First crews drop out of Olympic qualification

Australian men's four on the way to winning their heat

Second chance repechages at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Poznan, Poland saw elimination of the first boats at this regatta. Reigning Olympic Champions, Poland was one of the crews that fell by the wayside when they finished fifth in the lightweight men’s double. Read on to find out more about this morning’s heats and repechages on the Malta course under calm, cool conditions with some rain.

Women’s single (W1x) – heat

Heat One
Italy’s Gabriella Bascelli started rowing in her birth country of South Africa. On immigrating to Italy she got straight into the junior national team and has been a regular on the international circuit ever since. She has been to the Athens Olympics in the double and in 2006 the single became her boat of choice. Winning the first heat puts Bascelli in a good position for Olympic qualification. She also did it with the fastest time of the two heats. With only one boat from each heat going directly to the final, Serbia’s Iva Obradovic, in second, will have to return for the repechage.

Gabriella Bascelli, ITA
“There was only one spot so no one said it was going to be easy. I’m happy I got it but just because I won this battle doesn’t mean I’ve won the war. I definitely think there are a lot of valid competitors. I did see Phillipa’s performance in Lucerne and I was very impressed with her performance there. (referring to Phillipa Savage who won heat 2 today). Just because I’ve one the heat, doesn’t mean I’m done it (qualify) yet.”

Heat Two
Pippa Savage of Australia took up rowing after being “discovered” in a pub by a rowing coach. She was soon dominating Australian single sculling and made her country’s national team for the first time last year. Injury prevented her from competing and she arrived for the first time on the international scene at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup. A sixth place finish showed that she meant business. Today Savage easily led heat two to the extent that she had no need to sprint the finish crossing the line at a leisurely 27 stroke rate. Savage moves on to the final with Kristina Stiller of Great Britain, in second, having to return for the repechage. Surprisingly, Olympian Julia Levina of Russia was back in fourth.

Men’s single (M1x) – repechage

At the end of this race two athletes will have lost their 2008 Olympic dream. Two athletes will be headed home to reassess their rowing future. With five entries and the top three going through to the semifinal, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova and Armenia know what they have to do. Arnold Sobczak of Poland and Valentinos Sofokleous of Cyprus bolted out of the start. Sobczak has medalled at the junior and under 23 level but is yet to get into the medals at the senior level. Today Sofokleous and Sobczak dominated the head of the field with Latvia’s Kristaps Bokums coming through a distance back in third. The regatta is over for Moldova and Armenia.

Women’s pair (W2-) – race for lanes

There are four entries in this event. Denmark, Russia, Great Britain and France. Two boats will qualify for the Olympics. Two will miss out. This race for lanes was all about stamping a psychological advantage on the opposition, but also not giving too much away for the final. For three-quarters of the race all four boats stuck to each other like glue with less than two second separating the field. No crew had any show of true domination. The new French duo of Inene Pascal-Pretre and Stephanie Deshand got out to a slight lead. This is the first year together for the 190cm Deshand and Pascal-Pretre, and their sixth place finish at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup gave French selectors a result that they were looking for. Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve of Great Britain were just a tad behind France and even got ahead with 500m to go. Coming into the final sprint Denmark took the pressure down a bit while Great Britain went to 38 strokes per minute and France to 38. France crossed the line first. They will race again in Wednesday’s final.

Men’s pair (M2-) – repechage

Not making the top three meant no Olympic chance for 2008. In less than eight minutes two boats would be out of the qualification regatta. Russia’s Sergei Babayev and Roman Veselkin raced to fourth together last year at the European Championships. This is their first international race since and they were making a good go of it on Poznan’s Malta course. As Kazakhstan dropped back Slovenia’s Matek Podela and Bostjan Bozic pushed through into second. Egypt’s Mostafa Ryad and Bashir Attia, meanwhile, were fighting off Moldova for third. In the sprint to the line Russia held off a 41 then 43 stroke rate attack by Slovenia. Russia, Slovenia and Egypt keep their Olympic hopes alive and advance to the semifinal.

Mostafa Ryad, EGY
“We are happy. We will try to go for qualification still…we ask the gods for help.”

