Green Racing Project Athletes Race at 2019 World Rowing Championships

GRP Rower Kevin Meador at the 2019 World Rowing Championships

Last weekend saw the finals for the 2019 World Rowing Championships with one current Green Racing Project athlete racing as for the United States Senior National team as well as three former GRP athletes. Kevin Meador raced in the Men's Single Sculls as the current GRP representative at Worlds. John Graves raced in the Men's Quadruple Sculls, Erik Frid raced in the Men's Double Sculls and Andrew Reed raced in the Men's Straight Four. As some background for our non-rowing fluent audience, the year before the Olympics is always an extremely important year because Olympic qualification is on the line. No country is guaranteed entries at the Olympics so each boat class must be qualified by hitting a specific standard depending on the event. For example, the top eleven double sculls qualify their country for the Olympics for the following year but only the top five 8+ finishers qualify, and all the rest of the boats fall somewhere in between those numbers for total entries. The World Championships select most of the countries who will race at the Olympics the following year but there are several other qualification regattas leading up to the main event as well. For the United States, the only other qualification regatta, colloquially called "The Last Chance Regatta" will be held next May in Lucerne, Switzerland where two more boats for each boat class will be selected.

Racing started August 25th with a deep field of 44 entries in the Men's Single Sculls. Meador raced his Heat for the first 1500m before cruising to the finish in fifth place, conserving energy for his repechage the following day. Meador won his rep by five seconds, sending him to the A through D quarterfinal. In his Quarterfinal, Meador raced down the course alongside 2018 Worlds M1x Gold Medalist Kjetil Borch, World's Best Time holder Robbie Manson, and 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist Damir Martin. Meador placed fifth in his quarterfinal, 13 seconds off of Borch, sending him to the C/D Semifinal. On Sunday, Meador placed third in the D Final, placing him 21st overall out of the field of 44.

In the Men's 4x, former GRP athlete John Graves placed 13th as part of the Men's Quadruple Sculls from the Schuylkill Navy. Erik Frid placed 20th in the Men's 2x with teammate Justin Keen. Andrew Reed placed fifth in the Men's Four, the only other men's boat to qualify for the US besides the 8+. This means that the winners of Olympic trials next year will be heading to the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Switzerland.

For full race results, follow this link.