Beijing spotlight on Kamiak grad

By Pat Ratliff

The Beacon

Kamiak graduate and Duke University freshman Alex Japhet represented Team USA in fine fashion this month at the junior women’s pair (JW2-) at the 2007 World Rowing Junior Championships in China.

The U.S. junior women’s rowing duo of Alex Japhet (Mukilteo) and Cara Linnenkohl (Redmond) finished sixth at the 2007 World Junior Championships in Beijing.

Japhet and Linnenkohl had sat in fifth position through the 1,000-meter mark before Portugal passed them entering the final quarter of the race.

China’s entry, after trailing for the first 1,000 meters, passed Romania and cruised to victory in a time of 7:33.17. Germany placed second at 7:35.06 while Romania dropped to third.

The U.S. duo earned a spot in the final after advancing through the first two rounds of competition.

Alex Japhet and Cara Linnenkohl opened the national race with a third-place finish in the JW2- and went on to notch second-place in the repechage.

Repechage means "to rescue" or "to save," and is a qualification measure for rowing competitions.  Often, only the first one or two boats in a race qualify for the next round, and all other boats must race again in one or more special heats (known as the repechage) to qualify.

Because conditions such as wind vary between heats, often significantly affecting a competitor's time, rowing's repechage system allows the "fastest losers" to qualify independent of the variable conditions in the opening heats.

In qualifying heats, Japhet and Linnenkohl finished third out of six boats after posting a time of 7:55.34 in the 2,000-meter race.  The duo made up a deficit of more than four seconds in the last quarter of the race to claim a top-three finish.

The third-place finish earned the pair a spot in the repechage, where they claimed second place after shaving nearly 14 seconds off their time. 

The team of Japhet and Linnenkohl finished the second 2,000-meter outing in 7:41.82, trailing the winner by less than three seconds.

Alex Japhet began rowing in 2005 with the Everett Rowing Association.  Her coach there is Marketa DeQuine.

         In just one year on the junior national team, Ms. Japhet has:

•         Won the women’s junior pair at the 2007 USRowing Club National Championships,

•         Finished fifth in the women’s eight at the 2007 USRowing Youth National Championships,

•         Won gold in the junior women’s four with coxswain at the 2006 USRowing National Championships

•         Finished third in the women’s eight at the 2006 USRowing Youth National Championships.

She says she plans to study sports medicine and physical therapy next year as a freshman at Duke University.

She lists Padraic McGovern, her first varsity coach at Everett, as the most influential person in her sporting career.

Alex Japhet was part of a 41-person American roster competing in Beijing.

 The rowers competed at the brand new Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, which will host the 2008 Summer Olympics rowing and canoeing events.