Lucerne World Cup Saturday Racing

By Melissa Bray

Saturday's racing opened with D and C finals on the second day of the BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. The Rotsee venue is considered one of the fairest rowing courses in the world and flat conditions with a slight headwind that turned to a small tail and a pleasant 21 degrees Celsius greeted the rowers.

Featured in the men's single C final was Athens Olympic finalist Tim Maeyens of Belgium who has been focusing on his studies so is only now working his way back into racing. Maeyens held off France's Julien Bahain and two-time Dutch Olympian Dirk Lippits to finish first.

Moving from lightweight to heavyweight division the Czech Republic's two-time Olympian Michal Vabrousek has teamed up with Tomas Karas and today won the D final of the men's double.

Women's Four (W4-) – Saturday Final

This event does not race at the Olympics but countries often use it as a development event to feed rowers into other boats. Australia had their Under-23 crew racing in preparation for the Amsterdam Under-23 Championships next week. Great Britain's crew is just out of the Under-23 ranks and China's crew is made up of provincial rowers hoping to make the national team. Germany's fast start soon got swallowed up by Great Britain and then the bright red and yellow colours of China. Once China had found the lead they began to relax and crossed the line rating a comfortable 31 strokes per minute. Great Britain and Germany followed.

Jo Hammond of Great Britain

Lightweight Women's Single (LW1x) – Semifinal

Three boats moving to the semifinal inspired Switzerland's Lea Fluri to take off at a cracking pace with Jo Hammond of Great Britain right on her tail. By the half-way point Hammond had found the lead while a tiring Fluri could not prevent Spain's Teresa Mas De Xaxars from moving into second. Coming into the final 500 metres the leading three crews were under no pressure from the rest of the field and will all advance to the final.

Marit Van Eupen of the Netherlands is the unofficial record holder in this event and in her sixth international season she is back in the single after racing in the double at Athens. Van Eupen led at the start but by only a small margin over Cuba's long-legged Ismaray Marrero and Chrysi Biskitzi of Greece. The experienced van Eupen then moved away and gained enough of a lead to control the race leaving Biskitzi and Marrero to race each as well as trying to contend with a sprinting Nora Feichter of Switzerland.

Feichter's effort came just a fraction too late and Biskitzi and Marrero will follow van Eupen into the final.

Lightweight Men's Single (LM1x) – Semifinal

Like a pace boat, Lorenzo Bertini of Italy took off in the lead and remained there until the half-way point where he ran out of juice. This let Japan's Diasaku Takeda and Vasileios Polymeros of Greece cruise through. The last time Takeda and Polymeros met they were in doubles competing in the Athens Olympic final. Together they took over at the head of the field. Coming into the last 500 metres Bertini continued to slip back letting Gerard van der Linden of the Netherlands move past. With three boats qualifying Polymeros, Takeda and van der Linden were not challenged as the rest of the field took the pressure right off as the finish line came into view.

The second semi again opened with an Italian. Marcello Miani retained the lead until the 1,000 metre mark when Munich winner Ingo Euler of Germany moved through. Keeping the pressure on, Euler then went for more than just first. Chased by Great Britain's Tim Male these two crews started to leave the rest of the field behind and both chose to sprint at a high 37 in the closing metres. Miani held on to take the third and final qualifying spot.

Lightweight Men's Eight (LM8+) – Saturday Final

There was a long line two hours ago for the weigh-in scales as four eights queued up to average 70 kg as a crew. Two hours later they were on the water and opened the race with some early tussling which saw the Netherlands get the early advantage. This was soon lost to Italy under the guidance of cox Gianluca Barattolo. Once Barattolo had found the lead he settled his crew into a solid rhythm and kept them easily ahead of Japan who had also overtaken the Netherlands. Usually this race is very close, but today the eights formed a procession as they crossed the line with open water separating all of the crews.

Men's Coxed Four (M4+) – Saturday Final

After the initial opening flurry of action this event turned into a two horse race with Italy and Germany well ahead of the rest of the field. Together the two leading crews raced for pride, for practice and for potential national team selection. Coxed by Andrea Lenzi, Italy retained a slight lead but in the final sprint Germany popped their rating up to 38 strokes per minute and narrowed the already small gap. Italy had just enough to retain the lead and both crews will meet again tomorrow with greater knowledge of their competitors.

Felipe Leal Atero and Miguel Cerda Silva of Chile in the lightweight men's pair

Lightweight Men's Pair (LM2-) – Semifinal

Last year Miguel Cerda and Felipe Leal were part of Chile's lightweight four that aimed to qualify for Athens. They only just missed out, but back in the pair they have been doing very well, finishing second at Munich last month. Today Cerda and Leal led the first semifinal over Germany's Jochen and Martin Kuehner. Despite three boats qualifying Chile kept the pressure on and crossed the line rating 37 to Germany's 36.

But the most impressive sprint goes to Spain. Alberto Dominguez and Imanol Calvo were sitting just behind Russia in fourth and decided they had to have a spot in the final. Taking their rating to 43 strokes per minute Dominguez and Calvo had their head down with full concentration. It worked. Spain moves on to the final.

Last night a cloudy evening turned to torrential rain as crews training on the Rotsee rushed to get off the water. That was all crews except Bo Helleberg and Thomas Ebert of Denmark. They remained training, finishing their planned session as the rain pelted down. Today Helleberg and Ebert lined up in the second semifinal and led from start to finish. But the Danes did not have an easy time of it. Hot on their heels both Great Britain and Italy kept the Danes honest. These three boats move forward to the final.

Lightweight Women's Quadruple Sculls (LW4x) – Repechage

The standard of Chinese rowing has definitely picked up a notch. In this repechage China Two led the race and in the process, despite having a comfortable lead, got within spitting distance of the World Best Time. Behind them the real fight was going on between the Netherlands, France and Germany who swapped places, swapped again and finally settled for second to the Netherlands, third to France and Germany taking the final qualifying spot in fourth. None of the boats looked like they were sprinting for the line.

Lightweight Men's Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) – Repechage

Four boats would qualify for the final, five wanted it and the final sprint was the determiner. Belgium, stroked by Kristof Dekeyser, got out in front by the half-way point and gained enough of a lead to be able to watch the scrap for the final three spots. Coming to the line to the sounds of 'hop Suisse', Switzerland found their second wind to get into qualifying position with France and Denmark joining them. Australia put up a gutsy effort but just missed out.