Hacker Out in Thrilling Semis Action

Olympic bronze medallist Marcel Hacker has failed to make the finals of the FISA World Rowing Championships, coming a shock fourth in semifinals in Lucerne, Switzerland this afternoon (Thursday).

It was top quality competition at the World Champs today, with every race exciting as crews went full out for a place in the medal finals.

Hacker went out hard from the start and had nearly a length on Czech Vaclav Chalupa by the 500 metre mark.

But it was too much too soon. In the third 500 he was rowed through by Chalupa and Olaf Tufte of Norway who were battling for the lead.

Tufte took the race in the final 500 metres, with Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria rowing through an obviously tiring Hacker.

Hacker was taken from the boat and given medical assistance after the race but recovered quickly.

The race the Lucerne crowd had come to see was semifinal two. A large band of Xeno Mueller supporters gathered by the finish line, Swiss flags waving and cowbells clanging.

And they weren’t disappointed.

Mueller took the race but he had to fight hard. Olympic double sculls champion Iztok Cop was beside him until they crossed the line. The two rowers swapped the lead several times but at the finish it was Mueller by 0.24 seconds.

The race for third was also close, with Australia’s Duncan Free rowing through Argentina’s Santiago Fernandez to take third by 0.2 seconds.

There were more surprises in the women’s single as France’s Sophie Balmary took the first semifinal over Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten.

Karsten looked content to merely qualify in the top three, never really shifting into top gear. Agnieska Tomzcak of Poland was third, with all three women appearing comfortable in the final stages.

Racing was a little tighter in the second semifinal. Olympic bronze-medallist Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany was pushed all the way to her win by Russian Joulia Levina.

The German eventually won with a length to spare as Erika Spinello of Italy came through to make her first World Championships final.

Olympic coxless fours champion Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell are safely qualified for two finals after winning semifinal one of the men’s coxless pair.

They had already made the final of the coxed pair after winning their heat on Sunday.

Cracknell and Pinsent will line up next to Ramon di Clemente and Donovan Cech in the final after the South Africans took a tight second semifinal.

In the men’s double, the Italian duo of Olympic quad sculls champions Rossano Galtarossa and Alessio Sartori showed that a little experience can go a long way as they qualified for the final.

They have only been training together in the double since July this year after both took post-Sydney breaks.

The Italians do have something to think about for Sunday though. They had to be content to qualify second after a photo finish showed World Cup champions Akos Haller and Tibor Peto of Italy pipped them on the line by two hundredths of a second.

France’s Adrien Hardy and Sebastien Vielledent took the second semifinal over Stephan Volkert and Stefan Roehnert of Germany and Olympic champion Luka Spik and new partner Davor Mizerit of Slovenia.

Olympic champions Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu of Romania had little trouble on the way to their win in the second semifinal of the women’s coxless pair, beating Australians Emily Martin and Kristina Larsen by a length.

In a win just 0.02 seconds faster than the Romanians, Canada’s Jacqueline Cook and Karen Clark won the first semifinal after a close battle with Olga Tratsevskaya and Yuliya Bichyk of Belarus.

Sam Lynch of Ireland continued his winning form in the lightweight men’s single sculls with a length’s lead. But perhaps the most exciting result of the race was the comeback by Steve Tucker of the USA.

He was last off the start but clawed his way back through the field to qualify second over Frederic Dufour of France.

Former world lightweight coxless pairs champion Stefano Basalini used a speedy sprint to earn first place by a length over world champion Michal Vabrousek. Vabrousek was comfortably second over Tamas Varga.

For a more details on every race see the Race by Racer report in news.