The Czechs are hot singles at World Champs

The blue riband events began with the men’s and women’s single sculls on Lake Karapiro, New Zealand at the 2010 World Rowing Championships. Will this end up a double header for the Czech Republic? In this first round of heats, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic indicated that she may be ready to truly take on World Champion, Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus after her fast heats time.

Then in the men’s single, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic looked incredibly comfortable in his heat, crossing the line with the fastest qualifying time.

As the wind continued to die down to a small tail wind breeze, Lake Karapiro started to look like ideal racing conditions for these athletes from around the world.

Women’s Single Scull (W1x) – heats

The three heats in this event required these single scullers to finish in a top three position to give them a direct path to the semifinals. Coming into this event there is no doubt about the dominance of Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus with Mirka Knapkova  (CZE), Emma Twigg  (NZL) and Sweden’s Frida Svensson  likely to be going for the lesser medals.

Knapkova was up first in heat one. Knapkova was the first overseas rower to arrive in New Zealand and she has had a month to acclimatise to New Zealand’s spring conditions. Knapkova made very easy work of her heat leading from start to finish and doing it by rating a comfortable 29 strokes per minute. Russia’s Julia Levina and Sophie Dunsing of Germany battled together through the first half of the race before Levina took off to cross the line in a comfortable second. Dunsing takes out the final qualifying spot. Unfortunately, back problems mean that Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen has had to withdraw.

An incredibly tight battle between Emma Twigg of New Zealand and Frida Svensson of Sweden pushed the pace in heat two. It also pushed Twigg and Svensson out far in front of the rest of the field. Twigg had the edge through the majority of the race looking comfortable on a 31 stroke rate pace but Svensson decided to really press the final sprint. Svensson crossed the line in first, just a nose ahead of Twigg. Both boats qualify for the semifinal along with Jingli Duan of China.

World Champion Karsten closed out the event by racing in heat three. Karsten had a relatively easy time of it with only Iva Obradovic of Serbia demonstrating any real challenge. Karsten, who has been training on Lake Karapiro for the last couple of weeks, rated 31 through the body of the race and held it to the finish. Obradovic and Katie Solesbury of Great Britain take the remaining qualifying spots.

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – heats

In the biggest event of this regatta, the men’s single scull featured 23 countries including Samoa for the first time. Favourite coming into this event is Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic who has gone through this season unbeaten. World Champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand has battled injury making his endeavour for a fifth World Champion title tough. Great Britain’s Alan Campbell  and Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte  of Norway are going to be up there challenging Synek.

Synek was first up in heat one of four heats. The target for these 23 scullers was to finish first if they wanted a direct path to the semifinals. Synek was not the fastest out of the starting blocks, but by half way Synek had begun to dominate. Rating an easy-looking 32 strokes per minute, Synek moved away from Belgium’s Tim Maeyens. By the second half of the race the winner was all but decided. Synek moves on to the semifinals.

Great Britain’s top sculler, Alan Campbell must have got quite a shock in heat two when Tonu Endrekson of Estonia gave the Brit no slack. This may be Endrekson’s first season in a single, but his pedigree is impressive. Endrekson has been racing internationally for 14 years and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics he partnered the great Jueri Jaanson to a silver medal in the double. Still Campbell showed his confidence and from his leading position, Campbell was able to counter every attack that Endrekson threw at him. Campbell earns the qualifying spot.

The crowd had been waiting for heat three. Local household name, Mahe Drysdale  of New Zealand was racing. At the start Olympic Champion from the double, Luka Spik of Slovenia took the lead. Spik has been sitting in the shadow of his country’s top sculler, Iztok Cop  for many years, but now Cop has retired Spik is the best. Spik, however, could not keep up with the best and by the half way point Drysdale had moved into the lead with Lassi Karonen of Sweden the closest challenger.

As Drysdale came close to the final sprint the crowd began a chant of ‘Mahe, Mahe’. This didn’t stop Karonen from attacking. Drysdale held his rating and his power to cross the line in first and qualify for the semifinals.

The final heat, heat four opened with Liang Zhang of China in the lead. Zhang qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the single but did not get to race there. He then disappeared from the international scene before reappearing this season to race at the three Rowing World Cups. Today Zhang held the lead through to the second 500 when Norway’s Tufte took over in the lead. Zhang, however, did not give up and held on to Tufte forcing both boats to rate in the high 30s. Tufte had the better sprint and grabbed the one qualifying spot.