Lightweights in the morning at Lucerne

Many athletes got out on the Rotsee Lake for an early morning row before racing began. Flat, calm conditions on the lake made rowing perfect and cloudy skies reduced the summer temperatures to a cooler 18 degrees Celsius. The lightweight singles and pairs opened today’s racing with their semifinals.

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Semifinals

Semifinal One started the day of racing and saw Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece jump away into the lead. Tsiavou comes from her country’s 2008 Olympic lightweight double, but with her partner now retired, Tsiavou is back in the single. Tsiavou is no stranger to this boat as she is a two-time under-23 world champion in this boat class. Italy’s Laura Milani did not let Tsiavou keep the lead for very long and by the half way point Milani was exerting her strength. Milani is having a great season and has already medalled once this year. Filling out the final qualifying position was Italy’s second boat of Erika Bello. Italy recently hired Dutch coach Josy Verdonkschot to coach the women and it looks like already they are seeing improvements. A sprint to the line between Milani, Tsiavou and Bello saw the order remain at Italy1, Greece and Italy2. These three boats go to the Final.

Sina Burmeister of Germany2 is racing internationally for the first time and in Semifinal Two she showed that she definitely deserves to be here. Taking the lead at the start, Burmeister remained in the front position for most of the race. This left Switzerland’s very experienced Pamela Weisshaupt and Olympian Juliane Rasmussen of Denmark to chase her down. In the last 200m of the race Sweden was bearing down on the three leading crews. Rasmussen, Burmeister and Weisshaupt had to react. And they did. Stroke rate went into the high 30s. Sweden just missed out. Denmark, Germany and Switzerland are in the Final.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Semifinals

Semifinal One featured reigning World Champion Duncan Grant of New Zealand. Grant edged into a slight lead over Italy and Slovakia and then, as is his custom, began to work his way away from the rest of the field. Grant was unlucky in 2008 to sustain an injury that prevented him from trialling for the Olympic double, but he has made himself very much at home in the single and is going for his third world championship title. Coming into the finish, Grant had enough of a lead that he could drop his stroke rate to a cruisey 26 strokes per minute. Behind the New Zealander, Lorenzo Bertini of Italy had worked his way into second with Olympic medallist from the double Mads Rasmussen of Denmark coming through in third. Rasmussen is currently focusing on his medical degree so has chosen the single for its flexibility for this season. These are the three boats that are now in the Final.

Semifinal Two opened with Great Britain’s Adam Freeman-Pask in the lead. At over six foot tall, Freeman-Pask makes a tall, slim lightweight rower and with two medals already this season, he is making the most of his reach. By the half way point Freeman-Pask still had the edge while Chile, Japan and Switzerland fought it out, neck-and-neck, for the final two qualifying positions. Coming into the final sprint Switzerland’s Frederic Hanselmann went for broke. Hanselmann first made the Swiss national team as a junior back in 1995 and has moved recently in between the single and double. At the line, much to the crowd’s delight, Hanselmann was first. Freeman-Pask held on to second and Japan’s Olympic rower, Daisaku Takeda, earned third. These are the three boats in this afternoon’s Final.

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Semifinals

Semifinal One ended up a battle of the Italians. At the start, 2007 World Champions Armando Dell’Aquila and Andrea Caianiello had the lead followed closely by Italy’s number two crew (Jiri Vlcek and Bruno Mascarenhas) and Ulrik Romme and Christian Moelvig of Denmark. As the rest of the field slipped back, the two Italian boats and Denmark raced each other to the line. Dell’Aquila and Caianiello continued to hold a slight edge and continued to keep the pressure on right to the line. A push by Vlcek and Mascarenhas earned them second and Denmark qualifies for the Final from third.

The two Olympians from the four, Jean-Christophe Bette and Fabien Tilliet of France1, are improving with every row they have together. Today they qualified with the fastest time when they raced from the front in Semifinal Two. The duo finished second at the first Rowing World Cup of this season and, judging by the last two days of racing, they look to be potential gold medallists this afternoon in the Final. Denmark1 (Jacob Barsoe and Lasse Dittmann) settled into second, racing within themselves but also very much aware of France2 (Nicolas Moutton and Francois Marty). Denmark and France were well in front of Germany (in fourth), but the two boats remained in tight private duel. A last ditch sprint brought Denmark’s rating up to 37 strokes per minute with France2 holding 35. France1, Denmark and France2 are in this afternoon’s Final.