Semifinals start to rank rowers at Hamburg

A slight ripple and a smidgen of a tail-cross wind opened today’s racing. This gave way to stronger gusts as the morning went on, but the water on the Allermoehe regatta course remained good for the rowers and finishing times continued to be at the faster end of the spectrum.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Semifinals

Narrowed down to the final 12, these sculllers were up early this morning to make sure that they were at weight (maximum of 72.5kg) before they could race. Semifinal one featured dominating heat winner, Henrik Stephansen of Denmark. Stephansen was not the fastest starter, but a push through the 700m mark gave him the lead and from then on, Stephansen held the coveted position.

Germany’s Jonathan Koch was the only sculler that could get close to Stephansen, holding an overlap through the middle of the race. Olympian and 2010 World Champion Koch, however, then looked satisfied to settle for second and the race turned into a procession to the line. Stephansen crossed the finish line rating a comfortable 30 strokes per minute with Koch in second at 29. Norway’s second sculler Svein Urban Ringstad pulled through to third after a great sprint, rating 38, to cross the line ahead of Mexico.

New Zealand’s Duncan Grant is a three-time World Champion but in 2010 he was unable to make the final at the Karapiro World Rowing Championships. Grant, however, looks like he’s back on form this year and his lead in semifinal two was so convincing that Grant, 31, was able to cruise through to the finish rating 26 strokes per minute. Meanwhile, behind Grant, John Graves of the United States was working his way through the field to get into a qualifying spot. Graves finished ninth at last month’s World Rowing Cup and making the final here in Hamburg will be a big step up.

A push by Graves in the third 500m came unstuck when he caught a crab, but he quickly recovered and held his second place spot with Javid Afandiyev coming through in third.

Qualifiers: DEN, GER, NOR2, NZL, USA, AZE

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Semifinals

Coming through from yesterday’s heats, Poland’s Magdalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska were the favourites after recording the fastest qualifying time. They were up in semifinal two.

First up were second fastest qualifiers, Tatsiana Kukhta and Yuliya Bichyk of Belarus. Kukhta, 21, comes through from finishing second at last year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships and has joined up with the experienced Olympic medallist, Bichyk. Together they took the lead with strong challenges coming from Germany’s first boat (Sophie Dunsing and Nina Wengert) and Germany’s third entry in this event (Lisa Schmidla and Julia Lier).

The two German crews had national team selection on their mind and looked to be more about racing each other than worrying about the Belarusians. But the head-to-head German race forced the pace and meant that Bichyk and Kukhta had to keep their rating up and race the full 2000m. Coming into the closing metres of the race, Schmidla and Lier gave a big push, rating 38. Dunsing and Wengert reacted back holding a strong 35. Bichyk and Kukhta held them off. Belarus and two German crews are in the final with Germany’s first boat holding a slight edge over Germany’s third boat.

Despite the fast pace in semifinal one, Poland’s Fularczyk and Michalska recorded the fastest qualifying time. Fularczyk and Michalska have the pedigree of being 2009 World Champions and Michalska raced in the final of the single at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Poles were the first out of the blocks on the Allermoehe regatta course with Austria (Magdealena Lobnig and Lisa Farthofer) and Germany2 (Juliane Domsheit and Peggy Waleska). As Austria slipped back only Domsheit and Waleska looked to have the speed to challenge Poland.

As the finish line grandstand came into view Fularczyk and Michalska held their stroke rate at 33 and remained comfortably in the lead. Meanwhile Austria, visibly tiring, were at 37 and desperately trying to stay in front of a charging Denmark with Germany’s second boat giving it their all at a 40 stroke rate. Despite stopping before the line Austria held on to third to qualify with Germany’s second boat qualifying from second and Poland from first.

Qualifiers: BLR, GER1, GER3, POL, GER2, AUT

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Semifinals

The wind picked up as these lightweights took to the water. A gusty cross tail-wind was more evident in the second half of the course. But this didn’t stop these rowers giving it their all. First up in semifinal one, much to the crowd’s delight, was Anja Noske and Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany. Noske, 25, won two medals at last year’s World Rowing Championships – the lightweight quad (gold) and the lightweight double (silver). Draeger, meanwhile picked up two golds – the lightweight quad and lightweight single. Together in the double for the first time this year they look to be high prospects for the gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in August.

But first Draeger and Noske had the business of this semifinal. They did not get off to a good start, coming out of the blocks in fifth place. The German duo, however, started to work their way up through the field and by the third 500m they had closed on race leaders, Denmark’s Anne Thomsen and Juliane Rasmussen. Draeger and Noske found a slight lead with Thomsen and Rasmussen holding on. In the final sprint Germany and Denmark remained neck-and-neck, bringing the crowd to their feet. Germany crossed the line just in front, rating 36. Denmark was in second, rating 35 and a huge push by Germany’s second boat (Sina Burmeister and Leonie Pless) gave them the third qualifying spot.

The United States’ Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols will be giving Draeger and Noske a run for their money in tomorrow’s final. In semifinal two Nichols and Hedstrom got off to an aggressive start and never looked back. Going through the middle of the race, however, Austria’s second boat pulled out a huge challenge and attacked the leaders getting a good overlap. The Austrians then ran out of steam with China’s first boat (Changjuan Tang and Feihong Pan) taking chase. Tang, 16, is in her first year of international racing while partner, Pan, 21, is only in her second year on the international scene.

Coming into the line the United States held the rate at 35 with China pushing into second at a 36 stroke rate and Poland’s Magdalena Kemnitz and Agnieszka Renc qualified from third. Hedstrom and Nichols recorded the fastest qualifying time.

