World Rowing Championships ? Heats Continue

By Melissa Bray

Two World Best times come crashing down. The Australian women's eight continue to struggle with demons. The men's quad starts to shape into a three-way fight of rowing veterans. The 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan turned on ideal conditions for the second day of racing.

Irish lightweight men's pair: Siaghal Mac Colgain and Richard Coakley

Lightweight Men's Pair (LM2-)

As coaches took to bikes and competitors took to the water the lightweight men's pair got the day started with heat one of three heats. From the first stroke Salvatore Amitrano and Catello Amareante of Italy took the lead by overrating the rest of the field. Settling into a 36 stroke rate pace, Amitrano and Amarante (bronze in the lightweight four at Athens, fourth in 2000), moved out to a full boat length lead buy the 600 metre mark. This left Great Britain and Serbia & Montenegro to slip into the remaining two qualifying spots.

The three leading crews were not challenged and despite a tight tussle between the Brits and the Serbs, it was merely academic ? Italy, Serbia & Montenegro and Great Britain advance to the semi-final with Italy.

Heat two saw the signature fast start of Ahmed Gad and Hossam Azouz of Egypt take the lead showing no respect to Denmark's World Champion Bo Helleberg and Olympic Champion, Thomas Ebert. Coached by famous ?guldfireren? Thomas Poulsen the Danes slowly wore the Egyptians down and with three boats qualifying Egypt seemed to be content with second while France overtook the Netherlands in the last 500 metres to take third. The World Best time goes to the Danes who nocked two seconds off the 1994 time set by the Irish.

After overtaking a fast starting Spain, Miguel Cerda and Felipe Leal of Chile found the lead. But Alberto Dominguez and Imanol Calvo from Spain held onto the pace with Russia sitting in third. These three crews easily qualified.

Kirsten Jepsen, Maria Pertl, Katrin Olsen and Juliane Rasmussen in Denmark's lightweight women's quad

Lightweight Women's Quad Sculls (LW4x)

Classified as an International event as it not raced at the Olympics, this event is often used to develop future Olympic athletes. Today in the first of two heats a first place was needed for a direct path to the finals and not only did Canada earn this, in the process they smashed the World Best time by a staggering eight seconds. Stroked by Melanie Kok in her first international season, the Canadians had the lead at the start over Great Britain. This is the first time Canada has boated a quad in a number of years and under coach Laryssa Biesenthal they did it in style.

If only Denmark, in heat two, had known the World Best time was up for grabs in these fast conditions. After overtaking France at the start, Denmark's Kirsten Jepsen, Maria Pertl, Katrin Olsen and Juliane Rasmussen got their nose in front and aimed at extending it. However, they didn't need the full-on sprint that may have got them to World Best time status but they did enough to qualify. The Danes are using this boat to develop their rowers and they now move on to meet the Canadians in the final.

Lightweight Men's Quad Scull (LM4x)

Oh so close to another record. Italy led heat one of two heats but remained one second outside breaking the 13 year old World Best time set by their fellow countrymen in Montreal, Canada. Stroked by Filippo Mannucci who already has three World Champion titles from this event, the Italians moved further away from Austria and will move on directly to the final.

Recently the Canadians have been better known for their heavyweight men, but at the 2005 World Rowing Championships it looks like the lightweight scullers are shining. They had just won the women's lightweight quad and their men followed suit, going from last place to first in the second of two heats. The new Canadian line-up now go directly to the final.

Finnish rowers Sanna Sten and Minna Niemen in the lightweight double

Lightweight Women's Double Scull (LW2x)

Ohhh, this is going to be a hot semi-final. The top three crews from each of the three races would qualify for the semi and the winning crew in each heat all recorded the same finishing time.

In heat one Marguerite Houston and Kirsty Fleming of Australia debuted their 2005 international season by leading from the start. Lucerne Rowing World Cup fourth place finishers, Finland's Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen held onto the hot Australian pace with Greece also very much in the picture. The order of these three crews did not change and all three will move on to the semi-final.

The second heat looked to be a bit more exciting when Thailand shot out at the start challenging Athens Olympic finalists Magdalena Kemnitz and Ilona Mokronowska of Poland. But suffering from their early speed Thailand, bowed by two-time Olympian Phuttharaksa Nikree, soon slipped back into the wake of Poland, Italy's Under-23 silver medallists Erika Mai and Laura Milani and Russia. By the half-way point the order looked to be established and Poland, Italy and Russia advance to the semi-final.

