Rowing in the B Final at Munich

A number of last year’s medallists found themselves in the B Finals. A sign of the season to come? Or a carefully planned build-up towards Beijing?

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – B Final

Early season racing does not always reflect what happens at the other end of the season and last year’s bronze medallist Michelle Guerette of the United States will be hoping just this. Racing today in the B Final Guerette shook off two boats that have already qualified for the Olympics, Xiuyun Zhang of China and Sophie Balmary of France. Both Zhang and Balmary appeared to let Guerette get away in the second half of the race perhaps indicating the better endurance of Guerette. Guerette earns one World Cup point for her country from finishing first, Balmary is second and Zhang third.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – B Final

It is not very often that Iztok Cop of Slovenia has to come down early in the morning and race in the B Final. Today his racing will all be over by 9am and he will be ranked seventh overall at this regatta. Cop, who has been focusing on his Olympic boat, the double, led from the start with Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands pressing him hard. Side by side Hamburger kept Cop well within his reach and, although letting the Slovenian get away a little in the second half of the race, Hamburger crossed the line looking very happy with his progress. Cop earns one World Cup point for his country, Hamburger finishes second and Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis takes third.

Women’s Pair (W2-) – B Final

Last year a crab stopped the Australian’s from medalling in the A Final at the World Rowing Championships after being successful throughout the Rowing World Cup races. This year Sarah Cook and Kim Crow of Australia started off the season much more sedately. Racing in the B Final Cook and Crow left the starting blocks behind France’s Inene Pascal-Pretre and Stephanie Dechand. A slow second 500 for the French saw them slip back with China taking over the lead and getting ahead of the Australians. A steady, mature race plan by Cook and Crow then brought them into the lead as the last quarter of the race came into view. With a small margin of lead Cook and Crow were able to watch the closing fight between Denmark and France. Denmark took their rating up to try and get past France, but ran out of water. Australia finish first, France second and Denmark take third.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – B Final

China is hoping to qualify for the Olympics in this event later this season and judging by today’s results it will be up to China One, Yongqiang Zhang and Xiandang Wang. Zhang and Wang took off in the lead but had fallen behind an aggressive attack by Jason Read and Bryan Volpenhein of the United States. The aggressiveness continued giving Read and Volpenhein a decent lead with China following in second and the Serbians Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic coming through into third. At the line Read and Volpenhein had won by a handy margin with Serbia pushing past the Chinese to take second and China holding on to third.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – B Final

They may be a new combination this season but Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek of the United States looked smooth and in control as they came down the 2000m Munich rowing course. Kalmoe and Tomek are not the athletes that qualified this boat for the Olympics but they may be the combination to fill it. The duo stayed ahead of France and Belarus who were playing cat and mouse. France then slipped back into fourth behind Italy before pulling out a big sprint. But Gaelle Buniet and Marie Le Nepvou of France had left their burst until too late. The United States finish first, Belarus takes second and France manage third.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – B Final

Yesterday former World Champions, Jean-Baptiste Macquet and Adrien Hardy of France were getting their boat prepared to go on the water. They placed it in slings. It blew over. This delayed the start of their race and finishing fourth in the semifinal meant returning to race in today’s B Final. The French led from start to finish. Behind them Ioannis Tsamis and Ioannis Christou of Greece went with Macquet and Hardy doing all that they could to stay within attacking distance. Although Greece was unable to catch France, they have yet to qualify this boat for the Olympics and this race could give them a boost of confidence. France finish first, Greece take second and the Chinese, Zheng Chen and Hui Su come through to finish in third. Unfortunately the Dutch were unable to race due to illness.

Men’s Four (M4-) – B Final

Slovenia continue to waver between A and B Finals. After yesterday’s semifinal, the B Final was all that they could muster this time around. They made the best of it by getting out in front and trying to draw themselves away from Belarus, Ireland and Greece. By the half-way point Slovenia still had the lead with a real battle going on behind them for second. There was nothing in it between Greece, Ireland and Belarus. With just 500m left, there was nothing in it. Slovenia finish first, Belarus grab second after a solid sprint and Greece get just ahead of Ireland to take third.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – B Final

The level of lightweight women is growing in Great Britain. They have two rowers in the final of the lightweight single and also two boats in this B Final and at the start one was leading. Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell of Great Britain will be doing all that they can this season to be chosen as the Olympic boat, but with a second double as well as two strong single scullers to contend with, they will need to come up with some magic racing. Winning today’s B Final will help Goodsell and Casey’s cause. They stayed ahead of Greece’s second boat with Great Britain Two only three seconds back in third.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – B Final

A fourth-place finish by Greece’s Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros in the semifinal forced the 2007 silver medallists out of the A Final. Today they made the best of the B Final by leading from start to finish and outpacing the Czech Republic’s Vetesnik twins in second and making it look like easy racing. It is unlikely that the Greeks will be worried at racing the B Final at this stage of the season as they have come to this regatta off hard training. The Vetesniks take second and a very happy Portuguese double of Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes take third. Fraga and Mendes have potentially gone one step closer to Olympic qualification.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – B Final

Denmark is working on their dream boat for this year’s Olympics. They have Olympic Champions, Eskild Ebbesen and Thomas Ebert in the boat. World Champion Bo Helleberg in two seat and the powerful young Mads Kruse Andersen in three seat finish off the line-up. Today they start the season racing in the B Final against a very accomplished Dutch line-up and the Italian four that medalled at the Athens Olympics. Spain got off to a fast start followed closely by the Danes. By half-way Denmark had taken over at the head of the field with the Netherlands moving up the field. Greece then made a move. The Dutch responded. At the line Denmark take first, the Netherlands second and Greece third.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – B Final

Two boats lined up. Both boats fought for the entire race. Germany’s number two boat came out on top. Romania finish second.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – B Final

Racing in the men’s quad is often close and this was certainly the case in the B Final today. With a quarter of the race gone less than three seconds separated the top five boats with only Romania a little off the pace. The margins were still tight going through the half-way point as Estonia pulled out to a bit of a margin leaving Great Britain, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Ukraine neck and neck. Estonia stayed just in front to take first. The Czech Republic did an enormous push to come in second. Ukraine did just enough to get their nose ahead of Great Britain and take third.

Women’s Eight (W8+) – B Final

New Zealand and Belarus made it a two horse race by leaving Germany’s second crew in their wake. In the two favoured lanes, five and six, Belarus got their nose ahead of New Zealand at the start. The Kiwis, under the guidance of new coxswain Rachel Goudie, then fought back and took over in the lead. They remained there through the centre of the race. Belarus came into the final sprint bringing their rating to 38 strokes per minute. The two crews went stroke for stroke. Belarus got the edge right on the line to take first. New Zealand second.

Men’s Eight (M8+) – B Final

Poland jumped out to take an early lead in the boat that will get to race at Beijing later this year. The Netherlands, who are yet to qualify for the Olympics, took off after Poland. A couple of shaky strokes by the Poles which upset their rhythm was what the Dutch were needing. With 500m left to row the Netherlands were in the lead and stayed there until the end. Poland held on to second and Switzerland managed third. After the race, Poland was relegated to last due to their boat being underweight.