Liwski and Company Win Gold Medal at the Nation's Cup World Championship
8/5/2002 10:56:06 AM | Men's Rowing
Recent crew graduate Chris Liwski helped the U.S. men's eight win a gold medal at the 2002 Nation's Cup World Championship in Genoa, Italy on July 25-28. Liwski, a native of Sarasota, Florida, just completed his senior year at Syracuse, where he was a member of the Orangemen's varsity eight boat. He and his U.S. teammates were coached by Chris Clark, the head men's crew coach at the University of Wisconsin.
The U.S. men's eight was made up of coxswain Ryan Marks (Dartmouth, Mass.), John Cranston (San Francisco, Calif.), Beau Hoopman (Plymouth, Wis.), Matthew Deakin (Seattle, Wash.), Jamie Schroeder (Wilmette, Ill.), Peter Giese (Fon du Lac, Wis.), Christopher Liwski (Sarasota, Fla.), Chris Hawkins (Seattle, Wash.), and Paul Daniels (Burlington, Wis.). They won the gold medal in a time of 6:12.05, finishing 3.67 seconds ahead of second-place Canada. The U.S. got off to a strong start, racing to a 1.84-second lead at the 500-meter mark over then second-place Italy. The crew continued to build on its lead over the second quarter of the race and led Germany at the midway point by more than five seconds. With 500 meters to go, the Canadian crew had taken over second place but the U.S. still had more than a five-second advantage and cruised to the finish.
"In the opening heat of the men's 8, our U.S.A. boat drew Russia, Australia, and Poland," said Liwski in an email to his friends and family. "The other heat was composed of Canada, Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia. We got out to a strong start and pretty much had a lead by the 500m mark which allowed us to just hold and not show any of our moves. We took it down to a 32spm by the end of the heat and still had a pretty sufficient lead. Canada had a pretty similair heat cruising out to a lead much like we did and coming down the stretch with only Germany close by. Therefore the U.S. and Canada advanced straight to the finals, and going in we knew it was going to be tight. However when the finals came around on Sunday evening the conditions out on the water were so bad that it soon appeared it would become anyone's race. The first 500 meters were so choppy that wakes were crashing over the sides of the boat, only to get out into the last 1500 meters to be pounded by a huge headwind. Watching the other countries who are somewhat more technical than us warm up and handle the conditions better was a little intimidating, but we had our plan. When the green light went just hit the gas and don't look back, and expect it to be ugly. Well it worked."
"This is by far the fastest and most powerful boat ever assembled by the U.S. for the Nation's Cup World Championship," said U.S. Olympic coach Mike Teti.
Liwski was a junior national team member in 1997. He graduated from SU in 2002 and now attends Syracuse Law School. He began his rowing career as a freshman at Riverview High School.
"So after a summer of some of the most intense training I've ever experienced, winning a gold medal at the World Championships was pretty rewarding," Liwski concluded.
