Fil-Am rower narrowly misses finals

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am stroke Philip Henson almost made it to the finals of the men’s lightweight pairs with bow Phil Grisdela and settled for ninth place overall at the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Amsterdam last weekend.

Philippine Rowing Association president Benjie Ramos attended the competitions where Filipino Olympic Solidarity scholar Roque Abala Jr. finished 24th of 25 in the men’s lightweight single sculls.

Henson, 22, and Grisdela, 21, surprised experts by taking second place in their heat with a clocking of 6:43.45 to advance to the 12-team semifinals. It was the Dartmouth pair’s first appearance in an international joust. Germany topped the heat at 6:42.10.

In the two-bracket semifinals, the tandem caught a crab in the last 200 meters and the  brief falter allowed Hungary to sneak in to claim third place. Only the top three finishers of each bracket moved up to the finals. Henson and Griselda could’ve entered the finals if not for the bad break. In the consolations, they paddled to ninth overall, beating Argentina, Turkey and Denmark and ending 0.2 of a second behind South Africa. Their time was 6:43.13. England’s Kieren Emery and Peter Chambers captured the gold with a time of 6:26.90, just 3/16 of a second short of the world seniors record.

“They felt pretty good at what they’ve accomplished and they’re ready to compete at the senior world trials next week,” said the 6-3 Henson’s Filipino father Ramon, a La Salle Manila graduate now a full-time professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “There’s still a lot they have to work on since they’ve been rowing together only a couple of months. Some of the pairs, including the pair from England, have been rowing together for a few years.”

US men’s lightweight pairs coach Bob Gillette of the Riverside Rowing Club of Boston said “it was a great introduction to international racing for the Phils (Henson and Grisdela).” Gillette noted that in the consolations, the tandem got off to a slow start, running fourth at the 250 meter mark then moved up third at 500. “Germany, with whom we had a really close race in the heats, just took off right from the start like we did in the semifinals,” he continued. “So we found ourselves chasing them and South Africa. We closed in on South Africa steadily through the third 500 and were within a deck with 500 to go. We put on a major push past the grandstand, closing with each stroke. The last three strokes were dead even with the two bows alternately poking out in front. Unfortunately, we hit the line with the South Africa bow in front. The guys hit the wall hard in the last 500 so I think maybe their memory was still too fresh in their minds and they were a little bit restrained at the start.”

Gillette referred to the team’s strong start and the late sputter in the semifinals homestretch. Henson and Grisdela were within a whiff of joining England and Italy in the top three for the finals but failed to hold on to third place, yielding the spot to Hungary. The top six were England, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Italy, France and Hungary.

US national team coach Dan Roock said, “These guys are not quite Olympic caliber yet but the World Under-23 Championships are very high calibre, very serious stuff.”

The World Under-23 Championships drew a record 63 countries and over 600 athletes to compete in 21 events. The event, formerly known as the Nations Cup, was inaugurated in 1976 and serves as the stepping stone for elite athletes. The US sent 21 crews, including the Henson-Grisdela pair, and brought home two golds and two bronzes.

To make it to the World Championships, Henson and Grisdela had to top the US qualifiers on Mercer Lake in New Jersey early this month. They clocked 6:41.53 to beat the University of Wisconsin tandem from the US Rowing Development Camp. The rowers were teammates on the Darthmouth varsity eights that took third place at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships behind Yale and Harvard on the Cooper River in Camden last March.

  Abala was in Amsterdam with coach Ed Maerina. In the heats, Abala was dead last with a clocking of 8:13.09. But he bounced back in the quarterfinals, timing 7:33.14 to beat Korea, Switzerland, Armenia, Iraq and Ireland. Then, Abala was a conspicuous no-show in the semifinals, backing out with a bum stomach. He returned to action in the consolations, timing in at 7:24.33 to finish ahead of Iraq, Armenia, Morocco, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. Because he failed to compete in the semifinals, Abala dropped to 24th spot despite clocking faster than several others in his final row. France’s Jeremie Azou bagged the gold with a time of 6:46.93, a new world record in the under-23 class.