World Rowing Championship Semi-finals Begin

Lightweight single Benedicte Luzuy of France

By Melissa Bray

Speed in the singles shines through as rowers moved on more step closer to the finals at the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan.

In the first round fo semi-finals the intensity of some races gave the appearance of finals as crews aimed for a top three finish in their race. This would secure them a spot in the final.

Lightweight Women's Single (LW1x)

A rip roarer of a tight race opened the Group A semi-finals with the top three boats able to advance to the final. Apart from Ireland, all of the competitors were in qualifying spots at different times during the race with the only domination, although slight, coming from Ismaray Marrero Aria of Cuba. Marrero raced last year in the lightweight double at the Olympics and this year won her first Rowing World Cup medal as a single sculler.

Spanish lightweight single sculler Teresa Mas de Xaxares Rivero

Challenging closely, Spain's Olympian Teresa Mas De Xaxars Rivero, Germany's Laura Tasch and Olympian Chrysi Biskitzi of Greece rowed through the half-way point with only a one and a half second gap between the top four boats. These scullers would have to give it their all in the last 500 metres to qualify. They did just that taking the race to a photo finish. Minutes passed before the final result came up on the big screen. Biskitzi was the unlucky one. Marrero, Mas De Xasars Rivero and Tasch move on to the final.

The second semi was a bit clearer for the top three boats, but still a tight race. Favourite Marit Van Eupen of the Netherlands and France's Bénédicte Luzuy-Dorfman led the field with Great Britain's Jo Hammond holding on. Van Eupen has competed at the last two Olympics in the lightweight double with partner Kirsten Van der Kolk. Van der Kolk is taking some time off from rowing and recently had a baby leaving Van Eupen to race the single. Luzuy-Dorfman competed at the 2000 Olympics and then took a break coming back this year to continue her rowing career. Hammond comes to rowing via success on the indoor rowing machine and finished second last year in this event.

Van Eupen, Luzuy-Dorfman and Hammond looked to be the boats to qualify but Marika Page of the United States then, in the words of commentator Robert Treharn Jones, started to ?look dangerous?. A piece at the 1,600 brought Page within striking distance of a qualifying spot. But the leading crews held Page off. Van Eupen, Luzuy-Dorfman and Hammond move on to the final.

Lightweight men's single scullers Ingo Euler (GER) and Gerard Van der Linden (NED)

Lightweight Men's Single (LM1x)

He stripped five seconds off the World Best time and he did it without sprinting at the end. Greece's first ever Olympic medalist in rowing, Vasileios Polymeros can now be the first ever Greek to hold a rowing World Best time. It all happened in the first of two semi-finals. Polymeros raced at Athens in the lightweight double but his partner decided to take a year off and Polymeros has moved successfully to the single.

With Polymeros in the lead a three-way fight was going on through the body of the race. Fabrice Moreau of France, Ingo Euler of Germany and Rolandas Kazlauskas of Lithuania all had a chance at the remaining two spots. This situation continued into the final sprint. Kazulauskas was unlucky. Polymeros, Moreau and Euler advance to the final.

Tim Eichmann of Switzerland presented the first major upset of the day when he grabbed the lead in the second semi-final. This is Eichmann's first season in the single and so far he has been recording mediocre results. There was nothing mediocre about what he was doing today at Gifu.

Behind Eichmann three boats were going for the two remaining spots. This year's Under-23 Champion, Zac Purchase of Great Britain, had a very strong start along with Gerard van der Linden of the Netherlands who comes to the single after finishing a disappointing fourth at Athens in a photo finish in the lightweight four. Japan's Kazushige Ura set the World Best time yesterday through the repechage and today he was right in the pack.

Coming into the final sprint Eichmann remained in the lead but van der Linden was flying. Rating 39 strokes per minute the Dutch man charged. Purchase and Kazushige joined the sprint. A photo finish at the line had Eichmann winning, van der Linden in second and Purchase in third.

After the race Eichmann admitted that he'd raced his dream race with the finish line coming way sooner than he ever expected.

Frida Svensson of Sweden

Women's Single Scull (W1x)

She's yet to medal at the World Championship level but today the Czech Republic's Mirka Knapkova became World Best time holder when she broke the 2002 record by a quarter of a second. Knapkova did it in semi-final one by leading from the start and working her way to an open water lead over France's Sophie Balmary and single sculling newcomer Michelle Guerette of the United States.

