Olympic rowing has begun. Seven events race today

Rowing is one of the first events to start at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and today got underway with heats in the seven events of “Group A”. The water remained perfectly flat at the Shunyi regatta course with a slight head wind that increased an hour into racing then dropped away.

WOMEN'S SINGLE SCULLS (W1x)

The aim here for advancement to the next round was to finish in the top three or be the next fastest. So to make up the 24 boats in the quarterfinal, the goal was not to be last and then add on the next fastest time. This progression system is significant in that this is the first Olympics to be using the quarterfinal system as part of the progression process.

Heat 1

Is this a prophecy of the week to come? Leading the way straight out of the starting blocks was China. Xiuyun Zhang is possibly China’s most successful international rower and this is despite a very rocky career. Zhang won silver at the 1996 Olympics (one of the few Olympic medals won by China in rowing). She qualified for the 2004 Olympics but suffered a heart condition before the Games. Taking up with an Italian coach a year ago, Giuseppe de Capua, Zhang has been a regular finalist as of late.

Zhang was confident enough to drop her rating to 29 strokes per minute by the first 500m mark and enjoy a comfortable lead over Poland’s best female sculler, 23-year-old Julia Michalska. France’s Sophie Balmary slipped into third and the order did not change.

Meanwhile, at the back of the field, Gabriela Best of Argentina and Soraya Arriaza Jadue of Chile fiercely battled it out for fourth. Both of these athletes knew that last would drop out of advancement contention and both were doing their very best. Best got there ahead. Only if Jadue’s time is good enough will she advance to the quarterfinals.

The largely Chinese audience made their voices heard as Zhang cruised through the final 500m in the lead.

Heat 2

Since the Athens Olympics single scullers in New Zealand have made a huge leap forward. They are World Champions in the men’s open and lightweight single and Emma Twigg has been coming through for the women. A regular finalist at international regattas, Twigg, 21, has won at the junior and under-23 level and today she opened her first Olympic bid by leading Race 2 from start to finish. Also a former under-23 champion, Serbia’s Iva Obradovic followed in second. Both of these boats settled into an easy pace with Twigg spending the majority of the race on a comfortable 29 strokes per minute.

Sitting in third Nuria Dominguez of Spain was the first woman Spanish Olympic finalist in rowing. Dominguez came sixth at the Athens Olympics. Slipping into fourth Fabiana Beltrame of Brazil, who qualified for the Olympics through the Latin America Qualification Regatta, took the next qualifying spot.

Heat 3

She’s the three-time consecutive World Champion in this event and comes to Beijing with an unbroken winning streak that began back in 2005 after she finished second at Athens. There is no doubt that Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch of Belarus is the favourite. Six-foot tall Karsten, who began her rowing under the Soviet Union recruitment system, led from start to finish. The Belarusian stayed comfortably ahead of the USA’s best single sculler, Michelle Guerette. These two scullers opened up a gap between them and the rest of the field, and Guerette felt comfortable enough to drop her rating to 25 not to press herself too much in the hot conditions.

Crossing the line in third, Yeongeun Shin of Korea will go with the two frontrunners to the quarterfinal. Kazakhstan, in fourth, will have to wait to see if her time is fast enough to advance.

Heat 4

Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria is one of the rowing stalwarts of this event. She currently owns the World Best Time and was a junior World Champion back in 1991. This is Neykova’s fourth Olympics competing in the single and, although she has medalled both times, the gold still eludes her. Neykova, who took a break after the 2004 Olympics to have her second child, finished second last year at the World Rowing Championships. Today Neykova led from start to finish using an easy 28 stroke rate for the majority of the race. Meanwhile 40-year-old Maira Gonzalez of Cuba followed in second, easing through at a comfortable 25 stroke rate. Gonzalez was under no threat from South Africa’s Rika Geyser in third.

Neykova, Gonzalez and Geyser move on to the quarterfinal, while Shwe Zin Latt of Myanmar, in fourth, will have to wait to see if her time is fast enough.

Heat 5

At the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in June this year, Italy’s Gabriella Bascelli and Philipa Savage of Australia raced each other in the Final. Both of them qualified with Savage finishing first. Today they met again in very different circumstances, Savage at her first Olympic Games and Bascelli at her second. Bascelli and Savage took off at the start going neck and neck for the first 500m. Bascelli then decided to drop Savage and keeping her rating at a solid 33 strokes per minute, Bascelli took over in the lead.

