We had the chance to ask Karl Hare, part of this year's JM4+ for Canada competing in Račice at the World Rowing Junior Championships, a few questions ahead of the start of racing tomorrow!
All of the beautiful photos shown on this page are by Kevin Light via Karl. Please check out Kevin's page, especially if you are based in the North America!
Have you had any training camps this year to help prepare for Junior Worlds? What’s that been like?
There was one “integration camp” in February, out here in British Columbia. It was very beneficial for us to row on the water mid-winter, since in our respective home towns’ the water is frozen for much of the year.
What have been the big races to prepare for Račice this year?
Since we’ve only been training together for a short amount of time, we’ve only competed together at one regatta, British Columbia Championships. At this event, we raced the our coxed four in an open straight four event. We’ve also been doing various race pieces against similar speed crews to practice.
How has it been moving from smaller boats and rowing with your school/ club mates to working together in the national squad?
Obviously there is a lot more pressure at this level of rowing than at the club level. However our crew definitely thrives off this pressure, and it does nothing but push us to be better athletes. We’ve also all really enjoyed rowing in a crew boat with new people, and each learning tons from each other.
What is it the lake/ river like where you train?
It can get quite windy and we often get waked out by mean motor boats. But overall it’s a beautiful place to row, with mountains and trees all around surrounding the lake.
Canadian winters must get pretty cold. How does this affect your winter training?
A lot of erging and a lot of weight training, Canadian winters usually drop to around -30 or -40 degrees celsius. All of the guys in our boat spend 7-8 months off the water each year.
Have any of you raced at the Junior World Championships before, or is this your first time?
Our stroke seat was in Lithuania in the straight four last year.
What does it mean to you to be competing at an event like Junior Worlds?
It means a lot to all of us to represent Canada, and we’re ecstatic to be racing against the best in the world.
Who inspires you in rowing?
What is your favourite thing about rowing?
Erg.
What are your goals for the future?
We’re all committed to universities except for our coxswain, who has one year of high school left. Our next steps will be to excel in our respective collegiate programs. In addition, all of us would ideally like to make the Olympics someday!
We wish Karl, Alexander, Neil, Mitchell and Eden the very best of luck in their worlds campaign starting later this week!
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