2002 World Cup Racing - Hazewinkel day 1

Gregor Novak and Luka Spik rowing in the rep to qualify for tomorrow’s M2x semi-final
© Sybrand Treffers

Despite cool weather leading up to the first Zurich Rowing World Cup, Friday saw near perfect rowing conditions in Hazewinkel, Belgium. A slight tail wind, switching to a slight cross, started the morning of heats with flat water and mild temperatures.

The number of entries in each race decide which crews go through to repechages, semi-finals or directly to finals. These races have the top crew going directly their final. Click here for full results of today’s racing.

The heat of the lightweight men’s pair was a race for first place as the winner gets to go directly to the final.  Boats from Great Britain won both heats with Great Britain’s second boat having their work cut out by going from last to first place in time for the final 500 metre sprint. All other boats will meet in the repechages tomorrow.

The women’s pair saw the Romanian crew of Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu unleash their dominance by leading from the start and finish comfortably ahead of South Africa who successfully challenged them last month at the Duisburg Regatta. Ukraine who raced in heat 2 will also go through to the final with a time four seconds slower than Romania.

Great Britain’s women’s double of Frances Houghton and Deborah Flood will go directly to the final with the fastest time and will face Germany’s top boat made up of Manuela Lutze and Kerstin El-Qalqili (Kowalski) who also gain a spot in a centre lane after rowing ahead of their number two crew.

The first heat of the men’s coxless four attracted attention with France and Great Britain 1 battling it out for a direct pass to the final. One second separated them at the finish with Great Britain nosing ahead in the final sprint. Germany had command of the second heat and will go on to meet their rivals from the Duisburg Regatta.

Germany and Austria’s sprint in the lightweight men’s four was not enough to get the direct path to finals with Italy squeaking into first place in Heat 1. They will face the Danes in the final who after the start denied France of the shortcut through to the final.

In the women’s quadruple sculls the Ukrainian crew held the lead from start to finish and will join Great Britain who also controlled their heat. The Saturday morning repechage will decide the other four boats in the final.

The Ukrainian men’s quad had more of a challenge. They were paced the entire race by Poland who had a fraction of a lead at 500 metres to go but snuck through at the end by barely a bow ball. The favourites, Italy had a little easier time in heat 1 to make their way through to the final.

The men’s eight had rivals Germany and Great Britain in the same heat. This time it is Germany who will go directly to the final with Great Britain off the pace. Romania pulled it off in the second heat ahead of the Egyptian crew that was not giving up.

After final team adjustments, two races are straight finals. The women’s eight and the lightweight men’s quad will race for lanes on Saturday with finals on Sunday.

Friday Repechages

Friday afternoon’s repechages had flat water, mild temperatures and very little wind.  All crews had raced earlier in the day in heats, but missed the required placing to put them directly into the semi-final. Depending on the number of entries, crews needed to place in the top two or three positions to advance to the semi-finals.

The racing began with the lightweight women’s single. No challenges happened with the finishing order decided in the first 500 meters of the race with Hedi Poot of the Netherlands qualifying along with Austria 1 and 2 of Caroline Sturm and Martina Miessgang. Already qualifying for the semi-final from this morning’s heats are Greece, Netherlands 3, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Germany, France 1 and 2 and qualifying with the fastest time, Marit Van Eupen of the Netherlands.

The lightweight men’s single had China, the Czech Republic and Germany 1 qualify in the heat. In the first repechage with three crews to advance, the result was clear-cut for the top three boats. Nick Wakefield of Great Britain crossed the line first but only after a close tussle the whole way with Jesp Krogh Mathiasen of Denmark. For his effort Wakefield will gain a more favourable lane in the semi-final.

In the second repechage another clear-cut decision was made, this time by the 1000 metres. France, represented by Frederic Dufour, led the way, followed by Slovakia and Great Britain.

The third repechage for the lightweight men’s single was a tussle for the third and final qualifying spot for the semi-final. France and Portugal took it to the line, Mathieu Sapin of France pushing ahead. He will be joined by Italy and Great Britain who were in front, in first and second spots respectively.

The only repecharge for the women’s single scull was an exciting finish for second when Estonia put on the heat and pushed ahead of Spain who ended the race in third spot. She will also qualify. Kristiana Rode of Latvia was the third qualifier finishing in the top spot. Qualifying from the morning’s heats were Italy, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Netherlands, France and Germany. The Czech Republic, represented by Miroslava Knapkova, also qualified clocking the fastest time.

The men’s single scull had four repechages and two to advance from each race. Egypt and France 2 qualified from the first race with Egypt leading from the start and France 2 being pushed by the Netherlands who did not qualify. France 3 joined his fellow countryman in qualifying for the semi-final from the second repechage. He led Franco Berra of Italy who will also qualify.

In the third men’s single repechage Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria led from the start but finished in second and qualifying position behind Ralph Kreibich of Austria who pulled into first position in the last 500 metres. The final qualifying repechage was clear-cut from the 1000 metre mark with France 1, Frederic Kowal and Switzerland’s Andre Vonarburg taking first and second spots respectively.

Four boats qualified in the morning and go straight to the semi-finals. Marcel Hacker of Germany qualified with the fastest time. He is joined by Olaf Tufte of Norway, Dirk Lippits of the Netherlands and the Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic.

Great Britain, Croatia and Germany 1 qualified for the men’s pair in the heat with the German duo of Detlef Kirchoff and Ike Landvoigt clocking the fastest time. Three repechages followed in the afternoon with the top three advancing to the semi-final. South Africa, Netherland’s 2 and Lithuania took honours comfortably in the first round.

A similar race developed in the second repechage with the only battling going on between the leading three crews. Czech Republic came out on top, followed by Croatia 2 and Germany 2.  The third repechage followed the theme with the race for the top three spots decided in the first 500 metres.  The final order was Italy in first spot, followed by Romania and Greece.

Repechages for the men’s double scull was a three-boat qualifier with three repechages. In the first race the Czech Republic held their lead until the finish followed by Spain and Greece 1 who finished within a bow ball of each other.  The second round was a full on sprint in the last 500 metres with Ukraine finishing on top, followed by Austria and the Netherlands.

Luka Spik and Gregor Novak of Slovenia dominated the third repechage in the men’s double in a race that never changed order. Poland and Belgium also qualified in second and third spots respectively. These crews will join Hungary, Italy and Germany, Qualifiers from the morning’s heats.

Also racing for the second time today were the crews for the lightweight men’s double scull repechage. Four races and the top two advancing made for some competitive racing. Poland and Belgium took the top two honours in the first repechage. They held off the Swiss combination that included Olympic medallist Markus Gier who was unable to qualify. Great Britain 1 and Hungary also go through to the semis from the second repechage. They will join the ranks of Spain and Netherlands 1 who comfortably held the top two spots in their repechage.

The final and fastest repechage in the men’s lightweight double had France qualifying in the top spot followed just over one second behind by Great Britain 2 who overtook China to grab the final qualifying spot. The qualifying crews from the heats were Italy, Greece, Germany and Denmark, who all won convincingly earlier in the day.