Women’s double (W2x) – heat

Heat One
Being first would mean a direct path to the final and Kateryna Tarasenko, and Yana Dementieva of Ukraine made the best of heat one. Tarasenko and Dementieva finished fourth at last year’s European Championships and they look to be in line for one of the two Olympic qualifying spots. They got out ahead of Volha Berazniova and Hanna Nakhayeva of Belarus. Berazniova is aiming for her third Olympic Games but this year she has to qualify the long way. With Ukraine remaining in the lead for the entire race, Belarus will have to race again in the repechage.

Heat Two
Australia’s Sonia Mills and Catriona Sens move on to the final with the fastest qualifying time after leading heat two from start to finish. The rain began to fall on the Poznan course and the temperature dropped but the racing remained hot. France tried to challenge Mills and Sens. Mills was just beginning her international rowing career when Sens was racing in her country’s ill-fated eight at the Athens Olympics. Last year the duo were in their country’s quad that qualified for the Olympic Games. Today they aim to qualify the double. Australia move on to the final.

Sonia Mills, AUS
“It was a pretty comfortable win. We can continue to make improvements for the final. Being selected already for Australian team means our destiny is in our hands now. Our goal today was to win. I think we can go better in the final and we’re looking forward to it.”

Men’s double (M2x) – heat

Due to visa problems Uzbekistan was unable to participate in this regatta.

Heat One
Russia took off at a cracking pace in heat one with two athletes that were in the quad earlier this season. After the quad finished in the C Final at the Munich Rowing World Cup, selectors moved them into the double for qualification. But the cracking pace was unsustainable. Coming through the third 500 Poland’s Michal Sloma and Marcin Brzezinski got their nose in front to try and hold on to that vital first place qualifying spot. Their huge push was working. Sloma and Brzezinski are former under 23 champions and hold the World Best Time in this event at the under 23 level. As Russia faded Bulgaria came after Poland. The Poles held them off. Sloma and Brzezinski will go directly to the final.

Heat Two
These days when China lines up, all other countries take note. They needed to in heat two as China’s Hui Su and Liang Zhang took off in the lead. Zhang qualified the single for the Olympics at the Asian Qualification Regatta in April, which means that China will have to choose between entering their men’s single or double in Beijing . The duo got out ahead of Italy to claim the one qualifying spot. Italy’s Matteo Stefanini and Federico Gattinoni looked like they raced 1500m and then let the Chinese go. Su and Zhang go directly to the final.

Hui Su, CHN
“It was just a normal race for us. We’ve saved some energy for the next final. Poland is host so they will be strong, but we are hoping for the Beijing spot.”

Men’s four (M4-) – heat

Heat One
There is no doubt that Australia will be the crew to beat here. Matthew Ryan, James Marburg, Cameron McKenzie McHarg and Francis Hegerty surprised the rowing world when they finished first at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup a few weeks ago. This first place put them ahead of the best in the world and a whole swag of Olympic qualified crews. Today, in heat one, the Australians got out to a clear lead from the start and by the half way point they had an open water advantage. With first place only qualifying directly for the final, Australia, not surprisingly, are that place. A very clean rowing Egyptian crew put up a good fight to finish second but will have to return for the repechage.

Heat Two
Argentina jumped off the line first followed closely by Canada and China. But coming into the second half of the race Argentina had run out of steam. Canada took advantage of this situation and grabbed the lead. Coming into the final sprint Canada and China went all out. Both of them hit a 45 stroke rate. As China slipped into the lead, Canada, with 10m left to row, took the pressure off. A very happy China go directly to the final.

Peter Dembicki, CAN
“It was really close. They hadn’t raced yet this year so they were an unknown. They didn’t show us anything in the first 1500, but they really sprinted the last 500 having the fastest split by far and that caught us by surprise.
In the reps we’ll just have to execute our own pace plan – keep it business like and be ready for anything.”
 

Goldsack and Hykel racing for the United States

Lightweight women’s double (LW2x) – heat

Heat One
When Jen Goldsack moved from Great Britain to the United States last year she instantly made the national team by winning the US lightweight single trials race. She went on to medal at last year’s World Rowing Championships and then moved on to the Olympic event, teaming up with Renee Hykel. Together they led heat one holding on to the one spot which would give them a direct path to the final. Behind them Poland put up a challenge but soon faded. Goldsack and Hykel finished with an open water lead.