Savage did nothing to react back and dropped her rating to 28, looking satisfied to be in second. El Salvador’s Camila Vargas followed way back in third but still in a qualifying spot. Bascelli, Savage and Vargas move on to the quarterfinal with Homa Hosseini of Iran having to wait to see if her time was fast enough.

Heat 6

As the wind picked up to a noticeable head wind, the final heat got underway. Not surprisingly, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic led the way. This is Knapkova’s second Olympics. She finished fourth at Beijing and since then Knapkova has been regularly in second behind Karsten. Frida Svensson of Sweden took off quickly but Knapkova soon got away into a comfortable lead. The Czech sculler, who is also an accomplished track runner, settled into a 28 stroke rate pace and had no problem to stay ahead of Svensson.

Coming through in third, 20 year old Elana Hill of Zimbabwe was easily ahead of Egypt. Both Hill and Heba Ahmed of Egypt qualified for these Olympics through the African Continental Qualification Regatta. At the line Knapkova, Svensson and Hill advance to the quarterfinal.

Xiuyan ZHANG (CHN)
“I may look comfortable but there is no way I was completely in control of that race. My goal for these Olympics is that they will run smoothly and I will get a good result.”

Emma TWIGG (NZL)
“The race turned out to be good at the end. It was harder than I expected; I was ready to compete, but this is the first race in a long time. The conditions are fine; there’s a slight breeze but it didn’t bother me. My mum, dad and brother are here – it’s the first time my brother has seen me compete. The Olympic Regatta feels different and it was good to hear cheering in the last 500m. I don’t really feel under pressure because I am the youngest in this event. It’s kind of nice to be the underdog.”

Ekaterina KARSTEN-KHODOTOVITCH (BLR)
“It was not so easy doing a race again after such a long break. I’ve had trouble getting used to the heat but it’s better than when I arrived on 27th July. I trained in Germany but had no special preparation for the climate. It’s interesting to be in the Olympic Village; there’s a good atmosphere and lots of people around. My husband is having fun talking to people about different lifestyles and exchanging pins.”

Rika GEYSER (RSA)
“I struggled a little – it’s very hot. At the opening ceremony the atmosphere was great, especially the echo as we came through the tunnel and the noise as we entered the stadium. I expected it to be a late night and have no regrets about being there.”

Gabriella BASCELLI (ITA)
“My preparation went very well and for once without pain or struggle. My main goal is to get to the finish and my main opposition is Karsten. I met Steve Redgrave in 2002 and he has been my mentor since then – he helps everyone and is good at mental training.”

MEN'S SINGLE SCULLS (M1x)

The top four boats in each of the six heats would progress to the quarterfinal. This meant that coming fifth or sixth would cut your Olympic racing experience down to a chance at the E or F Final.

Heat 1

In this field of tall men, Tim Maeyens of Belgium must be called the pocket dynamite. Often dwarfed by his competitors Maeyens has never let a shorter range hinder his boat speed. After a close start between four scullers – Ioannis Christou of Greece, Santiago Fernandez of Argentina, Andre Vonarburg of Switzerland and Maeyens – Maeyens moved ahead. This left a close battle between Vonarburg and Christou with Fernandez dropping back.

Maeyens, who finished sixth at the Athens Olympics, continued to lead. He settled into a 31 stroke rate pace as Vonarburg, Christou and Fernandez resigned themselves to qualifying in this order. There were no challenges with Iran and Kenya, at the back of the field, out of attacking range.

Maeyens, Vonarburg, Christou and Fernandez move on to the quarterfinal.

Heat 2

Mahe Drysdale raced in the four at the Athens Olympics. He then swapped to the single and won every World Champion title since. Drysdale, of New Zealand, comes to Beijing as a favourite but readily admits that, on a good day, there are others that could challenge his leading spot.

Drysdale, rowing a distinguished black boat, started in the lead and did just enough to remain there. This meant that through the body of the race Drysdale, who carried the New Zealand flag at the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, could rate an easy high 20s stroke rate. Meanwhile Anderson Nocetti of Brazil was putting in a fine effort to move ahead of Chile’s Oscar Vasquez and Andrei Jaemsae of Estonia. Venezuela slipped off the back while China’s Liang Zhang did not start in this race.

At the line Drysdale, Nocetti, Vasquez and Jaemsae move on to the quarterfinal.

