Great day for German juniors at the World Champs

Racing for spots in tomorrow’s final the Germans today qualified in all of the eight events that were raced. Rowers today dealt with rainy conditions for the majority of the races with temperatures around 16 degrees Celsius and favourable flat water.

Junior Women’s Single Sculls (JW1x) – Semifinals

Coming into their third race of this regatta those racing today had made it through to the semifinal and now they needed a top three finish to make it to the Final. Carina Baer of Germany has been dominating all of her races so far at this regatta and she did the same today in semifinal one. Is this the making of a new Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski? With just 500m rowed Baer was already dominating the race and by the end Baer was in a league of her own. This left the rest of the field to race for second and third. Alexandra Hagen of Australia slotted into second. This left third to be decided and with half the race gone Ukraine, Bulgaria and Croatia were all in contention. A better second half by Marcela Milosevic of Croatia gave her the third qualifying position. Baer, Hagen and Milosevic are in the Final.

In semifinal two Norway’s Tale Gjoertz was kept honest by Mihaela Petrila of Romania. Both of these rowers are in their second year of racing at the junior champs but Gjoertz has the advantage of racing in this event a year ago. Gjoertz used this advantage and by the half-way point had taken the lead. Petrila did her best to hold on and in the process these two crews moved away from Cara Linnenkohl of the United States. No one had the speed to challenge Linnenkohl and she remained safely in third. Gjoertz, Petrila and Linnenkohl advance to the Final.

Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x) – Semifinals

Germany always puts up a great single sculler at the junior level and this year, after moving from the double last year, Hagen Rothe is Germany’s top junior sculler. Rothe raced in semifinal one and after shaking off a fast-starting Estonia, Rothe got into the lead. Estonia’s Kaur Kuslap tried to hold on to second but he was being challenged aggressively by Igor Lucic of Serbia. Coming into the final 500m of the Danube course, Kuslap began to fade. Both Lucic and Andrei Brouka of Belarus seized the opportunity. Brouka, sitting in fourth, went for broke. At the line Kuslap had missed out. Rothe, Lucic and Brouka are on their way to Saturday’s Final.

Bulgaria’s Aleksandar Aleksandrov is in his fourth year on the Bulgarian junior team. He was just 15 when he first raced and last year in Beijing Aleksandrov became a junior World Champion. Today Aleksandrov raced in semifinal two. But at the start it was Taylor Wilczynski of Australia in the lead. Aleksandrov looked to be toying with the Australian. Going through the third 500m the Bulgarian pushed in front and sat on top of Wilczynski. The game between these two rowers moved them completely ahead of the rest of the field. Who would take the third and final qualifying spot? Ukraine looked to be the best candidate for the first half of the race, but then Ukraine ran out of steam and Russia and Mateusz Zarnowski of Poland took over. An awesome sprint by Zarnowski earned him a position in the Final. Aleksandrov, Wilczynski and Zarnowski will meet again in Saturday’s Final.

Junior Men’s Pair (JM2-) – Semifinals

Coming through to these semifinals Germany’s Frederik Prigge and Lukas Oberhausen have looked to be the crew to beat. But in semifinal one it was the Slovenians in the lead. Prigge and Oberhausen stuck closely to Slovenia and by the half-way point they had taken over at the head of the field. Slovenia’s Zan Cvet and Andraz Borstnar Vasle did not let the Germans get away and the two countries stuck close together. Meanwhile Denmark and France were vying for the final qualifying spot. Coming into the last 500m Denmark had the edge. France attacked. At the line Germany, Slovenia and a fast-finishing France get to go to the Final.

Despite Germany’s fast pace in the previous race, semifinal two recorded the faster qualifying time with Greece and Australia going head-to-head. Vasileios Ntalamagkas and Apostolos Lampridis of Greece are known for their ability to rate high and maintain it. Today Ntalamagkas and Lampridis showed their fluid style to stay just ahead of Ryan Edwards and Matthew Dignan of Australia. With the top two spots seemingly wrapped up, the real battle was going on for third. Georgia had it at the start but couldn’t hold the pace of the Americans. At the line Greece, Australia and Austin Brooks and John Paul Hogan of the United States earn the qualifying positions in the Final.

Junior Women’s Double Sculls (JW2x) – Semifinals

The crowd loved it. In the lead of the first semifinal was Lisa Farthofer and Magdalena Lobnig of Austria. Over the earlier racing a number of Austrian crews had gotten out to a fast start and then lost it in the second half of the race. Farthofer and Lobnig were not going to let that happen. With France and then the Czech Republic in second, the Austrians stayed in first. They may not have been the most powerful duo in this event, but they were racing with maturity and evenness. Meanwhile Toni Boteva and Rosita Boncheva of Bulgaria were trying to come back from a slow start and had worked their way up through the field. Coming into the final sprint the Czechs still had second. Bulgaria, and also Great Britain, charged for the line. In the closing metres Boteva and Boncheva moved ahead into second while Olivia Oakes and Rachel Gamble-Flint held on to third. Austria, Bulgaria and Great Britain are in the Final.

