Lightweight Rowing Dominates the Morning - BearingPoint World Cup

 

Strong local support for all crews lined the Olympiaregatta Course on Saturday

With sun shining and a slight cross-tail wind, Munich’s Olympia Regattaverein looked set for a great day of racing. Lightweight rowing dominated the morning’s performances and Guatemala created history by winning their first ever international race.

Lightweight Women’s Double ? D Final

In slight tail-cross wind conditions the Austrians christened the waters of the Olympia Regattaverein by winning the D-final. Martina Miessgang and Monika Felizeter took a small lead over Japan who continued to pressure Austria through the middle 1000 of the race. Zimbabwe followed in third place. Like many rowers the Zimbabweans choose to train in another country, South Africa being their training base.

Lightweight Men’s Single ? C Final

Ming-Chang Tsai of Chinese-Taipei kept the heat on Hong Kong’s Kam Hung Tsui through the bulk of the C-final. However Tsui used his superior sprint to take first place at the line over Tsai whose next challenge is his home country’s rowing trials in July.

Men’s Single  – C Final

Starting with a smaller field than raced at Milan last month, the C-final in the single had three scullers. The primary battle of this race panned out to be between  Bulgaria’s Martin Yanakiev and Tobias Vallerius of Sweden. Vallerius took an early lead, but Yanakiev was finding his rhythm and improving boat speed as the race advanced. Vallerius still had a slight lead with 500 metres to go while Yanakiev from one lane over was pressing stroke for stroke. In the final sprint Bulgaria demonstrated his will to win crossing first.

Men’s Double ? C Final

Accomplished single sculler Jueri Jaanson joined with Igor Kuzmin to race the double for Estonia and in the C-final had to contend with Brazil. The Brazilians have been based in Munich for the last three weeks and put in a solid challenge staying within a stones throw of the Estonians, but they could not match the pace and finished in second.

Lightweight Women’s Double ? C Final

The new Japanese line-up of Kahori Uchiyama and Akiko Iwamoto took an early small lead over the field going through the bright yellow signs, which indicate the 500-metre mark, in first place. But Sweden and Denmark were using a consistent race plan to inch their way ahead of the Japanese. Consistency paid off as the two crews battled each other stroke for stroke through the last half of the race finishing in less than a second of each other, Sweden in first.

Lightweight Men’s Double ? C Final

The pressure was on as all five boats battled through the first quarter of the race within breathing distance of each other. Bulgaria took a slight early lead and as Egypt dropped off the pace China snuck ahead through the middle of the race. Going with China was Japan’s number two crew and Finland. These three crews kept the pressure on each other and at the line China maintained a small lead over Japan followed by Finland.

Lightweight Men’s Four ? C Final

Guatemala made rowing history today when their men’s four won the first ever race at an international event for their country. David Kamber Wilson, Herman Garcia Revolorio, Oscar Maeda Gudiel and Juan Guevara Gonzalez were ecstatic as they crossed the line ahead of Japan’s second crew who kept the Guatemalan’s honest throughout the race pushing them right through to the final sprint. Slovenia followed in third position.

Guatemala has been part of the Latin American contingent based at the course for the last couple of weeks.

Lightweight Women’s Single ? Semi-final

Achieving a semi-final berth for some is a huge achievement. For others it is merely a formality on the way to the final and to get to the final meant a top three finish at the Olympic Park. Mirna Rajle of

Croatia has seen international finals for the last two years and set the stage for another today when she crossed the line comfortably in first place.

Despite being third out of the starting zone, Rajle used a powerful middle section of the race to pull into the lead. Meanwhile Kirsten Jepsen of Denmark was making up for a slow start and finding her pace as the race progressed. Jepsen overtook Sweden’s Camilla Persson to take second while Persson will also go through to the final by finishing third.

In the second semi-final the clear favourite was Germany’s Janet Raduenzel but Tunisia’s up-and-coming star was having nothing of it. Twenty-one year old Ibtissem Trimech impressed everyone at the first World Cup last month when she finished fourth in the final and her tenacity was evident today as she confronted 2001 World Champion, Raduenzel, head-on.

The two scullers opened up a sizeable gap on the field so that by the 1000 they were over eight seconds ahead of their nearest challenger. Raduenzel only managed to shake Trimech in the closing 400 metres of the race and took first. Trimech qualified in second and the final qualifying spot will go to Hungary’s Anna Alliquander.

Lightweight Men’s Single ? Semi-final

The first semi-final was all about Germany’s Peter Ording. Disappointed in missing out on a spot in the Olympic class boat, the double, Ording wants to impress the selectors. He took an early lead over Hongru Xu of China and Csaba Denes of Hungary. Ording was then content to sit just ahead of the field and watch Xu and Denes battle it out for second and third. And battle they did. From lane six Xu snuck into ahead of Denes. But the Hungarian came back and used a solid middle 1000 to get into second spot and widen the gap over China. These three single scullers now advance to the final. Austria, Sweden and Tunisia will return for the B-final.

The second semi-final opened with the number two German sculler, Markus Hartung taking a slight early lead. But slight was the operative word. Spain’s Carlos Loriente Perez and Martin Nielsen of Denmark were having nothing of it. Perez maintained a solid pace and moved into the front and held that position. The Spanish sculler continued to keep the pace on as Nielson slipped ahead of Hartung.

In the closing 400 metres of the race, Hartung brought the pressure down being content to qualify from third spot while Nielsen took second and Perez first.

Lightweight Men’s Pair

A field of five boats meant today’s event was a race for lanes in tomorrow’s final. Denmark decided they wanted the best lane by taking an early lead and remaining there. The duo of Bo Brask Helleberg and Mads Andersen is a change from Milan’s silver medal winning crew. Andersen raced to silver with Stephan Moelvig who was taking a break from Denmark’s famous lightweight four due to injury. Now back with Helleberg, Andersen looks set for another World Cup medal.

Meanwhile Germany and China paced each other with Germany finishing in second ahead of China at the line. Hungary and the United States looked content to conserve their energy for tomorrow and were not at racing pressure.

Lightweight Women’s Quad

This was also a race for lanes with five entered boats. The Netherlands look to be the favourites with three of the same crew that won silver in 2002. However it’s the new German line-up held a slight lead through the halfway point and finished ahead of the Dutch who were three seconds back at the line.

Lightweight Men’s Quad

Another race for lanes in the men’s quad turned into a procession down the 2000 metre course. Germany’s club crew led the procession followed by the Netherlands, which included three of the 2002 bronze medal winning crew. The procession continued with Switzerland, then Spain and finally Argentina who had obviously decided to conserve energy