Jennifer Goldsack, USA
“Poland has been putting in the results at the World Cups and they were in the A Final in Athens, so at this big of a regatta you don’t discount anyone…with the Olympics there is just too much of a carrot there. We have too much respect for how much everyone puts into the training not to count anyone out.”

Heat Two
Last October Kirsten van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen of the Netherlands got back together for the first time since their bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. Early season results showed that they had quickly re-found their boat speed. Today they got out ahead of Italy and, like the Americans in heat one, dominated the race from start to finish ending well in front. With their gold shoes in the boat van der Kolk and van Eupen have more than just qualifying for the Olympics on their mind.

Lightweight men’s double (LM2x) – repechage

Repechage 1
Coming in the top three positions meant keeping the Olympic hopes alive. Three boats would miss out. Slovenia’s Bine Pislar and Jure Cvet got out in front with Zlatko Karaivanov and Vassil Vitanov of Bulgaria following closely. Two-time Olympic Champions in this event, Poland’s Sycz and Kucharski held the pace but as the second half of the race began the Poles began to fade. Pislar and Cvet remained in the lead as Cody Lowry and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg of the United States started to come back through the middle of the race. Slovenia, USA and Bulgaria move on to the semifinal. Sycz and Kucharski cross the line in fourth. Sycz lies down in the boat. Is this the end of their rowing career?

Robert Sycz, POL
“I think this is my last race. It has been a bad season.”

Cody Lowry, USA
“We advance to fight another day. I think the extra spot is great for us. Ted Nash (well known rowing guru from the US) kind of hinted that we might get here and find an extra slot so when it was announced it wasn’t a complete surprise to us. We haven’t raced this since 2006. We’ve had a few injuries this year and we got together a month ago for the U.S. Olympic trials. We’re just trying to find our momentum. It’s been a little inconsistent. We didn’t have a great race yesterday, and it was better today, but we still have to step it up for the next one.”

Repechage 2
Canada’s Douglas Vandor and Cameron Sylvester got out to an early lead in the second repechage. Last year, with a different partner, Vandor had finished twelfth – one spot outside of Olympic qualification – now with Sylvester he is trying again. Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes of Portugal moved into second position and were the closest challengers to Canada. Russia’s Mikhail Izotov and Andrey Shevel followed in third. Coming into the line Portugal pulled out a huge 45 stroke rate sprint and nearly overtook Canada. Canada, Portugal and Russia advance to the semifinal. Croatia and Finland will not be going to the Olympics in this event.

Pedro Fraga, POR
“Yesterday was not very good. We didn’t go with the other boats and it wasn’t what we were expecting. Today we had another gear, tomorrow we’ll do everything to get to the final, and in the final anything is possible.”

Cameron Sylvester, CAN
“I think our mentality today was more that we were not taking anyone for granted. Yesterday we learned from that. We treated it a little more as ‘a heat’ but today it was a little more serious for our mentality throughout the entire race. We’re happy with the race. Doug and I have been rowing together for just two months. We’re getting better each time we get on the water and learning new things each day and if we apply it to the racing we’ll be ok.
No one knew what to expect from Poland. Everyone knew that they have their weight problems but it can go either way with them. It shows how much weight can dictate performance for lightweight rowing.”

Lightweight men’s four (LM4-) – heat

Heat One
The Spanish got off to a flying start to get out ahead of favourites Ireland. Ireland finished one spot out of qualifying last year and, with a couple of changes, they are back to earn an Olympic berth. Since then Olympian Gearoid Towey has come out of retirement and joined the crew and earlier this month Cathal Moynihan was brought back into the boat after the crew finished sixth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup. Ireland kept the pressure on the Spanish and coming into the final sprint both boats were matching each other’s rating – 38 then 42 then 43. Twenty metres before the line, with the encouragement of the crowd, Ireland overtook Spain to earn the direct path to the final.

Heat Two
Germany has always been strong in this event so not qualifying for the Olympics last year at the Munich World Rowing Championships was quite a surprise. Today they made the best of heat two by leading from start to finish. The Czech Republic put up a good fight but Germany managed to break away to an open water lead. Germany move on to join Ireland in the final.