Heat 3

Taking off at a cracking pace, Marcel Hacker of Germany got out into the lead. Watching Hacker over the years, leading is the position he races from the best. If he loses the lead, Hacker can sometimes get rattled. Today the veteran of three Olympic Games, Hacker had the lead. But by the half-way point Lassi Karonen of Sweden had pushed ahead of Hacker. The German did not attack back. Karonen, 32, at his first Olympic Games remained in the lead.

Feeling comfortable going into the second half of the race Karonen was able to drop his stroke rate and remain in the lead. Hacker stayed in second. Behind these two leading boats Hiu Fung Law of Hong Kong held a close race with Leandro Salvagno of Uruguay. Law managed to finally shake Salvagno to take third. Karonen, Hacker, Law and Salvagno move on to the quarterfinal.

Heat 4

Drysdale considers Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic his major threat to a gold medal. Synek finished fifth in the double at the Athens Olympics and then switched to the single beating Czech rowing legend Vaclav Chalupa to become the fastest single sculler in his country. Today Synek got off to a cracking pace and remained in the lead throughout the race. This meant that Synek felt comfortable to drop his rating to 27 – 28 strokes per minute – all that he needed to do to remain in the lead.

Slipping into second, late qualifier Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania used the World Rowing Under 23 Championships last month to prepare for Beijing. Bajrang Lal Takhar of India remained in third with Monaco’s flag bearer, Mathias Raymond getting ahead of Algeria to secure fourth.

At the line Synek, Griskonis, Takhar and Raymond earn spots in the quarterfinal.

Heat 5

Boats are seeded so that the top two crews should be in the middle lane. Alan Campbell of Great Britain raced in lane four. Kenneth Jurkowski of the United States was in lane three. Jurkowski got off to a flying start. This is his first Olympic Games and he qualified by finishing first at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in June. But the usually fast-starting Campbell had taken over in the lead going through the second 500m. Then Mexico’s Patrick Loliger overtook Jurkowski to get into second. And it didn’t stop there.

In one of the closest races of the day, Peter Hardcastle of Australia pushed past Campbell and with 500m remaining Hardcastle was in front. Campbell fought back taking his rating to 40 strokes per minute. Hardcastle let him have it dropping down to a 30 stroke rate. At the line Campbell takes first, Hardcastle finishes second, Loliger qualifies from third and Jurkowski gets the final quarterfinal qualifying spot.

Heat 6

Olaf Tufte of Norway is the reigning Olympic Champion. He also has an Olympic silver medal from 2000 when he raced in the double. The 32-year-old took off in the lead with a 41 stroke rate pace visibly deeply sucking in the air. In second Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands was giving it his all. Hamburger wavers between the back of A Finals and leading B Finals in international races.

These two athletes moved clear ahead of the rest of the field with regular Olympian Aly Ibrahim of Egypt following in third. Fighting for the final qualifying spot was Colombia and Ming-Hui Wang of Chinese Taipei. By the line Wang had the advantage. Tufte, Hamburger, Ibrahim and Wang will be racing again in the quarterfinal.

Lassi KARONEN (SWE)
“It was hard in the beginning because Marcel Hacker (GER) is quick off the start. I had a big push in the middle and he dropped out. Then I controlled it totally but you get really tired anyway! My aim is to reach the Final and I hope to be in the top three. I watched the Opening Ceremony on TV – it was fantastic – but I couldn’t stay up for every country.”

Alan CAMPBELL (GBR)
“This is my first race since Lucerne, and I raced quite conservatively for me because I normally blast off the start. I was well prepared and had a surge of pace in the last 200m which felt good. I have no injury problems apart from the usual leg pains, etc. My priority is to recover and get ready for the quarter-final. I’m going to take each day as it comes, like stepping stones, and plan to put in more and more along the way and get faster and faster. Hopefully there’ll be no hiccups – fingers crossed, legs crossed, toes crossed, everything crossed.”

WOMEN'S PAIR (W2-)

The progression system in the women’s pair with ten countries starting required that these athletes finish first if they wanted to go directly to the Final. All other athletes would have to return for the second chance to progress through the repechage.

Heat 1

Favourites coming into this race, Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh of Belarus are the reigning World Champions. They also have the experience of a 2004 Olympic bronze medal race. The duo lined up in heat one and with just the first 500m of the race gone they had the lead. China’s You Wu and Yulan Gao slipped into second with New Zealand’s Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh following in third.

