Press Release: Day three review

Four heats in the eights – two in the men's eight and two in the women's eight – were held after being postponed Sunday due to adverse weather conditions. The USA's women's eight won two consecutive world titles (2006 and 2007) and hold the World Best time. After silver in Athens, they have come to Beijing planning to win. Monday they proved their form by leading heat one from start to finish and qualifying directly for the Final. Their most serious contenders are Romania who won the Olympic title in this boat class at the past three Olympic Games. By winning heat two with the fastest qualifying time Romania announced their intentions to go for gold number four.

In the men's eight, 2007 World Champions Canada led heat one throughout, finishing ahead of Poland by a convincing margin of seven seconds – Canada go directly through to the Final. But the fastest qualifying time was set by Great Britain in heat two. The British crew won ahead of reigning Olympic Champions and World Best time holders the USA. British rower Matthew Langridge said, "It's always great to beat the Olympic Champions. We hadn't raced them yet this year, so it was a worry, but we were going well. I'm pleased with the race, but we need to be quicker for the Final."

It is the first time the quarterfinal advancement system has been implemented at the Olympic Games. This means that rowers in the men's and women's single sculls had to finish in the top three positions if they wanted to go on to the semifinal.

There were no surprises in the four quarterfinals of the women's single sculls. Michelle Guerette (USA), Mirka Knapkova (CZE), Rumyana Neykova (BUL) and Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch (BLR) all crossed the line first in their respective quarterfinal. Rumyana Neykova holds the World Best time in this event and after winning Olympic silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004, she is now dreaming of gold. Today she set the fastest qualifying time in this event (7:22.37), three seconds faster than two-time Olympic Champion Karsten who commented: "I'm very happy with my race, and did everything that I had planned with my coach. The quarterfinal system makes for an extra race, which is not easy. For me, the first two races weren't too hard, but it will be more difficult in the semifinal."

Marcel Hacker of Germany put on a strong show today finishing with the fastest qualifying time of the men's single sculls quarterfinals (6:48.85). The other three quarterfinals were predictably won by three-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, reigning Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway and rising star Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic whose time was only five hundredths of a second slower than that of Drysdale's. These athletes will race again in Wednesday's semifinals.

Monday also saw repechage races in the Men's Pair (M2-), the Women's Double Sculls (W2x), the Men's Double Sculls (M2x) and the Men's Four (M4-), as well as Semifinals E/F in the Men's Single Sculls (M1x).

The schedule of Tuesday 12 August includes repechages in the Women's Pair (W2-), the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (LW2x), the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls (LM2x), the Lightweight Men's Four (LM4-), the Women's Quadruple Sculls (W4x), the Men's Quadruple Sculls (M4x) and the Men's Eight (M8+).