Qualifiers: GER1, DEN, GER2, USA, CHN1, POL2

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Semifinals

Semifinal one saw a new bunch of crews coming through at the head of the field. Leading the way was China’s Fangbing Zhang and Tiexin Wang. Zhang and Wang showed their speed yesterday when they recorded the fastest qualifying time. This duo came together last year and finished a very credible fifth at the World Rowing Championships. Today they were put under pressure from Poland’s number two crew of Mariusz Stanczuk and Olympic Champion Robert Sycz. Sycz, 37, is on the comeback trail and has been teamed up with Stanczuk, 28, who has been on and off the Polish national team since 2001.

As these boats went through the third 500m Stanczuk and Sycz got their nose in front of the Chinese. China fought back. Meanwhile, Poland’s first boat (Milosz Jankowski and Bartlomiej Lesniak) had woken up and were charging frantically from the absolute back of the field. Rating 40, Poland’s first boat managed to get into a qualifying spot, denying Austria of an A-final chance. China and two Polish crews are in the final.

The fastest qualifying time came in semifinal two when 2009 World Champions, Storm Uru and Peter Taylor of New Zealand took the lead and never let go. Uru and Taylor were devastated when they finished third in front of their home crowd at the 2010 Karapiro World Rowing Championships and they vowed to correct this result this season. Today, at their first international regatta for the year, they took a step towards this.

Meanwhile Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes of Portugal were in the unusual position of being in second early in a race. Fraga and Mendes usually start off slow then come through at the end with an almighty sprint. Today they slotted into second and remained there. Germany and the United States were left to battle it out for the third and final qualifying spot. Much to the crowd’s delight, Germany’s Christian Hochbruck and Matthais Arnold got through as the United States ran out of steam. New Zealand, Portugal and Germany go on to tomorrow’s final.

Qualifiers: CHN, POL2, POL1, NZL, POR, GER

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Semifinals

As the wind gusts lessened the best single sculling women in the world took to the water. Fronting up in the first semifinal was last year’s bronze medallist, Emma Twigg of New Zealand. She was up against last month’s World Cup bronze medallist China’s Xiuyun Zhang who took a year out from international racing and looks to have come back stronger. At the start of the race Zhang had the lead, but, out of nowhere came Nataliya Mustafayeva of Azerbaijan, grabbing the lead off Zhang. Mustafayeva is a new name for Azerbaijan on the international scene as she has previously rowed for Ukraine. She has the experience of finishing fourth in the women’s quad at the Beijing Olympics for Ukraine.

Zhang held on to Mustafayeva and the two scullers went through the middle of the race side-by-side. Then Twigg did a big push as she came into the final 500m. Mustafayeva couldn’t hold on as Twigg overtook. At the line Zhang was back in the lead, Twigg in second and Mustafayeva in third. None of them really had to sprint the final 100m.

The great Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus was up in semifinal two. The six foot tall Olympic and World Champion doesn’t always take the lead from the start, but today she did. Behind her the biggest threat came from Annekatrin Thiele of Germany. Thiele is Germany’s fastest single sculler and she showed her single sculling talent for the first time internationally last month at Munich. Thiele finished second and sent a message out to her competitors. As the race progressed it became a procession with Karsten easily leading, Thiele following in second and reigning World Champion, Frida Svensson of Sweden moving into third. Nothing changed and only Svensson gave a final burst to the line, rating 32 strokes per minute.

Qualifiers: CHN, NZL, AZE1, BLR, GER1, SWE

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Semifinals

Without all of the big names in the world of the men’s single here, it opened the door up to some new finalists.

With four-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand lining up in semifinal one, the remainder of the field must have thought that only two qualifying spots were left available. This is Drysdale’s first World Cup for the 2011 season and he comes here following an ‘off season’ that saw him battling to train through back problems. Drysdale changed his training regime, to protect his back, which meant less time in the boat and is hoping it hasn’t compromised his boat speed.

There were four very close boats for the first half of the race with Drysdale edging out into the lead over early leader Azerbaijan and Sweden’s Lassi Karonen and Kenneth Jurkowski of the United States also on pace. Coming into the third 500 Drysdale and Karonen had pulled away from the rest of the field with Jurkowski sitting back in third. This order did not change coming into the line and despite his lead, Drysdale still upped his rating coving the last 300m at a 35 – 36 stroke rate. Sweden and the United States followed albeit more conservatively.

A whole new bunch of men’s single finalists came out of semifinal two. In the absence of Germany’s top sculler, Marcel Hacker, the Germans have entered Falko Nolte and Karsten Brodowski. Hacker is sitting out this regatta to focus on his training but has still been seen at the Hamburg course as a spectator, watching especially the men’s single.

Nolte and Brodowski faced off in semifinal two, Nolte as Germany's first boat and Brodowski as Germany's second boat. Nolte, 27, is a regular on the German national team, sometimes seen in the single, sometimes in the double and sometimes in the quad. Brodowski has also been part of the German quad and at the Beijing Olympic he raced to ninth in the double. For this race Nolte led from start to finish with Brodowski settling into second after overtaking a fast starting Patrick Loliger Salas of Mexico.

Loliger Salas remained in qualifying position for most of the race. But that changed when Mario Vekic of Croatia pulled out a huge piece in the third 500 to move into third. Vekic kept the pace on and rating 36 at the finish, Vekic remained in third. Brodowski also sprinted the finish, but Nolte had enough of a lead to remain comfortably in first.

Qualifiers: NZL, SWE, USA, GER1, GER2, CRO