2002 Zurich Rowing World Cup – Hazewinkel, Belgium. Morning Racing day 2

The Egyptian men’s eight will row in tomorrow’s A-Final. Copyright: Bloso – Jan Masyn
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A spectacular lightning storm the night before made for cooler temperatures for the second day of racing in the Zurich Rowing World Cup in Hazewinkel, Belgium. Conditions on the water saw some chop with a purposeful side wind, sometimes switching to a tail wind.

The day opened with the final repechages for the regatta. The lightweight men’s pair was a race to not be in last position with a five-boat line up and the top four going through to the final. Netherlands 2 finished ahead of their number one crew whose slow start had them spending the entire race playing catch-up. Romania and Great Britain also made it through, holding off Austria who kept the pressure on to the line. These four crews will join the top two British boats in the final.

There were no surprises in the first repechage for the women’s pair. Crews needed to place in the top two spots to make the A-final and South Africa’s combination of Rika Geyser and Colleen Orsmond comfortably held off France to go through for another day. In the second race the Belarus combination of Natallia Halapiatava and Yuliya Bichyk crossed the line ahead of Great Britain 1, who denied Russia a place in the final. Romania and Ukraine qualified directly from Friday’s heat and will be able to enjoy the race from the sidelines.

France rowed through to the final in the first heat of the men’s four ahead of second qualifier Netherlands 2. In the second race Italy rowed a very consistent race easily finishing ahead of Poland who also qualified comfortably. The qualifiers directly from yesterday’s heats, Great Britain 1 and Germany, will make up the centre lanes in Saturday’s final.

In the lightweight men’s four, similarly, the top two boats qualify for the final. Always hotly contested, this Olympic event gave a preview to the athletes that would be working towards the Athens Olympics in 2004. Austria rowed a very consistent race finishing ahead of Great Britain who held off their number 2 crew to take a berth in the final.

France held off a fast finishing Germany 1 in the second repechage with both boats going through to the A-final. The German crew would have taken first place if the race had been one stroke longer, but will still join Italy and Denmark, the qualifiers from Friday’s heats.

The next race was the women’s quadruple scull repechage with the top four boats getting a chance to join Ukraine and Great Britain, Friday’s heat qualifiers, in the final. There were no surprises in this race with Germany finishing in first place followed by Denmark, Netherlands and Belarus, all in qualifying positions.

The cross tailwind continued for the men’s quad repechage which saw a fight for second place in both races. With the top two positions qualifying for the A-final the fight for second is often to the line. Belarus and Great Britain qualified from the first race and will be joined by Estonia and Poland who held off France in the final sprint. Italy and Ukraine finish off the finals line up with their Friday win in the heats.

The men’s eight repechage attracted the most crowd support of the morning and the crowd was rewarded with an exciting race. The Egyptian crew that impressed everyone in Friday’s heat led to the 1000 metres by a fraction from Italy who managed to take the lead and finish less than a second ahead in first place. Also qualifying is Croatia and Poland. Great Britain was the surprise in not qualifying, especially after their winning performance at the Duisburg Regatta last month. Germany and Romania are the direct qualifiers from yesterday’s heats.

The lightweight women’s single started off the semi-final sequence for the day. With two races, the top three boats go through to the A-final and all others make up the B-final. Daniela Nachazelova of the Czech Republic led comfortably from the start ahead of Germany’s Valerie Vichoff and Georgia Dimakou of Greece. Netherlands dominated the second semi with Marit Van Eupen and Hedi Poot taking first and second spots respectively. Kirsten McClelland Brooks from Great Britain also made the A-final finishing in third position.

Germany’s Ingo Euler qualified with the fastest time in the lightweight men’s semi-final. He will be joined by Michal Vabrousek of the Czech Republic and Frederic Dufour of France. The second semi was won by Daniele Gilardoni of Italy who passed the strong starting Zhi Fu Zhu of China. In third place Lubos Podstupka of Slovakia rowed a very consistent race and also qualified for the A-final.

The first final for the Zurich World Cup, the women’s coxless four, was a two boat race between Germany and Great Britain. The order remained the same as Friday’s race for lanes with Germany coming out on top. However, Great Britain never conceded and rowed a strong race right to the line.

The next race was a three-boat line up in the lightweight men’s quad race for lanes. Spain took control from the start and stayed in first place the whole way. They were followed by Greece and Austria with all boats displaying fine form. They made the sport look effortless even in the cross wind conditions.

The women’s eight also raced for lanes with three boats lining up at the start of Hazewinkel’s 2000 metre course. The order was decided in the first 500 metres with Germany taking command followed by Belarus. Romania, in third place, did not put up a challenge.