George Washington University Athletics
Colonial Presence at World Rowing Championships
8/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Crew
Aug. 28, 2001
Three former and current representatives of the GW Rowing program were part of the 92-person U.S. Team that travelled to Lucerne, Switzerland, this past week to race at the World Rowing Championships.
Jen Edwards ('97) raced in the Women's Lightweight Quadruple Sculls coached by current GW head coach Steve Peterson and Aquil Abdullah ('95) raced in the Men's Heavyweight Quadruple Sculls.
When the racing was completed, Edwards and her teammates had walked away with a silver medal in their event. The silver medal is the best finish ever for a GW rower at the world Championships. The only crew to top the U.S. was the crew from Australia. The weather was hot for racing as temperatures soared into the 90's for much of the week.
Final results:
Lightweight Women's Quadruple Sculls
Australia 6:29.6
USA 6:32.6
Netherlands 6:33.7
Italy 6:34.9
Spain 6:37.5
Greece 6:37.7
The times for the U.S. and Australia crews beat the existing world record time. Edwards was a member of GW varsity women's rowing from 1995-97. She became the Colonials' novice women's coach in 1998.
"I thought Jen and the rest of the crew did a great job," said Peterson. "The 6:32 was the fastest time they have ever gone, and makes them the second fastest crew ever for this event. I thinked they really did a great job on focusing in on what they had to do, and executed their race plan exactly. We knew that the Italians and Australians were fast off the line, and we had to stay with them. The Greeks were notorious for their second half push and we responded well to that. The only thing we couldn't do was to go stroke for stroke with the Australians. They are a very well-drilled team, who have been rowing together for almost four years now. Jen and her teammates were selected through our lightwight camp in June and have only been together for about six weeks. I don't think we could have gone any faster on this day."
"Aquil and his crewmates finished a very respectable fifth place in the grand final of the heavyweight men's quad event. The U.S. is not known for fast men's quads, so they went into the Championship as a darkhorse. You could see them getting faster and faster with each row. In the finals, the U.S. grabbed the lead early, but was soon overtaken by the heavily favored crew from Germany. In the end, Aquil and his crew finished fifth."
Men's Heavyweight Quadruple Sculls
1 - Germany 5:40.8
2 - Netherland 5:42.6
3 - Italy 5:42.8
4 - Ukrane 5:44.9
5 - USA 5:46.0
6 - Poland 5:51.2
This was the best finish for the U.S. in this event since 1996.
