The gold-winning women’s four team. From left: Sylvie Sallquist, Galen Hughes, Caroline Hart, and Eliza Spilsbury. (Courtesy photo by Ed Rowan, USRowing)
Bromfield-Acton-Boxborough rower Caroline Hart is now the proud owner of a 2013 World Rowing Junior Championships gold medal. Hart rowed the stroke seat of the junior women’s four and led the crew through the U.S. team’s most exciting series of races to capture the gold in Saturday’s final on Lake Galve, in Trakai, Lithuania.
An early loss in heats to a powerful German boat motivated the team to redouble their efforts. The girls knew exactly what they had to do to win in the Saturday final—row higher off the start and keep Germany from gaining an insurmountable lead.
Germany did get away again off the start in the final with the US crew falling to third off the line. This time around, though, Hart and the crew maintained their poise, stayed confident, and executed their race plan to perfection.
The United States crew worked their way back into contention for the gold, closing in on the Germans, passing them at the 1500-meter mark, and holding off a late and valiant sprint by the Italian boat. The U.S. crew collected the gold medal for their efforts, crossing the line less than four tenths of a second ahead of Italy in 6:53.85. Germany took bronze in 6:56.29.
“It was everything I expected we could do,” Hart said. “We were challenged, but we just kept going because we had confidence in our crew.”
