Ben Taylor and Oli Welch are making people think thoughts they probably shouldn't think yet.
The young Men's Pair turned heads on day two of the World Cup in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, storming through the first 500m of their semifinal in 1 minute 30.28 seconds. For anyone with a long memory, that number triggered an immediate flashback: London 2012, Bond and Murray going through the opening quarter in 1.31 on their way to a world best time at Eton-Dorney.
The comparisons are premature, and everyone involved seems to know it. But they were hard to avoid.
"I knew it was fast," says Ben. "We thought we could improve that first K, so we went out there attacking [it]. So pretty happy."
The split times kept lining up. The legendary Kiwi Pair hit the 1000m mark in 3.03 and the 1500m in 4.37 at Eton-Dorney. Taylor and Welch went through in 3.04.90 and 4.40.52. "Conditions were slowing down a little bit in that second K," Ben noted, and any thought of chasing a time was sensibly shelved. "It was there, it was a thought but one I had to quickly shake. I didn't think we were really on for achieving that."
With the race won they buttoned off, crossing in 6.23.00 at 32 strokes per minute, a 1.43 last 500m.
Ben is measured about what it all means. "I think we kind of understand that, [but] we're trying to kind of keep chill about it though. We both deep down know that we could go really fast when we get it right and get the right conditions." The plan is to let it happen rather than force it: "It's something we want to let happen when it comes rather than start chasing it. We just want to stick to our processes and focus on what we're working on. If we do all those things well it might come a little bit more naturally. I think if it's fast conditions and we go, 'Alright, this is the day we're going to try and go really fast,' then we'll probably just ruin it."
Elsewhere, the Men's Double Sculls of Finn Hamill and Ben Mason are back in business after a disappointing first outing in Seville two weeks ago. They made a "bit of a panic rig" and swapped positions in the boat, though Mason admits the improvement remains somewhat mysterious. "Honestly, we're probably just as confused as to why we were going slower at the first regatta as why we're going faster now. I don't even think we really identified much. We just kinda just trusted it, I suppose, and it's just magically going faster again."
They carried that form into the semifinal, beating the USA by two seconds to cross in 6.14.82. The target for the A Final is simple. "Go out and see if we can win the whole thing," says Ben. "Take all the glory. We got a bronze and a silver last year, so it'd be pretty unreal to get a gold at a World Cup this year."
