Quadruple sculls team eliminated in semifinals

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece - Quadruple scull rowers Kent Smack and Brett Wilkinson won't be going for a medal in their first Olympics.

Smack, Wilkinson and boatmates J. Sloan DuRoss and Ben Holbrook failed to advance from the semifinals Thursday at the Olympic Regatta in Schinias, about 25 miles from Athens near the Aegean Sea.

The Czech Republic, Russia, Belarus and Estonia out-rowed the United States, which finished only ahead of Switzerland with a time of 5:46.65.

The U.S. crew will row for places 7-12 in Saturday's B final.

``We had a well-executed race, but it just wasn't there at the end,'' said Wilkinson, 28, of Hyde Park, N.Y. ``We'll regroup and finish off the season hard. This goes in the record books, and you don't want to be the crew that finishes second to last.''

Smack, 29, a Boston resident whose hometown is Clinton, N.J., has a pack of avid fans back in Boston, where he has a job waiting for him after the Olympics.

He works for Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Inc., a firm that maps out management strategy for various organizations.

``My boss and co-workers have been getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning to watch me race from the United States,'' he said. ``It says a lot about an organization to let someone like myself go half-time for eight to nine months, then follow me closely throughout all of it.''