Mario Gyr, SUI
“We know the Germans would be quite fast and they got ahead in the first 200m. At 600m we took the pressure off with Czech ahead. We didn’t respond as we are a young crew and we were keeping our energy…for us the race is for the final. We’re a young crew and we hope to go to 2012 but if it works for Beijing this year even better.”

Women’s quad (W4x) – race for lanes

One boat will qualify for the Olympics. Two boats have entered – Russia and Romania. Russia won the World Championships in this event two years ago, but a positive drug test to Olga Samulenkova meant the crew were disqualified. They are back with Julia Kalinovskaya replacing Samulenkova. Today they had a very tight race with Romania but managed to stay just ahead to go to Wednesday’s final as the crew with the best chance to qualify. Canada’s quad are not part of the qualification regatta but were allowed to join this race because the women’s quad event was removed from the upcoming Poznan Rowing World Cup due to a two-boat entry.

Men’s quad (M4x) – heat

Heat One
Belarus finished sixth in this event at the 2004 Olympics. Two of that crew remain – Valery Radzevich and Pavel Shurmei. Today they moved one step closer to Olympic qualification by leading heat one for the entire race. Stroked by Radzevich, Belarus looked smooth and in control despite a strong challenge coming from Slovenia down the 2000m course. In first at the line, Belarus will go directly to the final.

Heat Two
Finishing sixth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, Canada got in some international racing practice before coming to Poznan. It looks to have set them up well. Canada led for the entire race. Great Britain, coming through from the back of the field, gave it their all to catch Canada in the final sprint. Canada, who had rated 38 for almost the entire race, managed to hold off the 45 stroke rate charge of Great Britain. Canada go directly to the final.

Rob Weitemeyer, CAN
“We did what we had to do to win. It felt like we were in control but we weren’t pushing it open. We would have liked to break away from the pack more. It was enough that we had control but not enough to cruise through the final 1000. We know we have another gear to use. Great Britain is right there and Slovenia and Belarus we’ll be watching. We still never take anyone for granted.”

Women’s eight (W8+) – race for lanes

China and Canada went head to head and after these two nations' results at the Rowing World Cups earlier this season, it is not surprising they are the crews to beat. China finished second at Munich and Canada took third at Lucerne. The Netherlands was the only other crew that was able to hold on to the leaders’ pace. China finish first, Canada second and the Dutch third.

Igor Grinko, CHN (coach women’s eight)
“We actually expected it (the result) but the competition will be tough still. Three good boats for two spots. Beijing and China as host country is a big push.”

Men’s eight (M8+) – heat

Heat One
After finishing eighth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, the Netherlands, who medalled in this event at the Athens Olympics, changed the coxswain, two of the athletes and the coach. This new line up looks to be a positive change as they led heat one so comfortably that they did not have to push it in the final sprint of the race. With one crew to go directly to the final, Belarus, in second, will return to race the repechage.

Heat Two
Russia qualified in this event last year, but were then disqualified following a doping investigation that saw three of the crew lose the right to race for two years. The rest of the crew is back here to aim again for Olympic qualification and in heat two they made a good case. France got out to a lead at the start, but were soon overtaken by Russia who held on to the lead until the end. Switzerland put up a good second half fight. It was not enough. The Swiss will have to return for the repechage.

Adaptive rowers pre-Paralympic racing

Arms men’s single (AM1x) – repechage

Four crews would advance to the final. One crew would miss out. At the front of the field Spain’s Juan Pablo Barcia Alonso held off a fast start by France and then a final 55 stroke rate charge by Oleksandr Petrenko of Ukraine. Spain qualifies for the final from first, Ukraine, France and Hungary also qualify from second, third and fourth respectively.

Legs trunk and arms mixed coxed four (LTAmx4+) –repechage

Germany was the fastest crew already having a three second lead over Denmark at the half way point. Denmark did their best to hold on to the Germans but slipped further behind. Both boats have already qualified for the Paralympic Games and today they made the most of this pre-Paralympic regatta by advancing to the final from first and second. Russia and Israel will also move on to the final from third and fourth respectively.