Easily in the top three qualifying spots, leader Knapkova, Guerette in third and Balmary in second moved away from the rest of the field. A quicker sprint by Guerette, who raced at the Athens Olympics in the quad, took the American ahead of Balmary. But the sprint was merely academic and Knapkova, Guerette and Balmary move on to the final. Guerette now becomes the first United States woman to make a final in the single in nine years.

It may be hot at the World Rowing Champs, but Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus barely broke a sweat. Doing just enough to stay ahead of the rest of the field Karsten spent the body of the race rating in the mid 20s. Karsten already has four Olympic medals ? two of them gold ? and is one of the few rowers that makes her living from the sport. Coached by her husband, Wilfried Karsten, Karsten has every intention of racing at Beijing.

Behind Karsten, Yulya Levina of Russia and Frida Svensson of Sweden waged their own battle for second, both of them clearly in qualifying spots ahead of Germany. Levina already has two Olympic Games to her credit and a bronze medal from the quad. Svensson, 24, burst onto the single scene last year when she became the very last qualifier for the Athens Olympics. Svensson went on to finish eighth. At the line Karsten, Levina and Svensson move on to the final.

Men's single sculler from New Zealand, Mahe Drysdale

Men's Single Scull (M1x)

The two sculling newcomers, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, have been battling each other all season with the score one all. Here are the stats. Synek finished behind Drysdale at Munich, but ahead at Lucerne. Drysdale weighs in at about 1kg more than Synek and is 3cm taller. Both competed at Athens, but in different events. They come together from other sides of the world and met again in the first of two semi-finals.

Drysdale had the lead at the start and settled into a solid 30 ? 31 strokes per minute while Synek sat about one second down. This order continued for the body of the race with Cuba's Yoennis Hernandez Arruez coming to the semi via yesterday's repechage and via a tenth place finish in the double at last year's Olympics.

Working his way up from the back of the field, Lassi Karonen of Sweden also had to race the repechage yesterday and it looked like the extra race was taking its toll. Coming into the final sprint Karonen tried to challenge Hernandez, but he didn't quite have the juice. Meanwhile, at the front of the field, Synek had worked his way past Drysdale in the last 100 metres to take first and in the process break the World Best time by five seconds. Synek, Drysdale and Hernandez will meet again in Saturday's final.

Single sculler Olaf Tufte from Norway

The question remains; did Drysdale bag it at the end of the race? Or does Synek have the better sprint? Athletes and coaches will be analysing the videos on www.worldrowing.com , video archiving.

Ten minutes. The length of time Synek was World Best time holder. Olaf Tufte of Norway changed all of that in the second semi-final knocking a further two seconds off the time. This is how he did it.

Olympic Champion Tufte got off to a fast and aggressive start so that by the 500 metre mark he had a slight lead over the rest of the field. Surprisingly Tufte's main challenge was in the form of Tim Maeyens of Belgium. Maeyens was a successful junior but only came into his own as a senior rower last year when he made the Olympic final. Taking time off from rowing after Athens, Maeyens was back on the international scene this year struggling in the Rowing World Cup C-finals.

Also surprisingly was Germany's Marcel Hacker out of the picture and at the back of the field. Ahead of Hacker current Under-23 Champion, Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands had gotten to the half-way point in third position.

Tufte, who has only found the medals podium once this season, continued in the lead stroking a high 36 for the body of the race. Coming into the final sprint Maeyens went after Tufte taking his rating to 41 over Tufte's 39 with slow starting Hacker pushing Hamburger to a photo finish. The more experienced Hacker got there first. Tufte, Maeyens and Hacker will meet again in Saturday's final.

Italian men's pair Luca Agamennoni (bow) and Dario Lari

Men's Pair (M2-)

New Zealand's Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater looked like they were racing this with the intensity of a final. Twaddle and Bridgewater have done a clean sweep of the golds so far this season and today they took off at the head of the field using a very tall, upright stroke reminiscent of their country's Sydney Olympics gold medalist, Rob Waddell. Behind the New Zealanders Luca Agamennoni and Dario Lari of Italy were underrating the New Zealanders by two beats with Greece's Nikos Pagounis and Ioannis Christou pushing through to third.

Pagounis has been racing internationally since his junior days eight years ago, but has only ever made an A-final once. The younger Christou raced as a junior in 2000 and, like Pagounis, has only seen one A-final. Today the Greeks, under the guidance of new head coach Gianni Postiglione, made the 2005 World Rowing Championships A-final and will be joined by New Zealand and Italy.

