by Tom Utescher

For the second year in a row, James Wright’s crew season did not end with the major scholastic regattas in late May and early June. After the end of his junior year at Germantown Friends School in 2017, he earned a place on the U.S. Junior National Team and traveled to Lithuania toward the end of the summer to compete in the World Rowing Junior Championships.

This year, after leaving GFS with his diploma, he once again made the U.S. squad, this time heading for the Czech Republic to race in the Junior Worlds from August 8-12. The regatta was held in Racice, about 35 miles north of Prague. The international competitors had lodgings in Prague itself, and commuted to the course for practices and races.

Rowing once again in the U.S. junior quad (an eight-oar, four-man vessel with no coxswain), Wright made his way into the B Final with his boatmates. The field for this race is made up of the crews that were ranked seventh through 12th after the earlier rounds of racing. Here the Americans finished fourth, the equivalent of 10th place overall.

Wright, who is going on to Stanford University, observed, “I think the main difference between the U.S. and the top European crews was the technical prowess with which they rowed. A lot of those crews had been together since mid or late spring, and that gave them a real advantage in knowing how to row together in different race situations.”

The United States can’t even begin the trials process until the scholastic and collegiate seasons have ended, and the sheer size of the country means that many rowers have to do a lot more traveling to assemble at training sites than most foreign counterparts.

In his final two high school seasons at GFS Wright raced alone in a single, capping off his senior year with a gold medal at the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships in California in mid-June. He remained in the Golden State for the U.S. team trials that began just a few days later.

When all the boat assignments were sorted out, Wright was back in the quad along with 2017 colleague Emory Sammons, a sculler from upstate New York who had raced against the GFS standout in high school singles competition. Sammons was in the three seat in the U.S. vessel and Wright was second seat, with Nathan Phelps of New Canaan, Conn. as stroke and Kristopher Schumann of Osprey, Fla. in the bow.

Also making the trip to the Czech Republic was Aaron Preetam, Wright’s coach at Germantown Friends and a member of the school’s history faculty. A former rower at the international level himself, Preetam sent back dispatches from the regatta in Racice. He noted early on that in just about all events, from singles to eights, technical skills were outstanding, and this was borne out as a number of world records would be set at the 2018 championships.

U.S. Junior Team rower James Wright (left) poses in Prague with his former coach from Germantown Friends School, Aaron Preetam.

In the men’s quad category, the overall field of 20 crews was divided into four initial heat races of five boats each. The top two finishers in each heat would proceed directly to the top two semifinal races (the A & B semi’s that provided a path to the A Final), while the other 12 boats went into the repechage round that would feed crews back into either the A/B semifinals or the C/D semi’s.

In Team USA’s heat, the third of the four, Germany led wire-to-wire. The U.S. almost locked up a semifinal spot, but was overtaken at the end by Romania and finished third. The Americans headed for the repechage round, two races of six boats each.

The crews that secured the top two places in each contest would make it to the A/B semifinals, which in turn would lead to either the A Final or B Final. The other eight boats in the “reps” would move into the C/D semifinals, and no longer would have a chance to reach either of the top two finals races.

Wright and his crewmates won the first of the repechage contests in five minutes, 54.820 seconds, about a second-and-a-half ahead of Croatia. Denmark was a little faster in winning the second rep, timed in 5:52.450. Preetam pointed out that times were fast overall due to strong tailwinds that day.

The Americans were in better form for the repechage than they’d been for the opening heats.

“We were a lot more composed, and we were able to race our race,” Wright remarked.

The tailwinds persisted into the following day, August 11, when the semifinal races were held. In the first race, the U.S. did not get out to a good start as other crews left the starting line rowing a very high number of strokes per minute (around 50, Preetam gauged).

“The semi was probably our worst race,” Wright explained. “Just as the race was about to go off, we were told to take off our tech shirts [a standard item of rowers’ garb] because they had unauthorized advertising on them. I think we let that get in our heads a little and we didn’t have the start we wanted.”

Coming in fifth in their section, the Americans were about 10 seconds behind the crew from the Czech Republic, which set a new world record of 5:46.490. The Czechs would go on to win the gold medal in the A Final on Sunday, August 12, while the U.S. boat appeared in the B Final.

Switzerland, the world champion in 2017, was also in the B Final this time around. They finished third in 6:02.450 and the USA was fourth (6:06.470). New Zealand won the race in 6:00.590 and Denmark was second in 6:01.530, while the U.S. was trailed by fifth-place Croatia (6:09.230) and by Greece (6:14.460).

“We were trying for the best finish we could get, but so was everybody else,” Wright said. “It was a race that we couldn’t really be upset with; it just didn’t go our way.”

In the A Final, the home crowd was thrilled to see the Czech Republic win the 2018 gold medal in 5:51.810, while Great Britain repeated as runner-up (5:53.210).

Everyone praised the quality of the course (on a manmade lake) and the organization of the regatta. However, the same tailwinds that helped lead to some world-record times also roiled up the surface of the water.

“We weren’t accustomed to how choppy it could get,” Wright revealed. “That was definitely something that we had trouble handling.”

There was no time for sightseeing during the regatta, but Wright was able to remain in Prague for a few days after that, and he also stopped over in Berlin on the way home.

“In Prague a lot of the architecture was really fascinating,” he related. “The city wasn’t damaged much during the Second World War, unlike a lot of other European cities. It gave you a glimpse into the past that few cities have anymore.”

He was also glad that his high school coach was able to make the trip to the Czech Republic.

“It was a real pleasure to have Aaron see me race and experience that top level of world junior rowing,” he said.