Racing for the second time today at the Rowing World Cup

Under cooler afternoon conditions that included a light sprinkling of rain, followed by thunder, lightening, then heavy rain, crews raced for a chance to continue on to the semifinals.

Lightweight Women's Single Sculls (LW1x) – Repechages

Erika Bello of Italy has been around the rowing world. She did a comeback last year after not having competed since the mid-1990s. Today her form stepped up a notch as she recorded a win in the first of three repechages. This win will take her and the second and third placed boats (Andrea Dennis of Great Britain and Carola Tamboloni of Italy Two), through to the semifinal.

Bello, “this morning I was not too good but this afternoon I was physically much more reactive.”

The second of two repechages featured a mixture of regulars and newcomers with a mixture making it through at the other end of the race. Tunisia’s Ibtissem Trimech led for most of the race before running out of steam and letting Finland’s Ilona Hiltunen and the Yaima Velazquez of Cuba take over. All three boats continue to the semifinal with Velazquez having the honour of finishing first.

Trimech, “I feel better this year and it’s a pre-Olympic year. I know that everyone is preparing for the lightweight double, but I’m very happy to qualify for the semifinal.”

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Quarterfinals

This event featured many new names as top lightweight rowers look for a doubles partner in the aim to be part of next year’s Olympic Games. Just out of under-23 ranks, Germany’s Jonathan Koch is holding his own in a nation where competition is tight to make the team. Today’s win in quarterfinal one will surely help his case. Koch moves on to the semifinal along with Rolandas Kazlauskas of Hong Kong China.

Koch, “I started off to loose, but then I realised I was too relaxed and picked it up. I have been ill through the winter so I’m happy with my results.”

Alisdair Leighton-Crawford of Great Britain is another new name to the senior scene. Leighton-Crawford debuted in the lightweight men’s quad last year and now in the single he raced to first in quarterfinal two. This left Valeri Prosvirnin of Estonia to take second and also qualify for the semifinal.

In quarterfinal three Arnaud Pornin of France led the way. Pornin has featured internationally as a junior (2002) and an under-23 as well as at the senior level. Pacing Pornin for the entire 2000m was Zhenggang Song of China in his debut season. Both boats advance to the semifinal.

Quarterfinal four recorded the fastest qualifying time with Alwin Snijders of the Netherlands holding a three-way race that included Mete Yeltepe of Turkey and Luca Moncada of Italy. This race continued until the finish with Moncada missing out. Snijders and Yeltepe will be in the semifinal.

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Repechages

The aim was not to be last as one boat would drop off and not advance to the semifinal. No one was willing to drop. Serbia had the early lead with France and Germany1 all but level. Germany had a lot to prove after missing out in the heats following a boat stopping stroke just near the finish line. At this second race of the day for these crews, Otto Felix and Stefan Mlecko finished in front with Serbia and France practically level at the finish – barely a bow ball between them. All three boats move on to the semifinal.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Quarterfinals

What could have been one of the major upsets of the day did not eventuate at all because of one missed stroke. Jitka Antosova of the Czech Republic was in the lead over third in the world Frida Svensson of Sweden. Antosova finished first in the double at last year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships but this is her debut as a senior single sculler. Coming into the finish Antosova had a slight edge over Svensson with Germany3, Daniela Molle back in third. But one stroke before the finish Antosova stopped rowing handing Svensson first place. Still Antosova moves to the semifinal along with Svensson and Molle.

Number two in the world Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic showed why she is nearly at the top. In quarterfinal two Knapkova led from the start over Michelle Guerette of the United States. Battling for the third and final qualifying spot Katalin Szabo, 20, of Hungary – in her first year as a senior rower – battled it out with Kathrin Boron, 37, of Germany – in her 17th year as a senior rower. Despite stopping a couple of strokes before the finish, Szabo did enough to take the third qualifying spot. Knapkova, Guerette and Szabo move on to the semifinal.

Guerette, “I knew that Knapkova would be very quick and I realised that after 500 metres I needed to do more. I’m happy with the outcome.”

Knapkova, “I like this venue because it’s good for rowing, it’s fair.”

Reigning World Champion Ekaterina Karsten lined up for the second time today and again she had a very easy race of it. This left Poland’s Julia Michalska and Julia Levina of Russia to fight it out for second and third. Michalska got the upper hand but Levina will advance to the semifinal also.

Karsten’s coach, “She will have to work in the semifinal. It won’t be as easy any more.”

The last quarterfinal went to Xiuyun Zhang of China who, after overtaking a fast starting Rika Geyser of South Africa, established herself ahead of the talented, but easily shaken, Sophie Balmary of France. At the finish Zhang looked easy and comfortable and put herself one step closer to her dream of competing at Beijing next year, Balmary held on to second and Geyser moves on to the semifinal as well.

