Athens 2004 - "Spalding's boat last in first heat"

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Article courtesy The Maui News
Monday, August 23, 2004 — Time: 11:13:53 PM EST

ATHENS, Greece - Lauren Spalding's Olympics didn't start the way she hoped, but with little at stake, she's not too upset.
Spalding's team in the four-woman 500-meter flatwater kayak race finished last during the first of two five-boat heats today in Athens, but still earned a berth in Wednesday's semifinal round.

''I called this kind of a jitterbug race,'' said Spalding, a 24-year-old Kula resident. ''It was to get all the jitters out. The pressure was off in this race because we knew we were getting into the semifinals no matter what.''

In addition to Spalding, the U.S. team included Kathy Colin of Kailua, Oahu, Carrie Johnson of San Diego and Marie Mijalis of Miami. The top three boats in each heat immediately advanced to the final, while the bottom two in each race will be in the semifinal.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday in Athens (10 p.m. HST today), Spalding and Colin will compete in the K2 preliminaries.

In the first heat of the K4 race, the German team of Birgit Fischer, Maike Nollen, Katrin Wagner and Carolin Leonhardt won with a time of 1 minute, 31.606 seconds. The U.S. team, competing in lane 7 - the furthest outside lane used in the heat - had a time of 1:36.994. Hungary (1:32.298) and China (1:34.206) advanced to the final. Australia (1:35.078) was fourth.

''I thought we had a pretty good start,'' Spalding said. ''We had such a strong tailwind.''

Germany is the defending K4 gold medalist, and Hungary won silver at the 2000 Sydney Games.

''Having such a stacked heat, in this race, didn't matter so much,'' Colin said. ''When I saw the heats, I couldn't help but laugh. The Germans and the Hungarians, I'm guessing it's between them for the gold. It was exciting, though, to line up next to the Germans. The first couple of strokes, it looked like we were right with them.''

Erzsebet Viski, part of the Hunagarian team, was not elated with the second-place finish.

''Our start was not good and we have to do something about this,'' she was quoted as saying on athens2004.com, the games' Web site. ''The wind did not help us. I hope that things will be better on the day of the final.''

In the second heat, Poland (1:31.949) won and qualified for the final, along with the Ukraine (1:33.057) and Spain (1:34.525). Japan (1:36.873) and Canada (1:36.877) are in the semifinal.

In the semifinals, lanes 3-6 will be used, and the Americans will be in lane 6. Only the last-place boat in the semifinal will fail to reach the final. The semifinal is scheduled for 9:10 a.m. in Athens (8:10 p.m. HST Tuesday).

Spalding said all of the teams had to deal with millfoil, a type of underwater weed that she says is prevalent at the Schinias Rowing and Canoeing Center.

''With this course, it loves to wrap itself around rudders,'' she said. ''We had a pretty good handful around our rudder. They've had divers here all week trying to get it out, but there's still quite a bit.''

In the K2 race, Spalding and Colin will be in lane 3 in the first heat, which has eight boats.

In the K2 race, as in the K4 competition, the top three boats in each heat will advance directly to the final. All of the other boats will be in the semifinals.

''It's another situation where everyone goes, so there's not a lot of pressure,'' Spalding said.

The K2 semifinal is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. Thursday in Athens. The K4 final will take place at 9:20 a.m. Friday, and the K2 final will be at 10:25 a.m. Saturday.

Posted by keizo on Mon, 08/23/2004 - 8:40pm