Aug. 20, 2004
ATHENS (AUGUST 20, 2004)-- You can't come much closer to an Olympic medal than Stacey Borgman. The 1998 Barnard grad saw her dreams of a medal end when her women's lightweight double scull finished fourth in the Olympic semifinals Thursday, .73 seconds short of the medal round. Borgman, who comes from Homer, Alaska, and teammate Lisa Schlenker finished fourth in Semifinal One in the event, their time of 6:54.16 just .33 seconds behind Germany, which was third in 6:53.43. Romania won the race in 6:51.84, and the Netherlands was second in 6:53.10. Borgman and Schlenker went out quickly. They were second to Romania after 500 meters, and third at 1000 meters, the halfway point. But the Netherlands boat had begun to surge in the second 500 meters, and they passed all but Romania in the third 500 meters, taking over second place by 1500 meters. The U.S. pair fought to hold off Germany, but couldn't maintain their lead. Romania, Netherlands, and Germany, the No.'s 1-3 finishers in the race, advance to the A Final, while the U.S. shell goes to the B Final with Great Britain, 5th in 6:59.23, and Greece, 6th in 7:15.45. Only crews in the A Final may compete for medals, or for one of the top six spots. The best a B Final crew may finish is seventh place. Australia, Poland and China advanced from the other semifinal, the slower of the two races. Only the winner of that race, Australia, rowed faster than Borgman and Schlenker. But only the top three boats from each semifinal advance.
