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Old Lyme’s Corrigan, Hack in US Men’s 8+ Boat Finish Second in Heat 1, Now Onto Repechage, Tuesday; Link to Video of Race Added

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Aerial view of Heat 1 for the USA Men’s Eight. This was at an early stage in the race when the US was leading.

OLD LYME — The US Men’s Eight came in second to Germany in Friday night’s Heat 1 rowed at noon Tokyo time, 11 p.m EST. The results were:

  1. Germany: 5:28:95
  2. USA: 5:30:57
  3. Romania: 5:39:84
  4. Australia: 5:43:66

In case you missed the race live or would like to re-watch it, here is a link to a video of Heat 1 , (apologies that you have to watch the trailer first!)

The results in Heat 2 were:

  1. Netherlands: 5:30:66
  2. New Zealand: 5:32.11
  3. Great Britain: 5:34.40
Old Lyme’s Austin Hack smiles at the end of the heat.

Germany and the Netherlands automatically qualify for the final while the remaining boats must now participate in the repechage.

Liam Corrigan was in the stroke position in the stern of the Team USA Men’s Eight boat for tonight’s heat.

Paul Fuchs of Old Lyme, who is the Old Lyme Rowing Association’s Director of Rowing, explained how the repechage works, saying that a country must first qualify even to get into the Olympics. Then, he continued, “In the eights, they only have seven spots available and the United States qualified for one of those spots.”

Fuchs continued, “Those seven boats race in two Heats, one of three boats and one of four boats. Only one boat goes directly to the final from each of the Heats.” In the case of these Olympics, those boats are the winning boats of each Heat, Germany and The Netherlands.

The remaining five boats then go to a repechage, which, in Fuchs’s words, “… is essentially a second chance. That is a five-boat race and … four of those boats [will] go into the six-boat final.”

He concludes, “The US will row in that repechage trying be in the top four and [thus] get into the final.” The other two spots in the final have already been secured by Germany and The Netherlands. The US had a marginally faster time than The Netherlands in their respective heats, but the US did not win its heat.

The repechage will be held Wednesday, July 28, at 10:48 a.m. in Tokyo, which will be 9:48 p.m. EST on TUESDAY, July 27.

Editor’s Note: Fuchs holds the men’s lightweight course record for Head of the Charles, and competed on seven US World Championship teams. He has coached at the Olympic and World  championship levels and serves on the Executive Council of FISA, the international governing body for  the sport of rowing.