Balmary, “It was so-so. I didn’t have a good start and I wasn’t really in the race. We’ll see tomorrow how it will be.”

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Repechages

With all of the top contestants out of the way, and already through to the semifinal following this morning’s racing, the next level of single scullers – some new to the scene, some well-established –raced in nine repechages. The aim was to be first to ensure advancement to the semifinal. Well-established Santiago Fernandez of Argentina easily took out repechage one. Fernandez has been on the international scene for 15 years with his best result being a fourth-place finish at the 2004 Olympics. He advances to the semifinal.

A second South American, Yoennis Hernandez from Cuba led for the entire repechage two to take another semifinal spot. Austria then gained a birth in the semifinal with their number one sculler Christof Uhl overtaking France to take the front position. Then Martin Damir of Croatia adding his name to the semifinal list by taking an easy, open-water win. Coming out of his country’s double Nils-Torolv Simonsen of Norway held off Ireland to win the eightieth race of the day and the fifth repechage.

Despite a massive effort this morning in the heat, China’s Liang Zhang had enough left to win his repechage over Lithuania and carry his chances on to the semifinal. Repechage seven presented one of the most challenging of the nine races. Two-time Olympic medallist in the double, the very tattooed Luka Spik of Slovenia took an easy lead but then found himself challenged in the final 500m of the race by Valentinos Sofokleous of Cyprus. Spik held off Sofokleous and qualifies for the semi with the fastest time, 7:00.17.

Spik, “I am not so good in a single any more and here we want to see how we (Iztok Cop) are doing. Afterwards we may do a double.”

He may only be 20 years old but already Romania’s Daniel Frateanu has a lot of international racing under his belt. Now footing it at the senior level, Frateanu finished easily in front to move on to the semifinal. The last, and number nine, repechage went to Estonia’s Leonid Gulov who had to overtake Germany2 to win and qualify for the semifinal.

Frateanu, “Up to the 1000m it was a very tight race with Belgium. I progressively increased my rate not to let him come back which was my goal for today. My next goal is qualifying for the A Final.”

Gulov, “The German sculler was really fast in the first 1000m it was very hard to get past him.”

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Quarterfinals

A cornucopia of Australia and United States with a dabbling of China and Germany thrown in for good measure, these four races clearly showed what nations are currently at the head of women’s sweep rowing. Quarterfinal1 opened with Australia3 in the lead before United States3 took over. China1 then got in on the action with the Netherlands joining in for the final sprint. At the line Lindsay Shoop and Anna Goodale of the United States had finished first, China and Australia also qualify for the semifinal by finishing second and third respectively.

Shoop, “It was a good race, we were learning as we were going.” Goodale, “It’s a very good start for the beginning of the season.”

Although they call themselves Australia4, Kim Crow and Sarah Cook had already showed their boat this morning and this afternoon they showed it again by leading Quarterfinal2. This left Germany1 to hold on to second. Meanwhile Australia1 had a tough battle going on with Russia. At the line Crow and Cook held on to first, Lenka Wech and Nadine Schmutzler of Germany took second and Sonia Mills and Phoebe Stanley of Australia1 got the better of Russia to take third and the final qualifying spot.

Quarterfinal3 had United States2 in the lead and thunder sounded above the rowing course. Water remained flat and the rain stayed away so racing continued as normal. Susan Francia and Caroline Lind of the United States didn’t let the thunder bother them leaving Denmark, Australia2 and Romania to vie for the remaining two spots. Denmark’s Fie Graugaard and Lea Jacobsen ended up scoring second with Robyn Selby Smith and Natalie Bale of Australia2 taking third.

The last quarterfinal also gave us the fastest qualifying time when reigning World Champions, Canadians Darcy Marquardt and Jane Rumball, for the second time today, found themselves in a very tough race. Marquardt and Rumball got off to a good start but never managed to shake Megan Cooke and Anna Mickelson of the United States. Great Britain were also well on the pace. Coming into the final sprint Cooke and Mickelson took the lead from the World Champions who tried to fight back but will qualify for the semifinal from second. Great Britain also advance to the semifinal.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – Repechages

Italy’s new combination of Giuseppe De Vita and Raffaello Leonardo showed that they had the goods by winning the first of two repechages. Behind the Italians Germany2 was making a fine effort with Serbia’s Nikola Stojic and Jovan Popovic very much on the pace. Three qualifying spots were up for grabs and as China and Germany3 were still very much on the pace no-one could rest on their laurels. Less than a second separated Italy, Serbia and Germany2 at the finish. These crews advance to the semifinal.

Raffaello, “I’m a little bit unlucky because I had a fever for the last three days. This is the first day without a fever and I hope it will be better tomorrow.”

