15 Dec 2011
Reps round off at Munich Rowing World Cup
Lesser finals preceded the day's racing giving crews another chance to race and a 13-plus position ranking. The calibre of this racing, however, was no less. Case in point was the lightweight women’s double C Final. Sitting in the outside lane, last year’s silver medallists, the United States, raced against Ireland which included former singles World Champion Sinead Jennings and two of Denmark’s silver medal winning quad rowers from last year. Ireland finished first.
Two repechages requiring a top two finish for advancement to the final saw Tim Smith and Tim O’Callighan of Australia carry out a close battle with Austria and Brazil. Even after 1,500 metres of racing the three crews were still within striking distance of each other with Brazil kicking up to 39 strokes per minute. They couldn’t sustain it and Australia and Austria qualify for the final.
The second repechage saw Denmark’s Asbjoern Joensen and Mads Andersen shoot out of the start in true high-rating Denmark style. World Champion Andersen is joined by 21-year-old Joensen who is still building his international experience. But Italy’s two-time World Champion (LM8+) Luigi Scala and five-time World Champion (LM4x) Franco Sancassani had soon swallowed up the Danish lead. Still in qualifying position, Denmark didn’t react back and coming into the final 500 metres the Italians were content to drop their rating. Both crews move to the final.
Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – Friday Final
Racing for lanes in Saturday’s final, Russia shot out of the blocks ahead of reigning World Champions Great Britain. The British crew has one change from last year’s champion crew – Debbie Flood leaves the double behind and joins Britain’s flagship crew following the retirement of Rebecca Romero. Russia’s lead began to dwindle as the higher-rating Brits began to push through. Russia didn’t react and chose to slip into number two position, still well ahead of Romania in third.
Australia withdrew due to illness.
Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Repechages
Olympic Champions Russia had an unimaginative 2005 season, but this may be changing in 2006 after leading the first of two repechages as Munich winds turned slightly to the head. Behind the very upright Russians a more body-swinging Australia kept within striking distance of the Russians but could never quite reach them. Russia and Australia advance to the final.
Repechage two was postponed due to an injury replacement in the Danish crew. Morten Nielsen will replace Kristian Oestergaard.
Under almost calm conditions, defending World Champions Australia arrived in Europe last week and hit the ground running by entering in the pair as well as the eight. After three races yesterday they came back today for race four. But luck wasn’t going their way. Despite beating Germany One yesterday, today Germany led the race from start to finish. Australia challenged and moved on the Germans but ran out of race course. China improved on yesterday by finishing third ahead of the Netherlands.
Men’s Eight (M8+) – Repechages
Stepping up a notch today, Australia chose the fast start tactic in repechage one and in the process left Great Britain in the chasing position. Great Britain, with former Oxford University’s winning coxswain Acer Nethercott, chased hard but was unable to move up on the new Australian crew. Australia and Great Britain advance to the final. Despite boat-slapping encouragement by China’s coxswain Dechang Zhang, the crew will have to settle for tomorrow’s B Final.
After a short lead by Italy, the current second in the world crew struggled in repechage two. Looking laboured and heavy through the drive the Italians were first overtaken by the Netherlands and then Belarus. On a roll, Belarus continued to stay in the lead improving many-fold on yesterday’s fourth place result. At the line Belarus and the Netherlands were the qualifying crews with Italy relegated to racing the B Final.