Cool heats at Munich World Cup

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – heats

All of these crews raced in a preliminary time trial race earlier today and they returned to the race course to complete the round of heats. As many lightweights have to lose weight to get to the required weight (average weight of the boat, 70kg) having two races has to be well managed. This afternoon some new crews looked to handle it better than old favourites.

Divided into two heats, the top two boats in each heat would qualify directly for the final on Sunday. In heat one Juri Kopac and Miroslav Vrastil of the Czech Republic did the best job beating two very solid British boats to the line. The second Great Britain boat (Peter Chambers and Kieren Emery) managed to outsprint Great Britain’s first boat to be the second qualifying boat. All other boats will have to race again on Saturday in the repechage.

A big surprise occurred in heat two with current World Champions, Fabien Tilliet and Jean-Christophe Bette of France missing out on a top two spot. Tilliet and Bette were the fastest boat in this morning’s time trials but they didn’t seem to get it right this afternoon. Instead it was Germany (Jost and Matthias Schoemann-Finck) and Serbia that were the qualifying boats. Tilliet and Bette will need do well in their repechage on Saturday to qualify for the final.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – preliminary race

As there are just six boats entered in this event, today’s race was a race for lanes for Sunday’s final. At the end of the race Ukraine had earned the coveted middle lane for Sunday by crossing the line in first. A tidy looking Ukraine used a 33 stroke rate in the closing metres of the race with World Champions, Great Britain following in second.  Ukraine is putting a lot of emphasis on this boat and Great Britain (and Germany) may have to step up their game if they want to beat the Ukrainians.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – heats

Divided into two heats, the aim for crews was to finish in the top two positions if they wanted a direct path to the final on Sunday. All other boats would need to race a further, second chance race in the repechage.

Heat one featured reigning Olympic Champions, Poland. But despite the many gold medals in their cupboard, the Poles were not on it today. Instead it was Ukraine and Great Britain that did the best racing. Ukraine rated 36 to Great Britain’s 37 to cross the line in first. Poland will have to return for Saturday’s repechage along with Italy who all but stopped rowing in the last 50m of the race.

The second heat featured reigning World Champions Croatia. This young crew has been making waves over the last couple of years and as they head towards the 2012 Olympics they appear to be the biggest threat to Poland’s recent domination. However, today Croatia did not have the ideal race. Around about the half way point, a crab forced the crew to all but restart. This gave Germany the opportunity to sneak away and truly establish themselves in first. Croatia, however, came back to get into second position and do enough to qualify directly for the final behind Germany.

Men’s Eight (M8+) – heats

Divided into two heats these eight entries had to finish first in their heat if they wanted to go directly to the final. All of these crews raced this morning in a time trial with some choosing to race hard while others did little more than a solid piece.

In heat one Poland approached the race aggressively and kept it up for the entire race. France attacked the Polish leader continually, but could never quite get their bow ball in front. Rating 40 with 350m to go Poland retained the lead to the end. France attacked at a 40 then 42 stroke rate leaving the rest of the field in their wake but France will still have to return for Saturday’s repechage.

World Champions, Germany featured along with world silver medallists, Great Britain. Holding a 36 stroke rate for the majority of the race kept Germany at the front of the field while Great Britain found themselves having to work through China, then the Netherlands to get up with Germany. Germany took their stroke rate up towards the end as Great Britain closed, but the Brits closed too late. Germany will go directly to the final.