Americans Francia and Cafaro recognised

It is not often that rowing names turn up on USA Today’s Athlete of the Week list. This week Zsuzsanna Francia and Erin Cafaro were the award winners.

Francia and Cafaro (USA) doubled up at the 2009 World Rowing Championships last week in Poznan, Poland, and won gold in both the women’s pair and women’s eight. This double gold achievement earned them the attention of USA Today’s sports journalists.

The duo, who were part of their country’s Olympic Champion eight last year, gained the confidence of their coach Tom Tehaar in their ability to compete at this year’s championships in more than one event. This was a first for Cafaro, but Francia has had a taste of racing two events when she competed in the eight and double at the 2006 World Rowing Championships.

Francia and Cafaro raced the final of the pair last Saturday and came through to win in one of the closest races of the championships. All six boats in the race remained in a position to be medallists for most of the 2000m race. The slightly rough conditions were handled best by the Americans. After the race Cafaro told World Rowing: “I knew today was going to be close, but I have one of the best athletes in the world behind me, Zsuzsanna Francia, and if she’s behind you, everything will turn out good.”

One day later Francia and Cafaro raced in their nation’s eight, Cafaro in bow seat and Francia sitting in the middle of the boat, in four seat. The crew were ahead from start to finish but had to hold off many attacks from Romania who finished second. Francia and Cafaro earned their second gold of the 2009 World Rowing Championships.

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