World Rowing Championships: Day One

It was Day One of the 2017 World Rowing Championships on Sunday, and it was a starting point for more than 900 athletes from 69 countries to compete for glory over the next week.

That means lots of fans will be in attendance as well, and Lakewood Ranch’s Craig Hirschberger is looking to capitalize on all the fresh faces.

Hirschberger is the sales manager of the Hidden Creek Luxury Townhomes at Lakewood Ranch development. He will be at the championships all week, he said, getting information out to everyone who walks past his tent.

“We are building 46 townhomes four miles north of here (Nathan Benderson Park),” Hirschberger said. “People are going to come here. They are obviously going to fall in love with Florida, and they are going to need a place to live.

“We think the people who could be moving here are the parents of the rowers, or parents of people the rowers’ ages, who are looking to downsize. Their kids are in their 20s or 30s and not living at home anymore. They are looking at their four bedroom home thinking, ‘You know, I want smaller, I want less maintenance, but I don’t want to go down in quality of life.’”

Hirschberger added that despite the focus on out-of-towners looking to come to the area, Florida locals are welcome to stop by the tent and check out the development as well.

He’s trying to watch as much rowing as possible, he said, to cheer on the United States, but he’s not sure how much time he will have to do so.

Unfortunately, that means Hirschberger missed the goings-on of the first day, which was all about heats. 

U.S. lightweight men's single scull (1x) representative Nicholas Trojan advanced to the event's quarterfinals with a third-place finish in his heat (7:08.620). Trojan's counterpart on the women's side, Mary Jones, advanced to the event's A/B semifinals with a second-place finish (7:42.490) in her heat. Trojan will next race on Wednesday, Jones on Thursday.

The U.S. lightweight women's double sculls (2x) team of Emily Schmeig and Michelle Sechser continued the party, finished second in their heat (7:05.590) and advancing to the A/B semifinals on Thursday. 

Former Sarasota Crew rower Ben Delaney and the U.S. men's four (4-) finished fifth (6:04.680) in their heat, and as a result will have to win a repechage race on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals. Don't let the finishing position fool you, though, the team rowed well. Delaney and Co.'s time would have won one of the event's two other heats, and would have tied them for second place in the other. 

U.S. men's single scull (1x) representative Michael Clougher had even worse luck. He finished third in his heat behind two of the world's best in the event, Great Britian's Thomas Barras and New Zealand's Robert Manson. Clougher's time would have won five of the seven other heats in the event. He'll have a chance to advance in the event's repechage on Monday.