Godschalk's crew advances to gold medal race
In Godschalk's semifinal, he was once again rowing in the three seat with Gerard van der Linden, Ivo Snijders and Paul Drewes. The Australia four got out to a fast start and led at the 500-meter mark with Canada and China trailing. Canada had pulled ahead by 1000 meters with Australia second, China third and the Netherlands four was back in fifth. Canada was still leading the race at 1500 meters with Poland now second. The Netherlands four was still fifth but the race was much tighter at that point. The Australia and China crews faded over the final 500 meters, Poland took the lead, Canada held on to second and the Netherlands came back to claim the third spot. Poland won in 6:06.60, Canada was second at 6:07.86 and the Netherlands took the third and final qualifying spot in 6:08.73.
The race can be viewed on this nbcolympics.com video. The men's lightweight four begins at about 2:07.45 on the video.
Godschalk was quoted in a Row2k.com article after Friday morning's race: "There was not much thinking at the end of that race, just concentrating on giving it all we had. It wasn't a big deal to have to postpone our race until today, we just had to switch off mentally yesterday and on again today. The cheering from the crowd was awesome. It made me think of my family. I'm doing this for them and everyone I know. It's sad that the Germans couldn't compete... they are good, but we always believed we could qualify. At the start I said 'Guys, we rowed well in the warm-up, we are good, we can do it'."
The lightweight four semifinal was scheduled for Thursday morning but the race was postponed until Friday due to weather. In the other semifinal, Denmark, France and Great Britain claimed the three qualifying spots.
Walsh and the United States eight qualified for the A-final on Tuesday when the crew won its repechage race.
Zara Northover, who competed for the Northeastern women's track & field team from 2002-07 will be competing in the women's shot put for Jamaica on Saturday. Both the qualifying round and finals take place on Saturday.
Aug. 15, 2008
Boston, MANortheastern will have two rowers going for gold Olympics this weekend as Marshall Godschalk's Netherlands lightweight four placed third in its semifinal on Friday morning to qualify for the A-final on Sunday in China. That same morning, former Husky Dan Walsh will be rowing in the A-final of the heavyweight eight for the United States.
