Team GB rowing leader not concerned by delay
Windy old day! Copyright Intersport Images
Sir David Tanner, 91桃色鈥檚 Performance Director and Team Leader for Team GB rowing, has said he is not concerned despite the cancellation of racing at the Lagoa today.
Windy conditions made the course 鈥渦n-rowable鈥 and after, two delays of an hour apiece, racing was ultimately cancelled for the day.
Quizzed by journalists on site Sir David said:聽 鈥淚n two days time if we haven鈥檛 raced at all – and I think we will have done – then I will comment on that. But I鈥檓 not concerned at the minute. We鈥檝e lost one morning鈥檚 racing. That鈥檚 all.
鈥淚 will assume that over the next few days there will be enough time to slot the racing in. Today we should have had a four hour session and you could in theory do two of those in a day鈥.
Tanner went on to reveal that the Team GB sailing meteorologist has been extremely helpful in providing weather data to the rowing team.
He also underlined how experienced and robust the team is and that the rowers would prefer racing in good conditions.聽 He said:聽 鈥淲e will handle it fine. We are ready to race whenever we can race. What you don鈥檛 want to be doing is to race on bad water that鈥檚 either unfair or very unpleasant or unpredictable so that you can鈥檛 do your best鈥.
GB鈥檚 rowers will now get the best out of their nearby training venue which is equipped with ergometers and stretching areas and to see if they can train later today on the Lagoa if the wind drops.
鈥淚 expect the guys will also catch up on watching some of the great sport that鈥檚 happening elsewhere in Rio today and supporting their team-mates across Team GB鈥, he added.
Today鈥檚 conditions came because a significant wind of more than 7 m/second blew down and slightly across the course generating a chop.聽 This meant that during morning training the rowers fedback that boats were being lifted by the waves and could not steer. Some boats were landing on the buoy lines which was clearly not safe.
FISA took appropriate steps and postponed racing to see if the weather would settle.聽 As the morning progressed it was clear that it wouldn鈥檛 and all racing was cancelled.
A team managers鈥 meeting was scheduled to update the situation.
