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August 15, 2004 12:07 pm

U.S. rowers advance in record time

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece -- The USA will row for gold in the men's eight and women's eight next Sunday after winning their heats Sunday in world-best times at the wind-whipped Olympic Rowing Regatta.

For Jason Read of Ringoes, N.J., something more than a combination of wind and muscle powered his boat of eight men and a coxswain.

Read is an emergency medical technician/volunteer firefighter who helped with body recovery efforts at the World Trade Center in the days following 9/11. After the crew set a world best time of 5:19.85, slipping past Canada to win its heat, Read choked up when talking about the pride he feels to be representing his country at the Olympics.

``That wave of patriotism is something all of us share in some capacity,'' said Read, who'd changed into an FDNY T-shirt with the words ``Dedication, Tenacity, Gumption'' across the back.

``When you race hard and you're racing for America under symbols like our flag, you know that millions of people are supporting you in some implicit or explicit way,'' he said. ``The weight of that and the brotherhood we have on our team -- all those elements for me are very tangible.''

Read, 26, has been chief of operations at the Amwell Valley Rescue Squad since 1999 and started helping the squad as a teenager. He said rowing helped him deal with the emotional turmoil of working at Ground Zero.

``People often say the best remedy or treatment for not feeling good about yourself is exercise,'' Read said. ``It helps to clear your head. And what better activity than a sport that involves teamwork and the virtues of working together.''

Read is a first-time Olympian, as is Joseph Hansen, 25, of Corvallis, Ore.

``It's windy, but that's how you set world records,'' Hansen said of Sunday's conditions at the Schinias Rowing and Canoeing Centre, which is about 25 miles northeast of Athens. ``We've been pushing the envelope every day.''

The U.S. women came into the Olympics as favorites in the eight after winning the BearingPoint World Cup in Munich.

Their victory Sunday came in a world-best time of 5:56.55, edging out Romania by two-tenths of a second and beating Romania's 1999 world record by .47 seconds.

Crew member Caryn Davies, originally from Ithaca, N.Y., but who has been living and training in Princeton, N.J., was surprised to see a pack of reporters waiting for the team after the heat.

``I usually don't get interviewed,'' said Davies, 22.

``It wasn't our goal to get the best time. It was our goal to make the final,'' she said.

In Olympic competition, each unsuccessful crew has another chance to advance in what's known as the repechage (second-chance) round. With that in mind, Davies cautioned against reading too much into Sunday's victory over Romania, the defending gold medalists.

``I don't look at it as taking away anything from Romania. We'll probably see them in the final. It's not over yet.''

Later Sunday, race officials announced that there will be no racing Monday, due to strong winds expected to make the course unrowable.

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