Repechages cut short at World Rowing Championships
 Racing
in the second round of repechages got cut short at the 2006
World Rowing Championships in Eton, Great Britain. Of the
29 races scheduled, 17 were completed before the International
Rowing Federation (FISA) Fairness Commission decided that
developing cross-winds could make the conditions, across the
six lane course, unfair for the competitors. The 17 events
raced heralded some lively competition as athletes fought
to move on to the next round of racing.
Men’s Coxed Four (M4+) – Race for Lanes
Great Britain got the day humming by coming through from
the back of the field to take the lead in a tight, four-way
battle. The British crew are part of the very strong squad
that include a top four, pair and eight. Today the Brits showed
the depth of their squad by coming through from behind to
overtake the United States and hold off Canada. With just
six entries in this event, the race for lanes give the crews
a chance to blow off the cobwebs and test their 2000 metre
speed before Sunday’s final.
Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Repechages
One boat would drop off, three would advance through to the
final. Serbia’s Milos Tomic and Luka Djordjevic took
the lead at the start and never looked back. Tomic brings
with him the experience of Olympic racing at Athens, while
Djordjevic, 21, has been racing at the international level
ever since he was a junior. Holding a steady 34 stroke rate,
the Serbians remained in the lead keeping just ahead of Guatemala’s
Oscar Maeda Gudiel and Juan Guevara Gonzalez. Maeda and Guevara
have been rowing together since 2002 and spend much of their
time training in Spain (Banyoles). Today the Guatemalans set
themselves up for one of their best results to date by making
it through to the final. Denmark also qualifies for the final
with their third place finish.
Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls (LW4x)
– Repechages
It was a surprise to see reigning World Champions Canada
trailing the field, but in an event that set a new World Best
Time in the heats, competition was going to be tough. Out
in front Denmark’s Juliane Rasmussen, Katrin Olsen,
Sine Christiansen and Kirsten Jepsen led the way. This Danish
quad has spent the season racing in the open quad, their best
result being a fourth place finish at the second stage of
the Rowing World Cup. This racing must have served its purpose
as the Danes stayed in the lead moving well away from Germany
in second.
Four spots in the final were up for grabs and with the United
States challenging Germany and Canada trying to hold on to
the pace, a sprint to the finish was necessary. The order
did not change. Denmark, Germany, the United States and Canada
advance to the final.
Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) –
Race for lanes
The Olympic class lightweight double is predominantly the
priority boat. The quad often acts as a feeder into the double.
The goal of all countries in this event is to beat the formidable
Italians. Italy has owned the lightweight quad since the 1990s
with only a couple of stutters for the gold. Today they raced
for lanes in preparation for Sunday’s final. Today France
decided to give it their all. Taking the lead at the start
France tried to hold off the Italians. But a stronger second
half gave Italy the lead. Stroked by under 23 medallist, 20-year-old
Daniele Danesin, with the impressive Daniele Gilardoni in
two seat (five straight World Champion titles and six in total),
Italy remained in the lead.
Germany also overtook France to take second. France held
on to third.
Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) –
Repechages
The large number of entries in this event required four repechages
and indicates a trend towards countries bringing together
their potential Olympic combinations much earlier than in
the past. These crews are likely to be the ones that aim to
qualify for Beijing 2008 when they race at next year’s
qualifying regatta – the World Rowing Championships
in Munich.
After overtaking current World Champions, Marie-Louise Draeger
and Daniela Reimer of Germany, Ireland took the lead. Sinead
Jennings of Ireland has been aiming for the Olympics ever
since she left triathlon racing behind and jumped into a rowing
boat. Jennings, with her former partner, missed out on qualifying
for Athens and now rowing with Niamh Ni Cheilleachair they
appear to be clicking as a team. The Germans appeared to let
the Irish go and under no threat from Italy (in third position),
Ireland and Germany comfortably move on to the semifinal.
Canada opened their 2006 international season with a bang.
Stroke Tracy Cameron won the single at the first Rowing World
Cup and then returned with partner Mara Jones to race the
double at the final Rowing World Cup, winning there. In the
heats on Monday the duo could only manage third, coach Laryssa
Biesenthal saying, "They rowed as if they were in two
singles.” Today Cameron and Jones rowed together to
lead repechage two over Great Britain’s Jane Hall and
Helen Casey. Hall began racing internationally 15 years ago
and has come back to competition after a three-year break.
No challenge came from Japan in third and Canada and Great
Britain move on to the semifinal.
Last year’s bronze medallists Sanna Sten and Minna
Nieminen of Finland led repechage three. Sten and Nieminen
came together in 2004 with the aim of Athens Olympics qualification.
They missed out on qualifying by just one spot and ever since
then they have had their sights firmly set on Beijing. Today
they move on to the semifinal with a comfortable lead and
an easy 30 stroke rate pace. Spain’s Lourdes Guillen
Cruz and Sonia Boubeta take second to qualify for the semifinal
with France, in third, doing nothing to challenge this position.
The final repechage remained uninspiring with again two boats
taking the lead and no one challenging their position. In
this case it was Greece in the lead featuring three-time Olympian
Chrysi Biskitzi with partner Alexandra Tsiavou. The Greeks,
bundled up against the coolish weather, remained ahead of
Sweden’s identical twins, Lena and Sara Karlsson and
both boats move on to the semifinal.
Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) –
Repechages
Three repechages with the top two from each advancing to
the semifinal was the formula and inevitably racing turned
into a procession following a first half sort-out. Cuba’s
Yunior Perez and international newcomer Eyder Batista led
the way. After overtaking Turkey, Cody Lowry and Daniel Urevick-Ackelsberg
of the United States, in their debut international season,
got into the second qualifying spot and held off a late challenge
from Ireland to earn a semifinal position with a 36 stroke
rate sprint along with Cuba (38 strokes per minute at the
end).
Matt Jensen and Douglas Vandor of Canada come out of last
year’s bronze medal quad and today in the double they
controlled repechage two from the front. This left the very
talented twins, Jan and Ondrej Vetesnik of the Czech Republic.
The Vetesniks warmed up for these World Championships by earning
a bronze at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships adding
to their 2005 under 23 gold medal. Canada and the Czech Republic
remained well ahead of any challenge and qualify for the semifinal.
The switch from the lightweight pair to the double is starting
to pay dividends for Miguel Cerda Silva and Felipe Leal Atero
of Chile. Cerda and Leal led repechage three building up a
handy boat length over Russia within the first 500 metres
and maintaining that lead throughout the race. Russia’s
Vladimir Varfolomeev and Denis Moiseev held easily on to second
rating a steady 32 stroke rate down the course. Chile and
Russia advance to the semifinal.
Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – Repechages
Four repechages with the instructions being to finish in
the top two if you want to advance led to some of the closer
racing of the day. Repechage one saw Canada advance another
crew when they led from start to finish. Stroked by Iain Brambell
who reemerges from post-Athens retirement, the Canadians watched
as Russia and Poland fought it out for second. The superior
stamina of Poland gave them the valuable second qualifying
spot, while Russia simply ran out of steam.
After racing Brambell said: "Any time in the lightweight
races, it doesn’t really matter if you are in the double
or the four, you have to win every race. Setting yourself
up for the semi final is the key thing. After not doing that
in the heat, we obviously had to go out and race a better
race in the rep. That meant being able to have a more established
stronger start. That was probably lacking a little bit in
our heat, which meant we had to sprint like crazy in the final
500. So it shows we have a good kick, but we have to put it
all together. I think today we got closer to that."
Egypt shot into the limelight when they won a Rowing World
Cup medal earlier this season. Today they contested repechage
two and at the start had full control of the lead. Egypt was
still in front at the half way point but their speed was beginning
to falter. Great Britain, meanwhile, moved into a devastating
piece going through the third 500 to take the lead. The Netherlands
sprinted after the Dutch. Great Britain reacted with a 39
stroke rate. It was enough to hold the Dutch off, but left
Egypt out of qualification. Great Britain and the Netherlands
advance to the semifinal.
After racing Paul Maddick of Great Britain commented on their
racing: "I think (in the heats) we were just over-anxious,
not with the idea that this is the worlds and we just went
out to race and everyone was trying to do their own thing
and not working together. So today was significantly better
– much more coordinated and controlled. It wasn’t
our best race, but it was a big step up from last time….
Three of those crews got to the A final in Lucerne so it was
a bit of a re-run of our Lucerne semi and I think today we
raced better…much more controlled."
Repechage three turned into a close battle between the two
leading crews – Italy and the United States. Italy finished
with bronze last year and from that crew stroke Bruno Mascarenhas
and bow Lorenzo Bertini remain. They are joined by six-time
World Champion Leonardo Pettinari and two-time Olympian Catello
Amarante. The new United States line up led over the Italians
at the start but by the half way point had been overtaken
by Italy. Belgium in third did not have the energy to challenge.
Italy and the United States advance to the semifinal. Ireland
come to these World Champs as winners of the Rowing World
Cup series, but a fast Chinese crew beat them in the heats
forcing the Irish to contest the repechage today. Ireland
did just that in repechage four by taking to the front of
the field and leaving South Africa to play at chasing. Ireland
developed enough of a margin over South Africa to settle into
a 34 stroke rate rhythm to cross the line first. South Africa,
stroked by Tony Paladin, is the same line-up that won the
B Final at last year’s World Championships and in the
final sprint they got their rating up to 39 to stay ahead
of Austria. Ireland and South Africa advance to the semifinal.
Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – Repechages
Russia conducted a tight battle with reigning World Champions
Great Britain in the heat but were piped in the final metres
forcing them to contest the repechage today. Russia’s
superiority over the rest of the field was obvious as they
led from start to finish already gaining a clear water lead
by the first 500 metres. The Unites States took up chase with
China following closely. This remained the order until the
final sprint. Russia held everyone off to finish first. China
and Germany overtook the United States to take second and
third respectively. The United States also qualify for the
final by holding on to fourth.
Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Repechages
Three boats would qualify and Germany had the best spot at
the start of the race. Behind them a very close battle went
on between the rest of the field. Egypt held the edge early
on but then ran out of steam. Romania and Belarus then took
over in the two remaining qualifying spots with Belarus pulling
out the better sprint. Germany qualifies from first, Belarus
from second and Romania takes third.
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