INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL to the final. The losers fight through repêchages to decide which 3 of the other countries will gain a final berth. In our heat there are Russia, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Greece. I feel we can win this and the final from what I’ve seen of our competition. “August 24, 1960. Time trial day today. Conditions in morning were very still for first 1,000 and an increasingly brisk tailwind for last 1,000. Our time was 7:35.5, which we all feel is good enough to beat these other crews here. “August 26, 1960. Time trial, no wind compared to Wednesday morning, time 7:36.5, which is moving very well for a pair- with. “Russian lads clocked us quite accurately at 7:37. They seemed quite impressed, and I feel we’ll be able to take them easily if we can get one length on them with 500 meters to go. “Was told today that the Italian papers pick Germany first, USA second and Russia third in the pair-with competition. Dick has calmed down since we’ve turned in two consecutive respectable times. “August 28, 1960. Tension is mounting. “August 29, 1960. The wind came up for the first time in 10 days and resulted in a headwind for the first 1,000 and a messy tailwind in the last 1,000. In the last 500 meters I called a wake off the starboard when I meant port; although I corrected myself almost immediately, Findlay became quite upset. “This dieting is hitting me from all angles. I even had trouble adding 17 and 22 to figure out what the clock would read when there was 1½ minutes to go in the time trial. Our time, despite all this, was a respectable 7:38.8, so I’m still not too worried about our chances. “This afternoon, Stan impressed upon us how very important it will be for us to race our own race and pick up what the other crews are doing when we reach the 1,000 meter mark and not before! “August 30, 1960. We went 1,000 meters just to see how the windy conditions would affect out total time for the first 1,000. We did 3:54.5, which was 4.5 seconds slower than it usually is. At least we found out that the tailwind conditions which create rough water do us harm, while we know they’ll help the European oars-off- the-water high stroking crews.”3410 The Heats Heats for the first group of events were held the afternoon of August 30, and Mitchell and the others watched with great interest. The Lake Washington Coxed- Four came a close second in their heat, but ten of the twenty-one boats in the entire field posted faster times than theirs. The Soviets, the fastest of all, were nearly eleven seconds quicker than the U.S. boat, almost five seconds faster in the first 500 alone! Then the LWRC Coxless-Pair came in second in its heat with the sixth fastest time of the eighteen-boat field. Again, the Soviets led the way with a time five seconds faster than the Americans. Finally, American single sculler Harry Parker3411 came in third in his heat with the fourth-best of the thirteen times recorded. The Soviet defending champion, Vyacheslav Ivanov,3412 won his heat by ten seconds in the second fastest time overall. He was nearly five seconds quicker than Parker. 3410 Mitchell Journal 3411 See Chapter 66. 3412 See Chapter 86. 941