A 10 minute delay at the start as an umpire's launch untangled itself from the lane lines gave crews time to practice some more starts. Practicing in lane four was Croatia and next door in lane three South Africa.

Croatia and South Africa last met about this time a year ago when they challenged each other in the Athens Olympics final. On that occasion Croatia finished ahead of the South Africans. On today's occasion the two crews performed a heated head-to-head race with Niksa and Sinisa Skelin of Croatia having the slight advantage.

Since Athens both South Africa's Ramon Di Clemente and Don Cech and the Skelins have gone about their racing season with less intensity than their build-up to the Olympics. Sinisa Skelin has been squeezing his training around his residency as a medical doctor while Cech and Di Clemente only came to Europe once this season to defend their title at the Henley Royal Regatta.

Coming into the final sprint Croatia was still in the lead as stroke rates rose. Canada, who had remained on the pace throughout the entire race, clocked 39 strokes per minute. This is the first season that Canada's Malcolm Howard and Chris Jarvis have rowed together and these World Rowing Championships mark their first international race together, but it didn't stop them hanging with their more experienced competition.

At the line Cech and Di Clemente finished first and just a quarter of a second shy of the World Best time. The Skelins had to settle for second and Howard and Jarvis qualified in third.

After the finish Jarvis told Rowing Canada, "I think Malcolm and I would have liked to have gone all out today, but our coach Mike (Spracklen) told us to save something for the final if we were in a position to do so.?

Men's Double (M2x)

In the first of two semi-finals Germany's Christian Schreiber and Rene Burmeister put themselves in the position of the crew to beat and by the half way point the duo had moved out to an open water lead. Meanwhile a fast starting Russia faded as Belgium's Stijn Smulders and Christophe Raes tried to close the gap on the Germans. Coming into the last 500 metres, Schreiber and Burmeister still had an open water lead with Belgium in second. Then out of nowhere Bulgarians Ivo and Martin Yanakiev suddenly woke up. Rating 42 strokes per minute they went from the back of the field into the third and final qualifying spot. Germany, Belgium and Bulgaria move on to the final.

Slovenia's Luka Spik and Iztok Cop made it look easy in the second semi-final. Getting into the lead they appeared to be doing just enough to remain there leaving Italy's Federico Gattinoni and Luca Ghezzi to battle with Munich Rowing World Cup medallists Dmitro Prokopenko and Volodimir Pavolovskij of Ukraine. No other boats appeared to be challenging the top three crews and at the line Slovenia advance to the final with Italy qualifying from second and Ukraine from third.

Canadian men's four: Rob Weitemeyer, Peter Dembicki, Andrew Ireland, Kristopher McDaniel

Men's Four (M4-)

The tandem rigged Dutch crew shot off the start with a new found vigour in semi-final one. This left New Zealand and the United States to work it out between themselves for the second and third spots. By the half way point the Dutch remained clearly in the lead and the United States, featuring half of their men's eight, had moved into second. Meanwhile New Zealand, in third, was under threat from Australia. The final sprint looked like it was going to be crucial for the third spot.

Australia was charging at 38 strokes per minute and New Zealand had reacted with 39. At the line the Dutch remained in first, the US in second and New Zealand stayed ahead of Australia to take third.

Within the first minute of the second semi-final Great Britain had established themselves in the lead with Canada's new four line-up wedged firmly in second. This left a tight race to go on for the final spot with the remainder of the crews. First Ireland had the qualifying spot. Then Italy took over this position through the body of the race with the final sprint coming down to Denmark and Italy. A frazzled looking Italy could not hold off the Danish sprint.

At the finish Great Britain were in first with stroke man Andy Hodge getting one step closer to being able to cut his long blonde hair that he has promised to grow until he wins at Gifu. Canada, at their first international regatta for 2005 under the guidance of coach Howie Campbell, qualifies from second and Danish coach John Faulkner received the most congratulatory hugs on the sideline.

After the finish British bow Steve Williams told British Rowing News, ?I thought we moved pretty well for the first 1,250m today. I could see that there were several boats fighting it out behind us. Towards the end we had to pick up our pace a little but we didn't need to go into a full dress rehearsal for the final.?

Canada's two seat Peter Dembicki commented to Rowing Canada, "We weren't focused on the British. We knew they were going to be fast, but it wasn't until we crossed the finish line that we realized that we were so close.?

Racing continues tomorrow with the remainder of the semi-finals.

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