Lesser semifinals at the World Rowing Championships

Afternoon training at the Munich World Championship course

With three spots up for grabs for the C Final in each of the lightweight women’s and men’s single semifinal races, the top three clearly distinguished themselves in each race. It made for rather uneventful viewing, with the exception of the first men’s lightweight single semifinal where Hong Kong’s Hiu Fung Law came from fifth to third in the second 1000 metres after he moved through Portugual’s Carlos Fernandes and took advantage of Columbia’s Rodrigo Ideus Forero’s dwindling pace. Fernandez attempted to come back on Law in the final 500, but Law’s phenomenal sprint, the fastest 500 split in the field, kept him in third by over a second. Law narrowly missed overtaking second place Artyom Kudryashov of Uzbetistan by one hundredth of a second. In the second semifinal C/D, Spain’s Mario Arranz Puente claimed a narrow 0.06 second victory over Slovakia’s Lubos Podstupka.

For the lightweight women's single, Ireland’s Orlagh Duddy worked her way from third to first in the first semifinal. In the second semi Turkey’s Neylan Oeztuerk jostled for the number one position with Tunisia’s Ibtissem Trimech and Portugual’s Maria Lima to eventually secure the win by almost a two second margin. Trimech is using these World Championships as a practice event. She has already qualified for the Olympic Games through the African qualification quota and will race in the open single.

Three spots were available for both the women’s and men’s single semifinals C/D. 2005 U23 World Champion and 2006 U23 silver medallist in the women’s single, Iva Obradovic of Serbia, proved her podium experience with a clear victory by almost four seconds in the semifinal C/D, with Majda Jerman of Slovenia in second and Hungary’s Katalin Szabo holding off a last-minute surge by Maira Gonzalez Borroto. Borroto of Cuba had to settle for fourth and the D Final by a mere 0.38 seconds. In the second semi, Australia’s Zoe Uphill earned her win with open water, while Portugal’s Sara Silva took second by only 0.07 seconds, over Norway’s Tine Schoeyen, after steadily climbing back from a fifth place start.

The top three contenders in the first men’s single semifinal C/D were established early on with Ralph Kreibich of Austria to cross the line first followed by China’s Liang Zhang and Ireland’s Sean Jacob holding second and third respectively.

The second semifinal saw Cyprus’s only entry at the World Championships, Valentinos Sofokleous, hold a steady lead through to the finish. Sofokleous has shown to be a force to be reckoned with through the earlier rounds and his racing at these World Championships indicate his future potential. Italy’s Pier Giorgio Negrini made an outstanding comeback from last position at the start to finish second, closing on Sofokleous but missing the win by less than one second. Latvia’s lofty former under 23 medallist, Kristaps Bokums and Monaco’s Mathias Raymond jostled for the third position with Bokums successful in advancing to the C Final. Raymond made Monaco history last month by being the first athlete from his small nation to make a final in 60 years. Raymond finished sixth at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

Advancement to the C Final in the men’s pair semifinal was clearly distinguished early in the races for Slovenia and Czech Republic in semi one and for Netherlands and Spain in semi two. Belarus and Italy earned the third position and advancement by coming from fourth through Georgia and China, in the first and second semis respectively.

No surprise for the win by Czech Republic with veteran sculler Vaclav Chalupa partnered with Milan Dolecek in the men’s double. They looked relaxed and in control of the lead after their disappointing miss yesterday on qualifying for an Olympic spot. Chalupa will have to aim for future avenues if he wants to make his fifth Olympic Games. China and Russia grabbed second and third. In the second semi, Greece led from start to finish, while the Lithuanians, Italians and Ukraine jostled for the remaining two advancing positions. A tremendous sprint by Lithuania put them in second, Italy third and Ukraine heading to the D Final.

M2x SMERGHETTO Jean (ITA): "Everything is okay. One organization problem, which bothers me, is the space for the warm up. We row very near to tha race while we do the warm up."

M2x VENIER Simone (ITA): "Our result is not very good in my opinion. We would have been better in the quarterfinals, but we had a very difficult heat in the previous round!"

Fueled by a loss that left the 2004 Olympic silver medal Canadian men’s four missing on qualification opportunity in yesterday’s repechage, stroke Barney Williams led a big charge out of the gates rating above 46 and holding it there through the 250m mark. As much as the Greeks and Egyptians put on a strong chase, the Canadians were definitive to claim first. The second semi proved to be an exciting shuffle of positions with all crews in contention for advancement through the first 1500. A final charge by Spain allowed them to move from fifth to third to capture the final spot to the C Final just 0.52 seconds behind second place Croatia, and 0.82 off first place Argentina.

M4- BORASKA Igor (CRO): "In general it`s all right. The only problem for me, is that in the first days there weren`t enough racks for the boats. Now, it is OK. Apart from that, everything is really good. I`m satisfied with the transport and with the food as well."

Belguim’s Leen Blondelle was the undisputed winner from start to finish in the women’s single E Final, while Estonia’s Leonid Gulov made an outstanding final 500 move from fourth position to win the men’s single E Final. Turkey’s men’s double was in a race of their own to win the E Final by 30 seconds.