As the race progressed Bichyk and Helakh moved further into the lead leaving New Zealand and China to tough it out for second. Coming into the final sprint Coles and Haigh charged. China tried to hold on. But with first only going to the Final, coming second was purely academic. Belarus will not race again until next Saturday’s Final. New Zealand will race again in the repechage. Canada got relegated to last after their boat did not meet the minimum weight requirement.

Heat 2

A last-minute crew change brings the Olympic Champions back together. Georgeta Damian-Andrunache and Viorica Susanu of Romania “retired” after the Athens Olympics, where they won gold in the pair and the eight, but came back in 2007 to take silver. Today they started out in third behind Great Britain and Germany’s Lenka Wech and Maren Derlien. Wech is at her third Olympic Games while Derlein is at her second. Neither of them has yet won an Olympic medal.

Wech and Derlien enjoyed the lead for the first half of the race but going through the third 500m Andrunache and Susanu pulled out a piece that propelled them into the lead. Wech and Derelien tried to hold on but then dropped their rating and let the Romanians slip away. Romania is the only crew to go directly to the Final.

Yuliya BICHYK (BLR)
“The race was wonderful and it was very unexpected to win because we have not been performing well this season. It’s nice to be in a warm place because in our country we are not spoiled by the weather! We had a break from competing between 2004 and 2007 but we’ve kept training. Last year our coach decided to put us together again and it seems to be working very well. Our goal is to confirm our performance of last year when we won the World Championships in Munich.”

Viorica SUSANU (ROU)
“This was an impressive race; it followed our normal tactic to start slowly, pass everyone and go faster and faster. We passed the Germans at 1000m and just kept going away. I already have four Olympic medals – two from Sydney and two from Athens. I’m hoping to win two here again since I’m also in the women’s eight. Everything here and in the Olympic Village is great and the Chinese people are very helpful.”

MEN'S PAIR (M2-)

The top three in each heat would advance to the Semifinal. All other crews would return for the repechage.

Heat 1

Canada’s Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen took the men’s pair by storm when they beat the reigning World Champions earlier this season. They then went on to qualify for Beijing at the last chance qualification regatta in June. Today Calder and Frandsen led heat one by holding a steady 36 stroke rate. But their lead was slight. France’s Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot and Giuseppe de Vita and Raffaello Leonardo of Italy were moving with the Canadians. Canada held on. France and Italy did not give an inch. It was going to have to come down to the final sprint.

Coming into the line France increased their rating, Italy followed suit, Canada started to slip back. Peron and Cadot cross the line in first, de Vita and Leonardo follow in second and Calder and Frandsen hold on to third. These three crews advance to the semifinal.

Heat 2

After a rocky start to this season the Australian World Champions look to be back on form. Duncan Free joins 2004 Olympic Champion Drew Ginn with the aim to win Olympic gold. Today the Australians opened their Olympic quest by going head to head with Shaun Keeling and Ramon Di Clemente of South Africa. Di Clemente won bronze in 2004 and earlier this year joined with new partner, 21-year-old Keeling.

Looking long in the water with fast legs down on the drive, Ginn and Free had found the lead with half of the race gone. Keeling and Di Clemente held on with Germany following in third. Ginn and Free then moved further away from the rest of the field and finished first with a boat length back to Keeling and Di Clemente. Germany take third to be the final qualifying boat.

Heat 3

The 2005 World Champions, New Zealand’s George Bridgewater and partner Nathan Twaddle got off to a cracking 45 stroke rate pace. But it was Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic of Serbia who had the lead with Vaclav Chalupa and Jakub Makovicka of the Czech Republic following closely in third. Coming into the half-way point the New Zealanders did a piece that took them into the lead. Serbia held on. There is 10 years between Stojic and Jagar. Stojic is at his third Olympic Games while the younger Jagar is competing at his first Olympics.

With New Zealand now in the lead the order remained the same coming through the second half of the race. Meanwhile Croatia’s Skelin brothers, who took silver four years ago, had taken the pressure down and looked content to return for the repechage.

New Zealand, Serbia and the Czech Republic will go directly to the semifinal.

Tom LEHMANN (GER)
“For me this was very hard – this hot weather. This season I rowed my first World Cup series and this is my first Olympics. Although we are so young we try to ignore the pressure but we feel it. We’re happy to have come third and qualify directly to the semi-final and hopefully we’ll do better in our next race. The Olympic Village is incredible, I’ve seen nothing like this before. The experience is unbelievable. My family is not here but they are supporting us strongly. We didn’t go to the Opening Ceremony because we needed to focus on today’s race but we watched it until the German Team came in.”

