In 2007 season, after a very difficult spring I made the 4-.  This boat is extremely reactive and sensitive to how you row it; much more so than the eight.  You can change speed from one stroke to the other.  I learned about this quality of the 4- through out the spring and especially at the 2007 World Championships in Munich, Germany.

In this boat I got to row with some great people.  I was the youngest and least experienced when it came to rowing in the 4- or World Championships.  A couple of guys had gold medals from the 2004 Olympic Games.  They had really high expectation for the boat and so did I.  Rowing with this caliber of athletes taught me that there is always more speed to gain from the boat.  One of the reasons I like this sport is that I never stop learning.  There is always room for improvement. 

After training that summer, we went to the 2007 World Championships in Munich, Germany.   At that point we were still improving our rowing.  We were positive about it, but knew that we would have to keep improving through out the regatta.

The Heats didn't go as plan.  We didn't advance to the Semifinals and had to go to the repechage.  After a couple of changes in the line up we ended up winning the repechage and advancing to the semifinal.  The progression required us to finish in the top three of our semifinal race in order to advance to the "A" final.  We had some very competitive crews in it and unfortunately we did not advance.  We were in second place thru the first 1800 meters of the semifinal and in the last 200 meters, France and Italy walked through us.  That was the worst feeling of my rowing career; working all year for a goal and not achieving it. 

We went to the "B" final and had to come in the top 5 to qualify the boat for the 2008 Olympics.  We finished the world Championship in 8^th place which meant we came in second in the "B" final. 

After some thinking, I realized that I shouldn't be as disappointed as I was.  I learned a lot about racing and thus I was preparing myself for future racing.  

Giuseppe Lanzone is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This blog was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.