C and D Semi-finals at the Under 23 Champs

By Melissa Bray

As has become habitual, rain opened the day but unlike previous days the water was completely flat. A very minimal cross tail wind caused little disturbance for semi-final day at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The morning started with C and D semi-finals for boats aiming to advance to the C and D finals scheduled for later this afternoon.

The lightweight women's single broke the waters of the Bosbaan. Featured in the mix were some new rowing nations including Albania's Ilda Theka who trains with the help of Italy and Carmel Zahran of Palestine, currently based in the United States. Fastest time of the two races went to Monika Hrabankova of the Czech Republic who raced last year as an under 23 pairs rower.

The men's single also introduced some new rowing names. Kakla Kandelaki of Georgia recorded the fastest time of a solid 7.20 over Cyprus with Turkey's Ugur Kilic, who first rowed internationally as a junior in 2002, winning the second race.

The men's double sculls had Russia winning the first race with race two looking like a stroll in the park, led by Ireland.

The men's coxed four started at this regatta with six entries so today they raced a preliminary final for lanes on Sunday. Romania made the best job of it over Germany. All six boats had their coxswains sitting in bow with Empacher and Filippi being the boat of choice.

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