THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR to turn our crews around and send them back to the boathouse. “Time has clouded my memory of the contest other than its outcome. The LWRC took Navy to the cleaners. “Now the fat was in the fire. I knew that Meyers would not keep a lid on it, that Captain Coward would be looking askance at Lou and that Tip would start throwing his weight around. All this came true.”4084 Georg Meyers, The Seattle Times: “The Seattle oarsmen spurted to an early lead. They had a half-length margin after 1,000 meters, then stood off a desperate Navy finish and won by a deck length.”4085 Lindsey: “The race was not close. In retrospect, what I should have done was tell the guys to race like hell for 1,000 meters and then let it go.”4086 Nash: “I do recall that Tip Goes wanted a big power show of American rowers on the water all at once. “We really didn’t want to beat the Navy guys, but there was another eight full of the coxed-four and the LWRC spares, and they were out to prove themselves. “Once we were in the race, I certainly wanted to win big, and I was focused on the LWRC ‘jayvee’ after 500 meters. They had taken off from us and Navy at the start, and they kept going until the 4084 S. Pocock, pp. 172-5 4085 Georg N. Meyers, Clubmen Spring Pre- Olympic Upset, The Seattle Times, September 26, 1960 4086 Lindsey, op. cit. Author / Lyman Perry 1960 U.S. Stroke Oar coaches finally had to tell them to shut down at the 1,000. “As for us, we normally row our races at 38. We rowed this one at 33 and never took it up at the end, but even so, the margin was a lot! “Our hearts were just not into beating Navy just a few days before their first heat. We wanted them to succeed!”4087 Perry: “Losing to Lake Washington in that time trial was a major blow to our confidence. Ted was right! Findlay, Ayrault, Nash, Wailes, etc.4088 Those guys from Lake Washington were awesome, and we should not have been racing them! I’ll bet they could have even beaten National Camp guys of today! “However, it might have helped the entire squad to have practiced and worked out more together because we were hardly aware of them as part of the team.”4089 The Olympic Preliminaries On the day of the heats, there was a tailwind blowing on Lago di Albano, and only the winners were scheduled to advance straight to the final. Heat 1 was won by a Czechoslovak crew containing future international coach Bohumil (Bob) Janoušek,4090 and they had an easy time beating Australia, United Arab 4087 Nash, personal conversation, 2006 4088 See Chapter 83. 4089 Perry, personal correspondence, 2006 4090 See Chapter 117. 1131