Nikola STOJIC (SRB)
“We expected New Zealand to win but also saw in training that we were going faster than the Czechs so our aim was for second place. To prepare we had two weeks’ training camp in Bled where the weather was hotter and less humid, so it was a good preparation, and we have been here for a week. We didn’t go to the Opening Ceremony because of today’s race but we watched it on TV along with athletes from tennis, volleyball, swimming and others.”

WOMEN'S DOUBLE SCULLS (W2x)

The goal here was to finish first for advancement directly to the Final. All other boats would race again in a repechage for another chance.

Heat 1

Reigning Olympic Champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand have come to this event following a rocky 2008 season. The questions were flying after the twins failed to make the Final at the third Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland. Today they lined up in heat one. What was on their mind? Obviously domination. Leaping out at the start the New Zealanders took to the lead and moved to an open-water lead by the half-way point. Romania chased hard at the start. Then the United States pushed through to second. Rating a steady 31 stroke rate Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell remained untouchable.

Moving directly to the Final, the Evers-Swindells will not race again until Saturday’s Final.

Heat 2

Since becoming World Champions last year Qin Li and Liang Tian of China were beginning to look untouchable. Their textbook technique had guaranteed a leading position. Today Li and Tian took off in the lead with only Great Britain and the Czech Republic within striking distance. Going through the half-way point Jitka Antosova and Gabriela Varekova of the Czech Republic had moved ahead of Great Britain and were starting to close on the Chinese.

Antosova and Varekova warmed up for these, their first Olympic Games, by racing at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships last month where they won silver. Today Antosova and Varekova were showing no respect to the senior World Champions. The Czechs took their stroke rate to 37 and with 250m left to row had got their nose ahead of China. Li and Tian looked to be caught a bit off guard and finally raised their stroke rate to 39 then 41. Antosova and Varekova looked to be doing everything to hold on. Thirty-five was their top stroke rate.

The Chinese regained the lead and with that will go directly to the Final on Saturday.

Anna BEBINGTON (GBR)
“The race did not go to plan, it was not too good. We had a good start but the Chinese and Czechs pushed through in the middle and we did not respond to that. We’ve got something to work on tomorrow to get it right for Monday. We’ll have to throw everything at it to get into the final. The conditions are good, there is a slight crosswind but no white waves. ”

Elise LAVERICK (GBR)
“It’s good finally to row in this Olympic Regatta; it’s been a long time coming. It’s quite hard to focus because although this is a smaller event than the World Championships we’re against the top ten crews so it will never be easy. We had a tough race and will have to pull out all the stops.”

MEN'S DOUBLE SCULLS (M2x)

The progression in this race was for boats to be in the top three if they wanted to advance directly to the semifinal. All other crews would have to return for the repechage and take a second chance at getting to the semifinal.

Heat 1

Coming into the Beijing Olympics, the new combination of Nathan Cohen and Rob Waddell rowing for New Zealand, has been causing a lot of conversation. Waddell won gold in the single at the 2000 Olympics. He then retired from rowing but continued as an athlete becoming a grinder in sailing. Last year Waddell picked up his single again and began the quest to compete again at the top level in rowing. Cohen and Waddell won both Rowing World Cups that they entered this season and today they started their Olympic gold bid. But leading at the start were former under-23 champions, Dzianis Mihal and Stanislau Shcharbachenia of Belarus. The powerful Belarusians moved away to a full boat length lead over the field.

New Zealand sat in second with Germany (Clemens Wenzel and Karsten Brodowski) back in third. Coming into the final 500m Cohen and Waddell had closed the gap on Mihal and Shcharbachenia. Taking their rating to 37, Cohen and Waddell pushed through to the lead. Belarus retained their speed but did not have another gear to react back. At the line New Zealand, Belarus and Germany advance to the semifinal.

Heat 2

Estonia’s Jueri Jaanson and Tonu Endrekson have kept a very low profile this season. Last year they finished third but they chose not to race internationally this year. But veteran Jaanson, 42, is not short of Olympic experience. This is Olympics number five for him.

