Lesser finals include former rowing champions

The E to C Finals at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany got under way in slight tail wind conditions with cool temperatures around 12 degrees Celsius. Some raced strongly, others had lost heart. Here is the summary.

Opening the day the E Final for the lightweight men’s double was mainly raced by up and coming rowing nations. But leading the way was Alberto Dominguez Lorenzo and Carlos Loriente Perez of Spain – a well established rowing nation. They will be names to watch for in the future. Finishing 19th overall in the D Final of the lightweight men’s double, Americans Richard Montgomery and Andy Liverman – both with prior international experience – overtook Turkey using a 38 stroke rate to be in the lead. Turkey tried to respond but became a bit frantic, catching a crab in the last stroke.

The C Final featured former under 23 stars, the Czech Republic and last year’s winners, New Zealand. It also featured Pan American medallists, Eyder Batista Vargas and Yunior Perez Aguliera of Cuba. The Cubans struggled against the Czech Republic and came out on top.

Turkey, India and Vietnam raced the E Final of the men’s lightweight four with a very close battle going on between India and Turkey. Turkey had the better sprint and in race 205 of these World Rowing Championships, they finish 25th overall. The D Final of this event showed a marked increase in talent from the prior E Final. In the lead Japan held off a strong challenge from Ukraine to earn the 19th overall spot. The C Final was led from start to finish by Greece although they didn’t have it all their own way as Russia and the Czech Republic gave them a run for their money.

Former Olympic single sculler (1996) from Egypt, Aly Aly Ibrahim raced in two seat of the D Final for the men’s quadruple sculls. The crew stayed ahead of Romania for the entire race. The C Final had a new look Argentinean crew taking on the Canadians and, despite a very tight sprint to the line, Argentina held it together the best finishing first in this race and 13th overall.

Racing the C Final of the lightweight women’s single, Orla Duddy of Ireland worked her way past Turkey, then Belgium and finally Spain to find the lead. Duddy clocked a respectable speed of under eight minutes and with many rowing years ahead of her she will be a name to watch in the future.

The lightweight men’s C Final had a close tussle between Mario Aranz Puente of Spain and Lubos Podstupka of Slovakia followed closely by France and Palestine. At the line Aranz was first, earning 13th overall with France pulling out a massive sprint to close on Slovakia but remain in third.

Zoe Uphill of Australia is at her first international race, thrown in at the deep end by making it to the World Championships. In the C Final of the women’s single Uphill outraced former Under 23 Champion and regular on the international rowing circuit, Iva Obradovic of Serbia.

Finishing right on seven minutes, Sean Jacob of Ireland won the C Final of the men’s single placing 13th overall. This is the exact same position Jacob finished in last year at the World Rowing Championships. Today he held off Ralph Kreibich of Austria in the final sprint to be lucky 13th once again.

Spain has been regularly featuring at the top end of these lesser finals and they featured once again in the C Final for the men’s pair. Pedro Rodriguez Aragon and Noe Guzman Del Castillo of Spain remained ahead of the more experienced Slovenian pair to be the 13th overall crew in this event at the World Champs.

Belarus’s Tatsiana Narelik and Anastasiya Fadzeyenka have not had the best of races at these championships but today they put some heart into the C Final of the women’s double to easily finish first. The men’s double C Final was a very tight fight between Greece and Russia. Russia featured Olympians, Greece featured under 23 stars. Greece came out on top. But the real surprise here was seeing the very accomplished Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic back in fourth and Italy’s Simone Venier in last. It’s very hard to get to the top, even harder to stay there.
Greece had to come back from the rear of the field to finish first in the C Final of the men’s four. This pushed Canada, which included Olympic silver medallist Barney Williams in stroke seat, into second in a very tight and aggressive sprint to the line.

The lightweight women’s double C Final featured some former World Cup medallists from the single including Sinead Jennings of Ireland. Taking out first and the 13th spot overall was Sonia Boubeta Surras and Teresa Mas De Xaxars who, finishing 13th, could well put them in with a chance of qualifying for the Olympics at the last chance in July next year.

At this very course 35 years ago, for the 1972 Olympic Games, New Zealand won gold in the men’s eight. Ever since that win the small Pacific nation has tried to bring a men’s eight back to that glory. This year a young men’s eight was selected and made the pilgrimage back to Munich. Racing in the C Final they finished first to be 13th overall. All eyes will be following this crew as they develop over the next couple of years.