Rowers aim for semifinal again

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x)
Adam Freeman-Pask finished fifth at under-23 level in the lightweight single three years ago in 2006. He started in the lead and stayed there. Tunisia tried to hold on to second but lost energy and slipped back to fifth by the halfway mark. Jonathan Winter, silver medallist in the USA’s U23 lightweight men’s quadruple sculls in 2006, who started out in third moved up past Tunisia and Italy to grabe second, but Italy’s Augusto Zamboni also had qualification on his mind and in the last 500m overtook the USA to finish second behind Great Britain. Great Britain, Italy and USA move to the semifinal. The remainder go to Final C.

Men’s Pair (M2-)
In the first repechage, under-23 silver medallists from Italy Matteo Castaldo and Matteo Motta took the lead from the start, but Olympians Nikola Stojic and Goran Jagar from Serbia bring a lot of experience to this regatta and showed it. Holding on to the Italians, they had taken the lead by the halfway mark and did not waver when Belarus, European bronze medallists, inched past them in the third quarter of the race. At the line, it was Serbia, then Belarus with Italy in third. All three crews qualify for the semifinal.

Poland’s strategy in the second repechage was to save energy for the last 500m. In fourth position at the 500m, Lukasz Kardas and Dawid Paczes comfortably stayed there until the halfway mark before they began to attack. Egypt 1 had led from the start but began to lose steam. The USA of David Banks and Charles Cole were also intent on making it to the semifinal and swapped between third, second and first position throughout the race. At the line the three semifinalists would be Poland in first, the USA in second and Egypt1 in third.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)
Two repechages saw twelve crews line up with the hope to race in the semifinal. Only the top three finishers in each race would make it.

In the first repechage, the USA of Samuel Stitt (fifth at the Beijing Olympics in the quad) and Glenn Ochal dominated from the start until the line. Two other crews would have to fight it out for the final qualifying spots. Croatia2 made it into second position by the halfway mark and stayed there. Italy3 did all it could to stay in the top three but progressively fell behind with Cuba taking its place in the third and final qualifying spot.

2006 World Champions from France Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet seemed dissatisfied with their morning’s results and decided to display their experience in the second repechage, taking the lead from the start and staying there throughout. The fight for second and third went on between two Polish crews and Egypt1. Poland1 seemed better off at the start but soon lost stamina, with Poland2 of Michal Sloma and Arnold Sobczak having saved energy to move up from fourth to third and finally to second by the finish line.  Egypt1 tried to keep up with France in second, fell slightly behind in the last 500m and qualified from third behind Poland2.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)
Only the top two crews from each of the four repechages in the men’s single sculls would qualify for the semifinal.
2008 Top 10 rower Iztok Cop from Slovenia usually races in the men’s double with Luka Spik. It is in the double that he achieved his most notable medals at Olympic and World Championship level. Racing in the single here in Banyoles, Cop seemed in better form in this afternoon’s repechage than he did in the morning heat. Grabbing first from the start he held on to this position until the finish line. The fight for second went on between Mario Vekic of Croatia and Ireland’s Sean Casey. Ireland proved to have more strength and took the second and final qualifying spot for the semifinal.

Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez wanted to qualify badly in repechage two. With one quarter of the race left, he had secured first and safely stayed there ahead of Greek rower Ioannis Christou, 2008 European Champion in this boat class, who would take the second and final qualifying spot.

Only four crews lined up at the start in repechages three and four. Belarus’s Dzianis Mihal and Stanislau Shcharbachenia are both three-time under-23 champions in the double and it is the first time they row separately and against each other in the same race at a World Rowing event. In repechage three Shcharbachenia was the stronger of the two, starting in front and staying there throughout the race. Sweden’s seasoned single sculler Lassi Karonen swapped between third and fourth for most of the race but managed to overtake Canada’s Fraser Berkhout to take the final qualifying spot for the semifinal.

Sergey Fedorovtsev from Russia is 2004 Olympic Champion in the men’s quadruple sculls. Last year he competed internationally in the single for the first time at senior level at the European Championships, where he finished fourth. Fedorovtsev stormed out of the starting blocks in Olympic Champion style in repechage four, but in the last 500m lost his lead to USA’s Warren Anderson. Both crews advance to the semifinal.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)
Three crews would qualify for the semifinal in this sole repechage for the lightweight men’s double sculls. It did not take long for Italy2 of Tommaso Sacchini and Davide Babboni to take the lead and stay there, leaving Cuba and Denmark1 to battle it out for second and third. Open water was separating these top three qualifiers from the rest of the field by the halfway mark. Cuba took second and Denmark1 third with less than half a second between them. Denmark2 and Egypt go to Final C.