

The last couple of days have been interesting. Right after our race in the Rep’s on Tuesday, as soon as we finished, Pete yelled out in pain. His trap muscle had gone into spasm to protect his neck which had been a bit sore. Needless to say we wanted to get off the water right away and get him to the doctor and physio.

I am happy to say that he has recovered pretty well and after not rowing on the water Wednesday, some good muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs, we were able to get out on the water today. That of course was after watching 3 of our crew’s row in their semi-finals.

So far the Australian team has done a bloody good job. Wednesday was probably the most disappointing day for some of our rowers. The men’s Eight was taking part in the Repechage and unfortunately did not qualify for the A Final. They are however in the B final. Not where they wanted to be but considering they have an average age of 21!, yes I said 21, they have done a bloody good job and if they stay together for the next 3 years…well look out world! It is sad because you never know what to say to anyone. Their goal was the A Final and they sadly didn’t reach it. What they have to do now is go out in the B Final and kick some butt. Prove that they should have been there. The other team going to a B Final is the light weight men’s 4. They have been plagued with injury and even as early as Varese had to replace one of the rowers with Tom Bertrand who had been on the under 23 team. So to get to where they did and how they finished yesterday was a huge achievement. But both boats are probably not feeling that way right now.

Thursday was a better day for the Aussie’s, with three boats qualifying for the A Finals. The Women’s double, the women’s pair and the men’s four. The double and pair both coming 2nd in their semi-finals and men absolutely blitzing the field in the four. It was really fantastic to be able to be in the stands and cheer for each of the crews.

On our down time we have (other than training) been able to have a little look around and I must say I think that my first impressions were way off! Poznan is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. Most of the people are very friendly especially if you try to say hello or thank you in Polish. These I must say are the only two words that I actually know and can remember. It is definitely one of the most difficult languages I have ever tried!

The only bad thing that has happened in the last couple of days is that I have been robbed of money from my wallet! There had been a number of thefts from the rowing course, so we decided that we would leave our valuables in our hotel rooms. I even hid my stuff in my suitcase under clothes! (No safes in the rooms!) If I hadn’t gone into my wallet to grab some money for a coffee I would never have known. They got away with 90 Polish dollars (I am not even going to try and type the word for the money!), 5 EURO and 20 Australian. They kindly left me 5 EURO and 40 Australian! So I had to report it to the reception and they in turn called the police.

Well I must say that was an interesting experience! Me telling a reception girl in English everything, her trying to translate to the Police officer who didn’t speak a word of English! We finally got through it and I am hoping that the insurance will cover the cost. It works out to only about $70 Australian but it is the principle of the whole thing! At least they didn’t take my passport, phone or credit cards!

I got to spend some time with Alex and her parents, Kingsley and Kim. We walked around the Poznan Town Square and I am told that it is absolutely beautiful at night. So hopefully when we are finished racing we can go out for dinner.

In the picture is Alex with her parents.

Tomorrow is the B Final of our event, but we won’t be going to watch. It is supposed to be 31 degrees here tomorrow and as most people know the heat affects me. We will head down for a small training row so that we can be well rested for Saturday!

In closing I just want to add to this blog an email that Alex got from a friend of hers. What was written in it was something that a cox had once said to their crew before a huge final. To me it made me believe that something special can happen on Saturday. We may be the underdogs going it, but hey so was Steven Bradbury in the ice speed skating, and look what happened to him. So I will leave you with this and please excuse the language as I am putting it in, in its entirety:

“Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. ....

You find out life's this game of inches, so is rowing. Because in either game - life or rowing- the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, women and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's rowing guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do? “