Seville’s Second Day of Semi’s – World Rowing Championships

A cloudy, calm day greeted the rowers on the sixth day of racing. Crews coming into today’s semi-finals had either arrived directly from the heat or had an extra race by qualifying through Wednesday’s repechages.

In the same style as yesterday, two semi-finals in each event had the top three crews moving on to the A-final, all others going to the B-final.

Lightweight Men’s Pair

Chile qualified with the fastest time from the heat and today they led the first semi-final, from the first stroke. Christian Yantani Garces and Miguel Cerda Silva of Chile finished fifth in 2001 and this year they look to be the favourites going into Sunday’s final. Carlo Gaddi and Franco Sancassini of Italy edged their boat into second and held a slight advantage over Australia who put themselves comfortably in to third.

However, a race is never over until the very last stroke.

Australia felt this today. Matthew Russell and Shane Broad had more than four seconds on the United States pairing of Simon Carcagno and Michael Altman with 500 metres to go. Russell and Broad were still in third and qualifying position with 12 metres to go when a couple of bad strokes put them out of the A-final and the United States into it. Australia will contest the B-final.

Gearoid Towey and Tony O’Connor of Ireland are the current World Champions. Today they raced the second semi-final in a battle with the British. Ned Kittoe and Nicholas English of Great Britain have missed out on medals at the last two World Cups, but today they challenged the World Champions. Kittoe and Nicholas led Ireland for the first half of the race and at the line only half a second separated the two crews. Ireland finished in first, Great Britain in second.

The final qualifiers were Jonathan Beare and Christopher Davidson of Canada. They had a job to work their way through Romania to take third.

Lightweight Women’s Double

They’ve dominated for the last year, but today Janet Raduenzel and Claudia Blasberg of Germany did not look so comfortable. Helen Casey and Tracy Langlands of Great Britain have been chasing Raduenzel and Blasberg all season and today the margin was close. Casey and Langlands snuck ahead at the start before Raduenzel and Blasberg gained a slight lead. The a piece through the 750 by Marit van Eupen and Hedi Poot of the Netherlands, put them in touch with the two leading boats before Great Britain responded. At the line a tired looking Netherlands held on to third with Germany in first and Great Britain in second.

The second semi-final featured last year’s quad champions, Sally Causby and Amber Halliday of Australia. They took a handy lead at the start and held off the rest of the field with long, even strokes. Last year’s silver medallists, Poland’s, Katarzyna Demianiuk and Ilona Mokronowska, slipped into second and maintained it for the race, just holding off a strong last quarter by the fast finishing Danish crew. The elated Danes, Juliane Rasmussen and Johanne Thomsen, crossed the line in the last qualifying spot after outsprinting Canada in the closing strokes. Rasmussen finished twelfth in this event last year.

Lightweight Men’s Double

Poland places second in their LM2x semi-final
© Getty Images

Germany and Australia met for the first time last month in Munich. Today they met again. German’s, Peter Ording and Manuel Brehmer, used their fast start to take an early lead. The slower start by Daniel Stewart and Haimish Karrasch of Australia didn’t stop them from closing the gap on first throughout the race. By the finish line less than a second separated them. Australia must be wondering what the results would have been if they just had a little more water. Meanwhile, Denmark held onto third. Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Hansen finished sixth in 2001 and will, for a second year, contest the A-final.

The second semi-final featured World Champions, Elia Luini and Leonardo Pettinari of Italy. Coming from a nation that excels in lightweight rowing Luini and Pettinari have won two World Cups already this season. Also featuring were 2001 silver medallists, Poland. Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz have been trading places with Italy for the last couple of years. Poland won at the Sydney Olympics while Italy beat them in 2001. This is the first time the two crews have met this season. Today Italy led the way with Poland following comfortably in second. Greece, meanwhile, held easily on to third. The order did not change throughout the race.

Lightweight Men’s Four

A major upset struck in the lightweight men’s four when World Champions, Austria, were raced out of the A-final. In the tougher of the two semis, 2001 silver medallists, Denmark, took the lead and proceeded to extend it down the Guadalquivir river. With only one change from the crew that finished fourth in 2001, Italy held on to second. Going into the final with the third fastest time, Italy could be on target for a medal. France is defending a 2001 bronze finish. The crew is yet to win a medal this year and throughout the season they have tried a variety of line up changes. Today they moved on to the A-final, finishing ahead of Austria, in third position.

Canada and Australia met for the first time this season in the second semi-final. Douglas Vandor, Iain Brambell, Jonathan Maddick and Gavin Hassett of Canada burst into the 2002 season by winning at the second World Cup. Australia’s season debut at the third World Cup had them second behind the Danes. Today Australia grabbed the psychological advantage. Led by team captain, Simon Burgess, the crew took the lead going in the second 500 and had the confidence to reduce power in the last 100 metres, cruising over the bubble line.

Canada recovered from a slow start to move first through Ireland, then Yugoslavia and finally Germany in the middle section of the race. Content just to qualify, the Canadians also buttoned off in the closing metres of the race to let a very happy Germany power to second in a photo finish. The German crew is a completely new line up from last year’s tenth placed crew and the four have consistently made every World Cup final this season.

Men’s Quad

Ukraine has won every race this season, but margins have been slim. In Hazewinkel it was less than half a second, in Lucerne a draw with Italy and in Munich there was less than a second over Belarus. Today they felt the heat of the World Championships. Ukraine qualified for the A-final but they did it through a repechage and today took third. Ahead of them Germany and Poland battled it out for 2000 metres. Poland held a slight lead, but by never more than a second over World Champions, Germany. Rowing a very consistent race, Poland let the Germans move ahead in the last 500 metres of the race to take first.

The final semi-final race of the World Championships, race 147, featured a battle between Italy and Russia. Russia took early command with a strong start and concentrated on holding it. Meanwhile Italy, working solidly through the middle part of the race, moved into the lead with 500 metres to go. Russia and Italy were confident enough not to put everything into the final sprint and crossed the line in first and second. Meanwhile Belarus, who came through from winning their repechage on Wednesday, suffered a slow start and spent the race moving through crews. First they passed the Netherlands, then Slovenia and finally, with a powerful sprint, they overtook France to take the last spot in the A-final.

C and D-finals

Today also featured a number of C and D-finals. These crews that did not make the semi-finals came back to contest the race that would rank them 13^th through to 24^th in the world. A number of rowing development countries featured in these races and for many competitors it was their first taste of international competition.

Results can be viewed by clicking the Live Race Viewer icon on the worldrowing.com home page.