Calm but intense at Rowing World Cup

Flat water with a light breeze that tended towards a slight tail wind greeted the rowers from 31 nations. In 21° Celsius temperatures today’s racing was intense with a relative feeling of calm that often goes with the first World Cup of the season.   

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Repechages

Split into two repechages all of these athletes raced in the heats yesterday and they come back for a second chance today. World Cup regattas are always tight for time and if these scullers finish in the top two they will come back this afternoon to race again in the Final.

Repechage one opened with Mirna Rajle Brodanac of Croatia in the lead. Rajle is turning into a lightweight rowing stalwart. She first raced internationally in 1995 and has spent her entire career in the single. Following Brodanac was Italy’s Laura Milani. Milani has swapped between the lightweight double and single during her international rowing career and today in the single she was holding tightly to Brodanac’s pace. These two scullers looked to be comfortable qualifiers at the head of the field until in the final sprint France’s Coralie Simon upped her rating to 36 and went after the leaders. Milani reacted back and managed to hold off France. Brodanac and Milani are in this afternoon’s Final.

Great Britain’s Laura Greenhalgh left the starter blocks in the lead and set the pace through the first half of the race in repechage two. But, as any coach will tell you, leading in the first 1000m does not win you the race and coming through the third 500m Denmark’s Juliane Rasmussen got ahead of Greenhalgh with Sara Karlsson of Sweden following Rasmussen’s example. Despite crowd support, Greenhalgh had run out of steam coming into the final sprint. Rasmussen and Karlsson finish in first and second respectively to go to this afternoon’s Final.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Semifinal

The top three scullers in each semifinal would advance to this afternoon’s Final and in the first semifinal it was Denmark’s Mads Rasmussen that set the opening pace. Rasmussen has left his doubles partner of the last two Olympics and the last eight years behind to give the single a bash. Today he found a tough battle coming from France, Italy and Great Britain. Even with 1500m rowed Rasmussen still had Italy’s Lorenzo Bertini right on his tail. From the back of the field Adam Freeman-Pask of Great Britain then attacked. Lifting his rating to 36 stokes per minute, Freeman-Pask started to overtake boats. Rasmussen reacted with a 38 stroke rate but it looked like Freeman-Pask was still making up ground. A photo finish was needed. The top three boats had finished with less than a second between them. Rasmussen had just held on to first, Freeman-Pask takes second and Bertini held on to third. These three will be in the Final.

In 2004 Vasileios Polymeros, along with his doubles partner, became the first Greek ever to take an Olympic medal in rowing. A year later he became the lightweight single world champion. Polymeros is Greece’s most decorated rower and he continues to impress with another medal from the Beijing Olympics. Today he raced the second semifinal of the lightweight single. Leading from the start, Polymeros held just enough of an edge throughout the race to conserve energy but also react to any challenges. Behind him the Netherlands, Italy, France and Spain held a close battle. At the line Polymeros had qualified from first, Timothee Heijbrock of the Netherlands overtook France to earn second and France’s Jeremie Azou held on to third.

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Repechage

This was the last chance for these five crews to make this afternoon’s Final and all ten rowers were aware of what they needed to do – finish in place first or second. The two Dutch crews took off at a fast pace with Netherlands2 having a slight edge, before Netherlands1, made up of the Muda twins, pushed into the lead. Denmark’s Jacob Barsoe and Lasse Dittmann then made a move so that by the halfway point they had the second spot behind the Muda’s. As the Netherlands2 dropped back, the Muda brothers and Barsoe and Dittmann began to find some comfort. But a race is not over until the final bell and Switzerland suddenly came alive and decided to give it all they had in an attempt to scrape into a qualifying spot. Barsoe and Dittmann had to react fast. At the line the Mudas had finished first with Denmark and Switzerland waiting for the photo finish. Denmark had done it. The Netherlands and Denmark are in the Final.