Have a look at the last Versa Challenge race at day 2 of the 2024 World Rowing Indoor Championships presented by Concept2.
There was little to split the athletes at the start of the women's Chase race before Elizabeth Gilmore began to pull away from Charlotte Dixon. Dixon in turn was holding steady ahead of Morgan McGrath, who maintained her third place. Anna Muehle was on the chase and had caught Jessica Eddie after little more than two minutes, but Eddie was not letting Muehle escape.
As the athletes approached halfway McGrath was beginning to catch Dixon, but Gilmore's victory looked assured. With 500m to go, Eddie had regained fourth place and was putting the pressure on Dixon and McGrath - there were only metres separating the three, with Muehle not out of the picture either in the race for the medals.
In the final sprint, Dixon pulled away, and Eddie moved into third place. Dixon beat Eddie by 0.4 seconds, putting both British women on the podium - and a superb showing from wild card Eddie. McGrath is fourth.
There was little to split the athletes at the start of the women's Chase race before Elizabeth Gilmore began to pull away from Charlotte Dixon. Dixon in turn was holding steady ahead of Morgan McGrath, who maintained her third place. Anna Muehle was on the chase and had caught Jessica Eddie after little more than two minutes, but Eddie was not letting Muehle escape.
As the athletes approached halfway McGrath was beginning to catch Dixon, but Gilmore's victory looked assured. With 500m to go, Eddie had regained fourth place and was putting the pressure on Dixon and McGrath - there were only metres separating the three, with Muehle not out of the picture either in the race for the medals.
In the final sprint, Dixon pulled away, and Eddie moved into third place. Dixon beat Eddie by 0.4 seconds, putting both British women on the podium - and a superb showing from wild card Eddie. McGrath is fourth.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Isn't that an incredible shot? Everyone completely motionless, all of the indoor rowers lined
00:05 up and the gun about to go off. You can see it in anticipation. All of these women are
00:11 really starting off strong here. Charlotte Dixon closing down on the lead. She really
00:17 came off the gun very strong here. Once again, it's 10 meters separating all of these competitors.
00:24 No one is tied currently, so we'll just be looking at that 10 digit, the 10, 20, 30,
00:30 40 to see if they're moving up or moving down from their initial deficit or bonus here in
00:37 this race. But 250 meters in and they're all looking quite strong. Yeah, all of them maintaining
00:43 those gaps mostly, you know, only a meter or so in it between each of their starting
00:48 positions. One thing I will say, no mind games in this one, Natasha, right? Like this is
00:53 an all or nothing. You either get to it, the post or not. So maybe it's a bit of a relief
00:59 for these guys having that sort of, you know, stress of thinking, do I have to go faster,
01:04 slower, conserve energy? This is just executing a race plan with no other prerogative other
01:10 than being atop the leaderboard, if not on the podium. Exactly. They're just thinking
01:16 all I have. That's what they're doing here. Taryn Sharp, actually, with a very strong
01:23 performance, she's gaining on her initial deficit. So really good job from her. And
01:28 we saw Lina Belanger move up a place. So she's also very, very strong here. This is Ella
01:35 Fox, who just got passed by Lina Belanger, but she's still very much in this thing, nice
01:40 and consistent, almost same pace as Elizabeth Gilmore here. A one forty seven one forty
01:46 eight. Very solid, a really low stroke rate. I would see from her a twenty eight twenty
01:53 nine. Do we expect her to keep this throughout the rest of the race? Do you think? Yeah,
01:58 I think if she's at this straight right now at thirteen hundred meters to go, I think
02:04 that we'll see that until at least six hundred to go. So for the next block of a few minutes,
02:09 Elizabeth Gilmore has found a rhythm and so has Charlotte Dixon. Now, Dixon has let the
02:13 gap grow a little bit. She's allowing the American to sort of run away with this a little
02:19 bit. And she's the only person I think within reach of taking that title. But Gilmore with
02:26 so much confidence and it's a bit like any race, right? Rowing is one of those races
02:31 where you can look back at your competition when you're out on the water and it gives
02:35 you that sense of confidence that you can hold them at bay almost. You know, you're
02:40 not the one on the back foot chasing down. And so that will be an additional advantage
02:45 for all that hard work Gilmore's put in through the previous four challenges. Blimey, look
02:49 at this. This is some speed here. This is a huge push going on. And look at this exchange
02:56 between Anna Muller and Jessica Eddy as well in the centre of the board. They're matched
03:01 a piece 42 metres back from our race leader Gilmore. Anna Muller is going up. She knows
03:07 she got second last year and she knows she only has less than 20 metres between her and
03:13 second place this year. So, you know, she's a competitor and she's gunning for it. But
03:17 Morgan McGrath might hold her off. She's looking very strong here as well. Still 30 metres
03:23 back from the leader, Elizabeth Gilmore, but not letting Anna Muller gain any more ground.
