Προβλήματα στο Καναδικό WL2X

World rowing champ may have to take back seat

Lindsay Jennerich, left, and Tracy Cameron, right, compete during the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls at the rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, July 10, 2011.

URS FLUEELER/AP

By Randy Starkman Olympic Sports Reporter

LONDON, ONT.—Reigning world champions Tracy Cameron and Lindsay Jennerich recently found the sweet spot that eludes some rowers for their whole careers.
Canada’s top rowing hopes one year out from the 2012 London Olympics, they began to tap into what scullers call “easy speed,” an ability to make the boat go faster more by mastery and finesse than muscle and force. They discovered it after winning the prestigious Lucerne regatta last month and ahead of the worlds in Slovenia at the end of August.
“It’s a feeling, I just want to box it up and pass it around,” said Jennerich, of Victoria. “I just want to give it to everybody I row with . . . I just want to be able to say ‘This is what I feel, I want you to be able to feel this.’ It’s like unity you can’t really describe.”
Added Cameron: “We were flying. It felt so good.”
Unfortunately, that feeling was soon replaced by another one — pain in Cameron’s ribs.
Cameron, a bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, learned this week that she suffered a slight rib fracture and won’t be able to get back into their lightweight double until next week when the team travels over to Europe.
The 36-year-old from Shubenacadie, N.S., is optimistic she can still compete at worlds, but won’t try unless she’s 100 per cent. The top eight at the worlds qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.
“I’m looking at this very businesslike,” said Cameron. “The job for Canada this year is to qualify the boat for the Olympics. So if I can’t be at my best, if I’m going to be limping down the course so to speak, I’m not doing my job and someone can be more effective in my position. I want Canada to qualify as much as anyone else.”
Enter 19-year-old super sub Patricia Obee of Victoria, winner of a bronze this year in the lightweight single at the Under-23 world championships. She’s trained a lot with Jennerich, who has full confidence she is more than up to the task.
“She’s what I consider the best absolute backup,” said Jennerich. “I think we can get on the podium. With the right race, I think we can win. It’s just that rowing with Tracy, you know what’s going to come. It’s predictable. You know it’s going to be her best race.”
Cameron has been working out on the stationary bicycle to maintain her fitness while getting physiotherapy and using a portable ultrasound machine at home. Rib injuries are common on the national rowing team, where the athletes usually work out three times a day.
“Everyone looks at us athletes as being the healthiest in the world and yet we’re constantly walking on that fine line of injury or poor health because we’ve pushed it to the limit,” she said. “We’re taking our bodies to the absolute maximum limit.”