Aug. 19, 2004
ATHENS (August 19, 2004)-- Three rowers who excelled in the sport as Columbia Lions have taken giant steps toward Olympic medals by advancing to the semifinals in their respective events.
Stacey Borgman, a 1998 graduate of Barnard College, advanced to the semifinals in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls, while Milos Tomic and Veljko Urosevic moved into the semifinals in the Lightweight Men's Four. Like Borgman, Urosevic is a former Columbia rower, graduating in 2003, but Tomic would have been a junior during the past season if he had not taken a year's leave of absence in order to train.
Borgman teamed with Lisa Schlenker in the two-oared shell. Rowing in the Repechage (second chance) Round, the pair nearly won the race, only to be nipped at the end by two Polish rowers, with a duo from Denmark gaining third. All three nations advanced to the semifinals, where they will vie with crews from Canada, China, Great Britain, Greece, The Netherlands, and Spain.
"Our rowing is getting better and better," Schlenker told World Rowing.com. "It's been good to go through the Repechage to get more experience." Although Borgman had been pursuing an Olympic Team berth for a year, she had teamed with Schlenker for only the past month.
"Stacey's rowing very well," said Mike Zimmer, Columbia's new heavyweight men's coach, who coached Borgman on the Lion women's crew. "She and Lisa get faster every time they race. It's great to see a Barnard student and Columbia rower out there competing in the Olympics. I'm very excited about that."
Borgman, who majored in political science and Italian at Barnard, comes from Homer, Alaska.
Tomic and Urosevic are residents of Belgrade, Serbia, competing for Serbia & Montenegro.
They and their two teammates in the four advanced to the semifinal with a fine row in the Repechage. Russia won the race, moving out to an early lead, but the Serbia & Montenegro quartet turned in a powerful showing in the second half of the 2000-meter race to gain on the Russians and pull ahead of Spain.
Both were first-boat rowers on Columbia's 2003 lightweight men's crew, which finished second in both the national and eastern lightweight championships. Each made second team All-Ivy League.
Urosevic attended Columbia College and earned a B.A. in economics; Tomic attends the School of Engineering and Applied Science, majoring in civil engineering.
A future Lion also made his mark in international rowing recently.
Emre Vural, a resident of Istanbul, Turkey, who will enter Columbia College next month, made Turkish athletic history when he and a teammate won the first-ever international rowing gold medal for their country.
Considered this year's top recruit for Coach Marc DeRose's Columbia lightweights crew, Vural showed why when he teamed with Ahmet Yumrukaya to capture the gold medal in the Lightweight Pair at the Nations Cup, the World Rowing Under-23 Regatta in Poznan, Poland on August 8. The competition is the unofficial world under-23 championships.
Not given much of a chance against U-23 powers Italy and Germany, the Turkish duo stayed close to the leaders until the last 1000 meters of the Grand Final. They then made their move, passing Italy and moving up on Germany in the next 600 meters. In the final 400 meters, Vural and Yumrukaya passed the Germans for the victory, with Great Britain passing Italy for the bronze.
"I couldn't be happier," said DeRose, who coached the Serbian pair and will get to coach Vural at Columbia, "to have two of our rowers compete at the highest level of the sport!
"Emre Vural, although a freshman, is already a world champion! When he and Milos return to Columbia rowing, they will add a tremendous element to our program. They should be invaluable to us; with their experience, they can come right in and be leaders. And you can't grow leaders."