03:31 She can see her start to creep up on her screen. But look at that face of determination. I'm
03:37 not counting Anna Muller out of this podium position. I think she has a lot of strength
03:42 and I think we'll see it during the latter bit of this race. Sarah Pidgeon looking long
03:46 and strong, really jumping off that catch thing nice and consistent. She's under that
03:51 1.55 split. She's looking to go under 7.40 in this race. So very solid rowing, pacing
03:59 with Taryn Sharp, who's next to her as well. And we see Heather Petrasco, who is under
04:06 that two minute pace, around a 1.56, hoping to bring that down probably to a 1.55-ish
04:12 by the end of this race. Remember, she is doing the full 2,000 metres here as we head
04:18 to the last about 700 metres of this race and of our day. Well, one of the races I'm
04:24 keeping my eye on here is between Charlotte Dixon and Morgan McGrath for that silver medal.
04:30 McGrath's been silently creeping, gaining metre by metre, and she's currently the faster
04:35 person on the race floor, 16.5 kilometres per hour to Dixon's 16.3. And we could see
04:42 that close in these next couple of hundred metres. And like we were saying in some of
04:47 the other races today, Natasha, anything less than sort of 20 metres, and that's sprinting
04:52 distance, right? So I think that might push Dixon on and it might close that lead up to
04:57 Gilmore. But we're running out of room here now, 500 metres to go. McGrath now within
05:02 four metres of Dixon. This is coming right down to the wire for that silver medal. And
05:07 Jess Eddy also still in contention here. She's only six or seven metres off Morgan McGrath.
05:13 We're in for a fight for the podium. What a tussle. She's really clawed back, hasn't
05:18 she? Her sprint is showing her stamina and endurance in a whole new way. She's only five
05:24 metres back. If she continues this sprint in this high speed, we might see her in podium
05:29 contention. It's really anyone's game right now. Looking down, we see Ella Fox and Marcia
05:34 Caniglio as well. They're within about five metres of each other. So it's going to come
05:39 down to the ending sprint for them as well. We're hoping that the crowd is just cheering
05:44 them on here. This is some of the toughest part of the race, this last 500 metres. They
05:49 have two minutes to go. They can do it. We see Charlotte Dixon, 1.46. Very impressive
05:57 splits. She's starting her sprint. She can see she's four metres ahead, and I don't think
06:01 she wants to let that go. Jess Eddy is coming for Morgan McGrath here. They're just so,
06:07 so close to switching places. You can see it ticking down, and that is the line between
06:13 standing on the podium and not having a medal around your neck or not. 150 metres to go
06:19 for our race leader. I think in the same vein as Yolnda Carina, Elizabeth Gilmour is going
06:24 to win this in style for a back-to-back versus a challenge. But here goes Jess Eddy. She's
06:29 moved into bronze medal position ahead of Morgan McGrath. What can the American do to
06:34 respond here? They're level pegging, moving into this final sprint. Gilmour's also taking
06:40 the rate up to win this in style. She's only got five strokes to go, but look at this.
06:44 Jed Ellesey now has Dixon in her sights with these final few metres. She's going to pull
06:50 as hard as she can, push as hard as she can. This podium, I think, will have two British
06:57 athletes standing on it in silver and bronze. Oh, we'll wait to see that final result, but
07:02 Gilmour is elated, and she cheers on the remainder of her competitors. Look at that. Her first
07:09 thought is to turn around, start screaming, start shouting for everyone else. But wow,
07:14 I think my racer of the afternoon goes to Jess Eddy because she just closed in, timed
07:22 it to perfection and moved into that bronze medal position with a matter of minutes to
07:26 go. But Dixon looks so happy with that improved performance from 2023. She will stand next
07:32 to Gilmour on the podium as a silver medalist, and Jess Eddy will join her. The two British
07:39 athletes there will bookend Gilmour.
07:42 [END]