A four-way tussle went on in repechage two led by Jakub Makovicka and Jan Schindler of the Czech Republic. Gregor Novak and Bostjan Bozic of Slovenia then decided enough was enough and coming into the final 500m pulled out their sprint. The Czechs tried to hold on with Brazil and Spain moving with them. Feeling like they just didn’t quite have it Spain stopped 10m before the line giving Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Brazil the qualifying spots.

Bozic, “It was a very difficult race because we were all together.”

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Repechages

Under flashes of lightning the two repechages of the women’s double opened with ninth in the world from last year, Aliz Konya and Lidia Veroci of Hungary pushing ahead of Belarus2 to try and control the race. Italy’s Laura Schiavone and Elisabetta Sancassani took up chase and kept their boat well in touch of the leaders. Three boats would qualify and Hungary did it from first with Italy taking second. Belarus2 denied their number one crew of a spot in the semifinal by finishing third.

Schiavone, “It was a good race but there were some waves. There is never an easy race, but we were second and so we qualified so we could control the third boat.”

Better known for their lightweight results, Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen of Finland decided not to make weight for this regatta and instead led the second open women’s double repechage. China2 gave the Fins a run for their money but Sten and Nieminen managed to hold them off. China2 qualify for the semifinal from second and Norway also advance with their third place finish.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Repechages

Opening the first of four repechages, China (Zheng Chen and Hui Su), Poland2 (Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz), Germany2 (Manuel Brehmer and Joerg Lehnigk) and Belarus (Dzianis Mihal and Stanislau Shcharbachenia) all raced for the full 2000m. All eight athletes gave it their max. China held on to a slight lead over lightweight Olympic Champions Kucharski and Sycz and these two crews also had the better sprint to be the two qualifying boats.

Estonia is trying different combinations to see how they’ll make up their quad for the World Rowing Championships later this season and Estonia2 (Igor Kuzmin and Allar Raja) look to have the goods as they raced Jake Wetzel and Derek Porter of Canada for the full 2000m race. Wetzel and 2000 Olympic finalist Porter had the upper hand through the middle of the race but they appeared to be satisfied with second letting Estonia take over for the last 500m of the race. Estonia and Canada advance to the semifinal.

Repechage three nearly got finished before the rain began but it didn’t stop Australia’s Scott Brennan and David Crawshay from recording the fastest qualifying time. Brennan comes back to international competition after post-2004 Olympic retirement. He joins with Crawshay, Australia’s current fastest single sculler. Together they kept ahead of Poland1, Michal Sloma and Marcin Brzezinski. Both crews move on to the semifinal.

The Czech Republic’s Milan Dolecek and Vaclav Chalupa gave Greece (Ioannis Tsamis and Ioannis Christou) a run for their money in the final repechage as the two went head to head at the front of the field. As both were in qualifying positions it must have been motivated by competitive instinct and pride as neither appeared to want to give in. Both boats move on to the semifinal.

Men’s Four (M4-) – Repechages

Four repechages with the goal of being in the top two of each brought the athletes of the men’s four back to the now very rainy Ottensheim rowing course. Ireland handled the rain well leading repechage one over Romania with Denmark very much in the picture. The necessity of a top two finish kept the pressure on but Denmark was never quite able to break through. Ireland and Romania move on to the semifinal.

A new Czech Republic line-up tussled with Germany2 for the entire 2000m race swapping between first and second position and denying Italy2 of a chance to advance. The tussle meant that first place finishers, the Czech Republic scored the fastest qualifying time but margins between the four repechages was slight. Germany2, from second, also advances to the semifinal.

Greece’s under-23 boat showed their talent in the heat this morning and indicating that it wasn’t a fluke, the Greeks led repechage three over Poland. Croatia tried to get in on the qualification action but it will be Greece and Poland going forward to the semifinal.

With three boats from Croatia going through the repechages, two of them ended up in repechage four and race 100 of today. This gave Slovenia a double Croatian challenge as these three boats battled it for the entire 2000 metres. Slovenia kept just enough of an advantage to finish first with Croatia2 taking out the final qualifying spot.

Bow for Slovenia Miha Pirih, “I’ve seen harder races and easier ones, but it was 'great' in the thunderstorm.”

Stroke for Croatia Branimir Vujevic, “I was really happy to qualify especially as we qualified ahead of the other Croatian crews.”

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Quarterfinals

China entered four boats, three of them ended up in the first quarterfinal. But they were up against the new-found boat speed of Chrysi Biskitzi and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece. Biskitzi and Tsiavou finished with bronze last year and boldly took on reigning World Champions, China1, Dongxiang Xu and Shimin Yan. Xu and Yan weren’t quite sure what had hit them with Greece holding a slight leading advantage.

Coming into the final sprint Xu and Yan fought back with Greece slipping into second. Meanwhile Sinead Jennings and Niamh Ni Cheilleacher of Ireland were busy denying all of the other Chinese crews a spot in the semifinal by pushing through to third. China One, Greece and Ireland move on to the semifinal.