Germany's Daniela Reimer and Marie-Louise Draeger have had a great season so far with a gold from the first Rowing World Cup at Eton and a comeback-from-injury for Draeger to finish with silver at last month's Rowing World Cup. Today they battled with Renee Hykel and Julia Nichols of the United States in heat three. Hykel and Nichols are aiming for Beijing together and today they made their first big leap towards this goal by hanging with the best in the world. In third Ireland's multisporter Sinead Jennings is back after injury. Joining with partner Heather Boyle, the Irish challenged the leaders for the full 2,000 metres. These three crews will go on to the semi-final.

Lightweight double scullers from the Czech Republic, brothers Jan Vetesnik and Ondrej Vetesnik

Lightweight Men's Double Scull (LM2x)

In the biggest event of this championships, 24 nations in four heats lined up aiming for a first place finish which would give them the direct route to the semi-final and an extra rest (and maybe eating) day. In heat one Leonardo Pettinari, who is currently in the list of top ten most medalled rowers, and partner Stefano Basalini, who holds his own with four World Champion titles, of Italy got off to a slow start at the back of the field.

But the Italians soon found their pace passing the entire field and moving into first. With only one boat qualifying for the semi-final this was the spot they needed to be in. Behind them Poland's two-time Olympic Champion Robert Sycz and new partner Pawel Randa (who moves from the lightweight four to replace Sycz's injured partner Tomasz Kucharski) held onto the pace. Coming into the last 250 metres the Italians were rating 37 strokes per minute with the Poles at 36. But with 50 metres remaining Sycz took the power off. Pettinari and Basalini qualify for the final just 2 seconds outside of the Pettinari-owned World Best time.

Heat two was led from start to finish by Denmark's Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist in their fifth season (and two Olympics) together. All Frederic Dufour and Arnaud Pornin of France could do was try and hold on to the Danish speed. Dufour finished second at Athens and as his then partner retired Dufour now teams up with Pornin.

As the race progressed, the French could not keep the pace and despite sprinting the finish, France remained in second. Rasmussen and Quist move on to the semi-final.

Hungary's Zsolt Hirling and Tamas Varga have been looking good this season and in heat three they took the lead over Australia's Cameron Wurf and Sam Beltz with the Czech Republic sitting in third. The fast start by the Hungarians paid off for them as they retained the lead and move on to the semi-final.

Manuel Brehmer and Joerg Lehnigk of Germany are all about building up to the Beijing Olympics. Brehmer raced at Athens to a disappointing 13th place and he's back with new partner Lehnigk after Olympic partner Ingo Euler moves towards retirement by racing the single. Taking the lead in heat four over Japan's Takahiro Suda and Diasaku Takeda, the German's had to listen to the polite clapping support of hundreds of Japanese school children as they headed into the finishing zone.

Germany move on to the semi-final while Japan's most successful rower, Takeda, will have to return for the repechage.

Dutch men's four: Geert Cirkel, Jan-Willem Gabriels, Matthijs Vellenga, Gijs Vermeulen

Lightweight Men's Four (LM4-)

In the three heats a top three finish was required for the direct advancement to the semi-final and heat one had all five boats in the running with South Africa in the lead. Germany, stroked by sole remaining member from the Athens crew, Axel Schuster, then did a big piece through the 900 metre mark and had found the lead with 500 metres left to row. Australia and Italy followed suit, leaving the South African's in their wake.

Italy includes World Best time holder from the lightweight double nd World Record holder for lightweights on the indoor rowing machine, Elia Luini. Although Luini has spent most of his career sculling, in 1999 he finished fourth at the World Championships in the four before moving into the double to win silver with Pettinari at the 2000 Olympics. Luini remained with Pettinari to win three World Champion titles before injury forced Pettinari out of the Athens Olympics. Personal differences then spelt the end to their partnership.

Today Italy took the race to a photo finish with Germany and Australia. All three crews move on to the semi-final. South Africa must now return for the repechage.

Heat two was led by Lucerne Rowing World Cup winners Ireland. But there was very little in it with Japan, Russia and Spain all sticking to the Irish pace. As Japan started to drop back it became a three-way fight with Ireland still retaining the lead. Coming into the final sprint the Irish prepared for the semi-final by practicing their 39 strokes per minute pace as Spain countered at a 38. Ireland remained in the lead and advance along with Spain and Russia.

France has a new four built around Sydney gold medallist Jean-Christophe Bette and already this season they have one Rowing World Cup gold medal. Bette recently married teammate Caroline Freslon who raced earlier today in the lightweight women's quad. The couple are calling these World Rowing Championships their honeymoon. ?The next one will be after Beijing,? says Bette.

Today France made it one small step closer to Beijing by winning heat three over Great Britain and the United States. Despite a strong challenge in the third 500 by the Netherlands, the French, the Brits and the Americans move on to the semi-final.