Clara Karches and Mareike Adams of Germany have made themselves the favourites heading into the Final. Karches and Adams already have a junior gold medal from last year in the quad and they are looking on track to earn one in the double this year. In semifinal two Karches and Adams stayed in the lead for the entire race and crossed the line with the fastest qualifying time. After the first 500 metres Spain and Denmark dropped off the pace leaving Australia, Poland and Italy to fight it out for the remaining two qualifying spots. Australia held on to second for the majority of the race with Italy’s Eleonora Trivella and Martina Ferrarini holding on to Australia’s pace. This is Trivella’s third year on the junior team and third year in the double, each time with a different partner. Trivella and Ferrarini started their sprint home with Poland chasing hard. Australia, now rating 30, looked to have run out of steam. At the line Germany, Italy and Poland earn the spots in the Final.

Junior Men’s Double Sculls (JM2x) – Semifinals

Germany and Slovenia met two days ago in the heats. The Germans are the reigning World Champions, but they were beaten in the heats by Slovenia. The two countries met again today in semifinal one and their racing was extremely close. New to the double this year, Martin Menger and Lauritz Schoof of Germany were just behind Ales Zupan and Ziga Legat of Slovenia at the start. Menger and Schoof then took over in the lead. Zupan and Legat held on – they are at their first World Rowing Junior Championships and were doing a fine effort to stay with Germany, meanwhile pushing past Norway and going after the leaders was Romania. Charging to the line Marius Feru and Laurentiu Grecu of Romania took the race to a photo finish. At the line Germany qualify for the Final from first. Slovenia just hang in there to take second and Romania earn a spot in the Final from finishing third.

The second semifinal opened with four boats all within striking distance of being the leaders. Those boats were Serbia, Lithuania, Croatia and Australia. Serbia had the edge at the start, but going through the middle of the race Croatia’s Marino Dragicevic and Mijo Rudelj took over. These four boats, however, remained close. The winning order would be decided in the final sprint. And what a sprint it was! As Serbia gave up the ghost, Croatia, Lithuania and Australia went for broke. At the line Nicholas Barnier and Sasha Belonogoff of Australia had pulled off a first. Lithuania take second and Croatia earn third. These three crews will meet again in the Final on Saturday.

Junior Men’s Four (JM4-) – Semifinals

Very early on in semifinal one, three countries put themselves into those qualifying positions with the remaining three countries all but out of the opportunity. Australia took over in the lead with Great Britain and Germany following closely behind. As Australia maintained a slight edge, Great Britain and Germany proceeded to go stroke-for-stroke against each other. The British are defending World Champions, but Australia had come through their heat in dominating style. As the last 300m came into view there was practically nothing between Australia, Great Britain and Germany. All three would qualify for the Final but none of three wanted to finish this race in any position but first. At the line Australia had retained the lead, Germany take second and Great Britain finish third. These three crews will race each other again tomorrow in the Final.

Despite the close race in semifinal one, semifinal two ended in a slightly faster time. This was because for the majority of the race five boats were in striking distance of being first and this only narrowed down to four boats coming into the third 500. Bulgaria took the leading edge at the start with Romania then taking over through the middle of the race. Spain and France remained very much on the pace. The order began to change coming into the third 500m. Greece, who had been at the back of the field, took their rating up to 39 and held on. Spain went with them. Bulgaria sprinted and Romania’s four very powerful rowers, rating 35, hung on. At the line Romania remained in first, Greece take second and Spain earns third. These three crews are in the Final.

Junior Women’s Quadruple Sculls (JW4x) – Semifinals

The reigning World Champions Germany have an entirely new crew this year but still managed to completely dominate their heat. In semifinal one the Germans again were unstoppable. Up against Italy, Germany made easy work of the race and all the Italians could do was hold off Sweden, then a last ditch sprint by Belgium, to remain in second. At the line Germany finish with easily the fastest qualifying time. Italy take second and Belgium qualify for the Final by getting ahead of Sweden to take third.

Semifinal two turned out to be much more exciting. At the start there was very little between the Netherlands, New Zealand and Belarus. As the Dutch began to fade, Belarus and New Zealand continued on with a battle at the head of the field. Then Greece started to move up. Rating 39 strokes per minute from the 1250m mark, Greece kept this high rating and overtook South Africa and then the Netherlands. The Greek egg-beater style was serving them well. At the line Belarus managed to hold off New Zealand to take first. New Zealand finish second and Greece gets into third. These three crews will meet again in tomorrow’s Final.

Junior Men’s Quadruple Sculls (JM4x) – Semifinals

Semifinal one featured Italy in the lead. The Italians earned a rest day yesterday after qualifying for the semifinal directly from the heats. They must have used their time off wisely as they came out fighting and after shaking off the Czech Republic, the Italians worked to stay ahead of the ever-improving French quad. Coming into the final sprint, Italy, rating 40, remained in the lead with France and now Latvia charging. At the line Latvia had pulled ahead of a very tired Czech Republic to take earn a spot in the Final. Italy and France also advance to the Final.

The second semifinal featured a full-on battle between Germany and the Netherlands. The Germans had come to the semifinal directly from the heats while the Dutch had done it through an extra race in the repechage. Germany took off in the lead but through the middle of the race the Netherlands managed to take over despite rating 33 strokes per minute to Germany’s 36. Coming into the final sprint to the noise from the grandstand, Germany pushed hard and regained the lead. Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, in third, all advance to the Final.