Magdalena Kemnitz and Ilona Mokronowska of Poland took off in the lead and remained there for the entire race. This left Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell of Great Britain to slot into second with Denmark Two following in third. But Casey and Goodsell did not have second in a tight hold with Great Britain2 and Denmark both challenging for the spot. At the finish line Poland held on to first while Casey and Goodsell fought back to take second and Denmark grab the third qualifying spot in third.

Canada’s stroke Tracy Cameron was all smiles at the end of quarterfinal three. Along with new partner Lindsay Jennerich the duo took the lead and never looked back. This left Katrin Olsen and Juliane Rasmussen to stay ahead of Spain to hold second. These three crews move on to the semifinal.

At the end of quarterfinal four Germany claimed they’ve got more to give. This was despite Berit Carow and Marie-Louise Draeger being chased for the entire 2000m by Haixia Chen and Hua Yu of China3. The chase moved Germany and China away from the rest of the field with one spot remaining to qualify for the semifinal. Italy’s Laura Milani and Erika Mai had what it took. Germany, China and Italy move on to the semifinal following a massive final sprint.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Quarterfinals

Reigning World Champions, Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist set the standard in the first quarterfinal. Staying ahead of Vasileios Polymeros and Dimitrios Mougios of Greece meant they recorded the fastest qualifying time of 6:33. A very happy crowd also watched Austria1, Juliusz Madecki and Sebastian Sageder hold on to third to qualify.

A higher rating and more controlled stroke gave Matt Jensen and Doug Vandor of Canada a first place finish in quarterfinal two over current number two in the world Elia Luini and Marcello Miani of Italy. Italy tried to hold on to the Canadians but had to settle for second with France’s number two crew doing enough to take third.

Daisaku Takeda and Kazushige Ura of Japan showed their new-found speed this morning in the heats and this afternoon they again looked confident, together and happy racing at the head of quarterfinal three. This left Fabrice Moreau and Frederic Dufour of France (bronze in 2006) to hold on to second over Belgium’s number one crew. These three boats qualify for the semifinal while an unlucky Chile just missed out and will race in the C Final.

Great Britain’s Zac Purchase does not know how to loose and, along with new double partner Mark Hunter, Purchase continued on his winning ways despite a very slow start which saw them at the back of the field. By the 1500m mark Great Britain had found the lead pushing Zsolt Hirling and Tamas Varga into second. Identical twins Ondrej and Jan Vetesnik of Czech Republic used their twin intuition to hold on to third. Great Britain, Hungary and the Czech Republic move on to the semifinal.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – Repechages

There’s no doubt that this event is going to be a close final. The first three of four repechages all finished with the leading boat recording identical times of 6:11. Only repechage four upset the pattern with Italy1 winning in 6:09. This is how these four races unfolded.

In repechage one the Netherlands and Italy2 took off at the head of the field tussling back and forth for the leading position. A stronger second half by Italy gave them the edge and the Netherlands had to accept qualifying by finishing second.

With Germany3 scratching for medical reasons, it was up to Germany2 in repechage two to take on Denmark. At the start Germany made a fine effort jumping out to an early lead. But the Danes fought back and had a slight lead going through the half-way point. Germany held on as the two crews battled it out together. A fine effort by Spain nearly put them into qualifying position, but it will be Denmark and Germany that move on to the semifinal.

Ireland has found a new challenger. In repechage three Poland, stroked by Pawel Randa, had the lead and were not prepared to give it away. The Irish tried their hardest but Poland wanted to be in front. Both boats pushed each other to the line and both boats advance to tomorrow’s semifinal.

The United States showed solid boat speed this morning in the heats and again this afternoon in repechage four. But it was Italy One that wanted the lead the most. They got out ahead at the start and held off the fight from the United States with Austria going for broke a boat length back. Italy, the USA and Austria sprinted for the line. Italy held on to take first, the United States get second and Austria, despite a fine effort, missed out of qualifying finishing third.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Repechages

As the day came to a close the men’s quad raced in two repechages, race number 113 and 114 of the regatta. Three boats would qualify from each repechage and at the start Canada had the lead. The Canadian lead remained with Great Britain pulling into second and Belarus and Hungary holding on. The race was tight, all four crews would have to sprint. Great Britain and Belarus had the goods. Canada didn’t. Great Britain take first, Belarus qualify from second and Hungary push past Canada to take the third and final qualifying spot in a photo finish.

Australia grabbed the lead of the final race of the day and didn’t let go. In a race full of surprise talent, China slipped into second with the Czech Republic, Russia and Ireland aiming for the final qualifying spot. The Czech Republic had the best sprint. Australia, China and the Czechs advance to the semifinal.