An Afternoon of Heartbreak ? Lucerne World Cup

Repechages are the rowers equivalent to a second chance. In French it means to ?re-scoop’ – another opportunity for the athletes to move to the semi-final. The intensity of racing, therefore, steps up a level. Depending on the number of entries, either the top two or three boats go on to the semi-final.

The Italians during the Quadruple Sculls heats at Rowing World Cup.
© Getty Images

Conditions for the afternoon continued to be perfect with a slight tail wind and a thin cover of cloud that cleared to a sunny afternoon.

The lightweight women’s single added three more names to the semi-final: Germany two, Sweden and Hong Kong. The same event for men had four repechages with the top two going through to the semi. The successful rowers covered four continents. Japan’s, Daisaku, led the way with the fastest qualifying time.

The fastest qualifying time in the lightweight men’s pair, Romania, was faster than any of the boats in the heats. Veljko Urosevic and Nenad Babovic covered the 2000 metres in 6.38 and will go on to the semi-final. The top three in each of these races also qualified.

With three boats in each repechage and two to qualify each rower in the women’s single aimed to have at least one boat behind them. In all of the six heats the finish was decided by the first 500-metre mark.  Qualifying in the fastest time was Sweden’s Zhang Xiuyun and also making it to the semi-final was Laila Finska (Bezzerra) who was the lightweight single World Champion in 2000.

The men’s single had the top three of four boats qualifying after Christian Schreiber of Germany scratched. The two Italian boats and Australia number two continued their journey through to the semi-final. Denmark was the only boat to miss out.

The women’s and men’s pair repechage were completed with one race in each event and the top three qualifying. Australia led the way taking the top two spots in the women’s pair with their number one and three crews making it an Australian triage in the semi-final. China also qualified in third position. Italy, France and Argentina qualified for the men.

Hungarian World Champions, Haller and Petoe, had to row a repechage to secure their spot in the semi-final and did it with a time faster than in their heat. Of the two other repechages Lithuania and Cuba also took top spots.

Great Britain’s number two crew qualified in the men’s four in style by crossing to line in first position. Poland and Slovenia also won their respective races with Poland notching the fastest time of the three repechages.

The lightweight women’s double started off the day with 18 boats and 15 still had to race repechages. The top three crews in each race qualified for the semi-final and included both United States entries, the young Australian combination, Ireland, France, Poland, Denmark and Canada.

The top two positions was the aim in the lightweight men’s double repechage. The Czech Republic qualified with the fastest time, but only ½ a second over Russia who won their race. In every race third position finished heartbreakingly close to qualifying with their final 500 metre pace being faster than the second placed qualifier. This is international racing at its best.

In a fast finishing lightweight men’s four the top three qualifying spots came down to a photo finish with the Netherlands missing out by a mere .06 of a second. Australia, Switzerland and South Africa were safe for another day of racing.

The men’s quad also made for some close racing. With three repechages and the top three boats qualifying it was a race to not be fourth. This is the second time these crews raced today and noone was willing to miss out on a spot in the semi-final. More top racing had the times so close that the difference between third and fourth being a photo finish. On the Day Denmark, Great Britain and Australia were unlucky.

One crew would not make it through in the men’s eight. Often racing comes down to how good the crew gels on the day. Today France did not quite have it and Great Britain, Italy and Australia were the boats to qualify.