Watch party cheers Best, Team USA to fourth place in Olympic rowing
By Neil Geoghegan
ngeoghegan@21st-centurymedia.com
@NeilMGeoghegan on Twitter
KENNETT SQUARE >> Right from the very start 10 years ago, Justin Best fell in love with rowing because of the community aspect of the sport.
Late Thursday evening, while he was on the other side of the globe competing at the Tokyo Olympics, hundreds of his supporters gathered at Braeloch Brewing in Kennett at a watch party to collectively cheer on the Unionville High School graduate, class of 2015.
“I’m so thankful we all got together to cheer Justin on,” said his girlfriend Lainey Duncan.
“The support from the community has been wonderful,” added his mom, Jeanne Best. “He knew there was going to be a watch party, and we’ve all been taking pictures to show to him.”
A native of East Marlborough, Best earned a spot on Team USA as a member of the Men’s Eight squad earlier this summer. The team – along with Malvern’s Julian Venonsky and Strafford’s Nick Mead – advanced to the six-team final on Friday morning at the Sea Forest Waterway venue located in Tokyo Bay.
“It’s such a young crew. It’s not necessarily a legacy boat, so it was a success that they got to the Olympic final,” said Best’s older brother, Garren.
In the hunt for an Olympic medal, Team USA wound up placing fourth overall, just 1.02 seconds behind Great Britain, who captured the bronze medal. New Zealand won the gold and Germany the silver.
“The whole thing has been hard to wrap your mind around. For such a young crew, to be fourth in the world is just amazing,” Jeanne Best said.
“That was just their third race as a crew,” added his dad, Glenn. “Some of these other boats have competed internationally for years. With just three years until the 2024 Paris Olympics, I can see the U.S. improving and moving forward.”
Best and Mead made up one-quarter of the squad’s rowing contingent. And with Venonsky as the coxswain, the crew covered the two kilometer race in 5 minutes, 26.75 seconds. New Zealand’s winning time was 5:24.64.
“This was a great culmination of the effort that Justin’s put in for 10 years. He’s put his heart and soul into it, and he will be back,” Glenn Best predicted.
“I can’t wait to see what else they have in store in Olympics to come,” said Duncan, who met Justin at Unionville.
“He said to me that being in the Olympic Village and the whole atmosphere really instilled in him that he can’t wait for the next one.”
Among the myriad of family and friends at Braeloch were two of Best’s high school rowing coaches: John Tierney and Brooks Reinhart. The former British National Rowing Coach, Tierney lives in Pocopson and is still a coach at the Newport (Del.) Rowing Club. Reinhart is from West Chester and is associated with the Wilmington Rowing Center.
“It was obvious that Justin was a cut above all of the other athletes we saw at Unionville. He was laid back but he had an inner fire,” said Tierney, who was sporting a tie from the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where he served as Team Leader for the Team USA.
“At Unionville, Justin was so much better than anyone else,” Reinhart added. “Nobody could keep up with him so we put him in a single.
“Nobody out-works Justin. Nobody.”
At the age of 23, Best is the youngest member of USRowing’s Men’s Eight squad. Tierney, Reinhard and then-Unionville head coach Sam McDonald first saw him compete as a teenager.
“I am very, very proud of Justin Best,” Reinhard said. “Out of all of the kids I’ve coached in 50 years of rowing, someone like Justin comes along once in a blue moon. His drive is just incredible.”
And even though he won’t be coming back to Chester County with an Olympic medal, nobody on hand in Kennett to cheer him on were the least bit surprised to see Best rise to the highest-level of competitive rowing.
“I am not surprised at all,” said Garren Best, who competed in collegiate rowing at St. Josephs. “I’ve always had the ultimate faith in Justin since he was on the Junior National Team. Barring any catastrophic injury, I knew that my brother would be an Olympian.”