Going through the middle of the race Estonia remained on a 33 stroke rate and in the lead followed closely by Great Britain and Croatia. Then Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham of Great Britain decided it was time to move. The move worked. Wells and Rowbotham had the lead coming into the final sprint. They held on. Croatia’s Ante Kusurin and Mario Vekic took up chase. Great Britain qualify from first, Croatia take second and Estonia hold on to third to also qualify. Only 1.62 seconds separated these three boats at the line.

Heat 3

Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet of France became World Champions in 2006. Since then they have worked hard to try and stay in the A Final of international races. Hardy also comes to Beijing as reigning Olympic Champion in this event. Today they raced in heat three and got out in front at the start. But there was very little in it between them and Australia and Slovenia. With a large support crowd Slovenia’s Iztok Cop and Luka Spik are their nation’s sporting heroes and reigning World Champions.

Coming through the middle of the race Scott Brennan and David Crawshay of Australia had pushed into first. The Australian duo were in the quad at Athens and not medalling there has given them added incentive to row hard. It was working as motivation today and Brennan and Crawshay remained in the lead.

France held on to second pushing Australia hard to the line while Cop and Spik decided to conserve their energy and took the power off coming into the last 300m. Australia, France and Slovenia advance to the semifinal. China’s boat was excluded and did not start the race.

Stanislau SHCHARBACHENIA (BLR)
“Starting with the World Championships we’ve tried to build up to our peak for the Olympic Games. New Zealand are favourites but they are only favourites because they have good competitors like us. We are going to keep making it hard for them until the end. We have good relations with the rest of our team and we get more and more young rowers each year. Our families are not here but ‘phone and watch us on TV. I hope they will read this quote! The Chinese are helpful and funny – even if we don’t understand each other it’s fun to try to communicate.”

Stephen ROWBOTHAM (GBR)
“Today we’ve learned how tough Olympic competition is, but also that we are in good shape because we won our heat. We can only do one race at a time and will not predict what will happen next. But we’ve competed together in 13 regattas and won medals in 11 of those, so there’s no reason why we can’t win a medal here. The headwind slowed us down, so the times don’t look so good. The climate doesn’t make a difference during the race, but makes it harder to recover after the finish. We think our main competitors are the Kiwis but Belarus have already shown that they are tough and ready to fight. And of course there’s also Slovenia and France. The Chinese are so helpful – they even followed us into the toilet to show us where the paper was.”

MEN'S FOUR (M4-)

Heat 1

Great Britain have chosen this boat as their top medal contender. They won the event at both Sydney and Athens and put their Beijing medal hopes squarely on Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Steve Williams and Tom James. Today the British were not disappointed. The crew went out into the lead and, keeping their stroke rate high around 40 strokes per minute, remained in the lead for the entire race.

This left the United States and Italy to battle it out for second. The United States are a bit on an unknown element with a new line-up and very little international racing. Italy have put together the best of their sweep rowers and last year finished with world silver with this line-up.

Coming to the line Great Britain cross first, Italy hold off the USA to take second. Great Britain, Italy and the USA move on to the semifinal.

Heat 2

New Zealand come to these Olympics as reigning World Champions but this season showed that there is tough competition to beat. With that the Czech Republic took off in the lead. It didn’t take long for the winners of this year’s Rowing World Cup series, the Netherlands, to take over in the lead. The Netherlands finished third last year and have been rowing very consistently this season. The Olympics has been the goal of this crew that has been together for the last three years.

Going through the half-way point only one-and-a-half seconds separated the entire field. New Zealand was last. That all changed in the second half of the race. As the Czechs began to slide back, New Zealand started to move on the leading Dutch, taking their stroke rate to 42. It looked like the final sprint would be tight. New Zealand charged, the Netherlands held on. The Netherlands take first, New Zealand second and Slovenia hold on to third. These three crews qualify for the semifinal.

Heat 3

Australia failed to qualify this boat last year at the World Rowing Championships. They had to return (using a new line-up) to this year’s last chance qualification regatta in June. They did it in style by winning at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne and then winning the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Today the Australians proved that they hadn’t peaked too soon.

At the start Australia had the lead and settled into a 36 stroke rate pace. France followed in second with Germany and Ireland also very much on the leaders’ pace. Nothing changed in the order but as one boat would miss out on qualifying the sprint was on to the line. Germany took their stroke rate to 41 and drove the boat home. France struggled with the pace. Australia held on. Ireland sprinted. Australia, Germany and Ireland move on to the semifinal.