Russian women's quad: Olga Samulenkova, Oksana Dorodnova, Larisa Merk, Irina Fedotova

Women's Quad Sculls (W4x)

German coach Jutta Lau has an uncanny knack. Throughout this season her priority crew, the quad, has struggled off the pace. But just over a month ago she brought together Stephanie Schiller, Kathrin Boron, Susanne Schmidt and Britta Oppelt and today the crew handily won the first of two heats to qualify directly for the final. Boron and Oppelt are the experienced ones. Schiller is new ? 16 years Boron's junior and Schmidt joined the scullers, after competing most of the season as part of the sweep programme, just six weeks ago.

Germany shook off Russia to take a clear water lead in heat one and with only the top boat qualifying directly for the final all other crews will have to race again. This left the United States, who lost crucial three seat Caryn Davies to illness, to race with spare Nicole Sylvester and Russia to battle it out for a good spot in tomorrow's repechage.

In heat two Great Britain's big hope showed that they had the goods by getting the best start and keeping just enough of a lead at 32 strokes per minute to finish first over Ukraine. Great Britain advance directly to the final.

Estonian men's quad: Jueri Jaanson (b), Leonid Gulov, Tonu Endrekson, Andrei Jaemsae

Men's Quad Scull (M4x)

The standard of this event is certainly hot this year with the three top seeded crews having Olympic experience galore behind them. Due to seeding these three crews ? Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia ? made up the centre lane of heat one, two and three respectively.

In heat one Estonia, with five-time Olympian Jueri Jaanson sitting in bow, waged a close battle with Germany and Olympic Champions Russia. Estonia prevailed, but with three qualifying spots up for grabs, all three of these boats will move on to the semi-final.

In heat two Slovenia, featuring Sydney Olympic Champions from the double, Luka Spik and Iztok Cop, who raced to first yesterday in the double, had a close battle with a surprisingly fast France, featuring Athens Olympic Champion from the double, Adrien Hardy. France has been out of the medals all season, but it looks like their last six weeks of training has stepped them up a notch. Great Britain pushed through to take third and these three boats will continue to directly to the semi-final.

In heat three the Czech Republic, featuring five-time Olympian Vaclav Chalupa in two seat, fought an extremely tight battle with Poland. The two crews took the race to a photo finish with Poland rating 40 in the closing strokes of the race to the Czech's 38. The Czech Republic finish just a nose ahead of the Poles with Belarus taking the last semi-final qualifying spot by finishing third.

Women's Eight (W8+)

Two heats meant only first place would go directly to the final and in heat one the old Romania-United States rivalry reared its head once again. Both countries have very new crews from the ones that raced to gold and silver at Athens last year and but this is the first time they have met this season.

The United States says their priority boat is the quad, but despite this, the eight looked fast and went through the first 500 metres with over two seconds advantage on Romania. But Romania came back and heading through the middle of the race the US lead began to dwindle. With 300 metres left to row Romania had found the front matching the US stroke rate of 36 to 37. Romania go directly to the final.

Heat two had three boats, the Netherlands, Australia and Russia get off the line together. Russia then decided that the pace was too hot. This left it up to Australia to fight it out with leaders the Netherlands. The Dutch have six returnees from their Olympic bronze medal eight while the Australians have one ? bow Sarah Outhwaite.

Romanian women's eight

But all the excitement was going to happen in the last 60 metres. With Australia gaining on the Netherlands and aiming to shake off the ghosts from last year's Olympic final when 300 metres from the finish teammate Sally Robbins stopped rowing, three seat Sonia Mills had a bolt break on her oarlock, completely losing her oar.

The Netherlands go on to the final while Australia will have to return tomorrow to race the repechage.

Men's Eight (M8+)

Rivals Germany and Italy have been the two hot crews on this year's Rowing World Cup circuit and with two heats today they were split into heat one and two. Canada and the United States have their own rivalry going and for both countries Gifu is their first international appearance of the season. They were also split between heat one and two. Only the top finishing boat would qualify directly for the final.

In heat one Germany found their main competition coming from Russia who took an early lead, with Canada battling the Dutch and the Belarusian's for third. At the half way point Russia still had the lead, but Germany was charging. Coming into the last 500 metres the German's, coxed by Peter Thiede, in his eighteenth year as a national team cox, took the lead. Russia didn't have an answer and Germany move directly to the final.

The United States, featuring four members of their 2004 Olympic gold crew, had the lead at the start and looked unstoppable. But Italy's new eight, which has recently been built around the Aniene Rowing Club crew from Rome, was fighting back. The United States were forced to keep the pressure on and a piece through the third 500 had the Americans move away from the Italians.

Italy weren't giving in. Going into the final sprint the Italians stroke rate was clocked at 44 with the US reacting back at 41. The US qualify for the final. The Italians will have to return for the repechage but they looked ecstatic having come so close to the Olympic Champion crew.

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