Rower blazes path for African-Americans

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece - In a sport where rhythm and timing are everything, American rower, first-time Olympian and pretty decent saxophone player Aquil Abdullah sometimes finds bits of John Coltrane drifting through his head.

Rowing done well appears as effortless as a jazz riff, the pain disguised until the end of the piece, when the athletes sit exhausted on the water, spent after a distance of 1.25 miles.

But it was the harsh clang of a cowbell that drifted across the blue-green water at the Olympic Regatta on Saturday and caught the attention of Abdullah, the first African-American man on the U.S. Olympic rowing team.

Abdullah and boatmate Henry Nuzum, unexpected finalists in the men's double sculls, heard the bell and knew that the mother of U.S. men's eight rower Jason Read was in the stands, cheering them home. They also knew the cause was lost.

``Joan Read has a big cow bell she rings. We know we're in the last 500 meters when we hear that bell,'' said Abdullah.

The cowbell tolled for the Americans near the end of the 2,000-meter race. But it was the ``La Marseillaise'' that rang out with much pomp minutes later during the medal ceremony.

In a seven-boat final, the Americans finished sixth behind France, Slovenia, Italy, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Clocked at 6:36.86, the U.S. boat was roughly 8 seconds behind the winning time. Abdullah and Nuzum avoided last place by holding off Norway by 39/100 of a second.

It had been more than a decade since the U.S. men reached a double sculls final in a world championship or an Olympics. Abdullah was disappointed but upbeat after the race.

``Making an Olympic team is special,'' he said. ``I had a chance to line up against the best in the world today. I was pleased with our performance.''

Abdullah, 31, from Washington, D.C., learned to row on the Potomac River and majored in physics at George Washington University. His victory in the 2000 Diamond Sculls Challenge Cup was a first by a black single sculler in the renowned Henley Royal Regatta outside London.

He and Nuzum, from Chapel Hill, N.C., are affiliated with New Jersey's Princeton Training Center, the primary training facility of U.S. Rowing.

When Abdullah competes in single sculls, Coltrane's ``Giant Steps'' most often is the music that plays in his head, he said.

But one of Abdullah's most memorable experiences in music happened in Augusta, Ga., where a national training center in sculling used to be based.It was in the mid-1990s, and Abdullah packed his saxophone for the trip to Georgia. He was sitting in with the house band at a local restaurant when in walked James Brown, who lives in nearby Beech Island, S.C.

``He got up on stage, and I was up on stage playing with the Godfather of Soul,'' said Abdullah.

As for being the first African-American man on the U.S. Olympic rowing team, Abdullah said, ``If people see rowing as a sport they can try, something they can do, then my job is done. I was raised to believe each one teaches one.''

His aunt told him a story about his influence, an anecdote that for Abdullah has staying power like those snatches of Coltrane.

``It was at the Olympic Trials in 2000,'' Abdullah said. ``There was a little kid at the starting line. He walked by with his mother and father and pointed at me. He said, `Hey, what's he doing?' And his parents said, `Rowing.' Then he said, `I want to try that.' ''