We have been following the progress of Ursula Grobler for a year now.  She's trialling for the USA national team as a lightweight single sculler.  We watched her results from the recent USA trials "speed order". during that weekend she raced 7 times.  Here's the summary on her site.  And after that weekend of racing, emailed her some more questions.  She has kindly agreed that we can publish them.

You set a very ambitious program entering both the heavy and lightweight womens singles. What was the reason?
We wanted more race experience. Being still so new to the sport and not having many chances to race, due to lack of financial support and citizenship previously, this was a great opportunity to make the trip more worth while.

We also were fully confident in the training that Carlos has done with me has built up the physiology to race and recover multi times. It's how we end up racing at a world champ, right?

When you failed to reach the final for the heavy singles, what do you think was the reason?
A sloppy first 1000m. Again, what great experience for me to learn from and then trying to catch the 3rd place competitor and the feeling of disappointment when you don't. And dealing with the consequence of knowing I had one chance to make the final and I didn't and that's it. It's over. There are no Do-overs. That made me so much stronger for the next race.

Are you going to do both heavy and lightweight for the next trials?
Not sure at this point how we will advance. We are in negotiations with USRowing about our options, some with or without their support and funding.

What happened to Jennifer Goldsack – I didn't see her name on the start list?
Jen is unfortunatly injured and recovering her back. So far she has declined to move to Seattle for the 2010 season. We will see how she progresses and decide accordingly.

What will change in your training as you come into competition from winter training?

This question is definitly a coaches corner. Carlos trains in very different mindset and yet he always lines everything up well for performance. Have you seen both my my results and those of the university of Washington, the two crews he is involved with?

Other articles about Ursula Grobler

• Interview with Carlos Dinares, coach to Ursula Grobler
• Rowperfect user gets world record on C2 
• World Rowing Magazine interviews Ursula Grobler
• Ursula's personal website Ursula Grobler.com