Greece confident on first day of European Rowing Champs

The morning’s racing saw heats and races for lanes get under way. Weather conditions were a little tricky for the rowers with strong tail winds and choppy waters. But racing finished without a hitch with rowers either advancing directly to Sunday’s Finals, or to the semifinals on Saturday or returning for this afternoon’s repechages.

The women’s single opened the racing schedule with Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic leading the way over Switzerland. But it was Annick De Decker of Belgium, in heat two that recorded the fastest time. De Decker had a tough battle with Serbia’s Iva Obradovic pushing her to the line. Agata Gramatyka of Poland won heat three in a time comparable to Knapkova’s, shaping this event up to be a hot semifinal tomorrow. Olympic Champion Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria did not race.

Does Great Britain have a new men’s single coming through behind Alan Campbell? Sam Townsend won heat one of the three heats in the men’s single. Townsend, 22, has already rowed for his country in the quad and eight. But it was Ioannis Christou of Greece, racing in heat three, that moves on to the semifinal with the fastest qualifying time. Christou did not start off this season racing in the men’s single. When his doubles partner received a positive doping test, Christou changed to the single in the eleventh hour and managed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. This must have given Christou a huge confidence boost and he recorded the fastest qualifying time for the semifinal in front of his home crowd. Heat two went to Mindaugas Griskonis, 22, of Lithuania who is just starting out on his international career but is taking the single by storm, already having competed at the Olympics.

A race for lanes in the women’s pair went to the back-to-back Olympic Champions. Georgeta Damian-Andrunache and Viorica Susanu of Romania set the standard by leading from start to finish. Russia tried to hold the pace of Romania at the start but Susanu and Damian-Andrunache were able to move easily away. Original entry in the Belarusian crew, Yuliya Bichyk, did not race.

The home course advantage must have played well for Georgios Tsiompanidis and Pavlos Gavriilidis of Greece in the men’s pair. The duo won heat two of three heats and won it easily. Tsiompanidis and Gavriilidis raced at the European Championships last year in the four and won bronze. Maybe they have found a new calling. It was no surprise to see reigning European Champions Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic of Serbia winning heat three and France picking up heat one. Laurent Cadot of France comes to this regatta straight from his Olympic quest last month. He is racing here with a new partner, Jean-David Bernard.

Poland are the reigning European Champions in the women’s double and it seems likely that they could successfully defend their title but with a completely different duo. This year Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj are the boat and they won heat two of two heats with the fastest qualifying time. This takes Fularczyk and Madaj directly to the Final where they will meet winners of heat one, Kateryna Tarasenko and Yana Dementieva of Ukraine. Ukraine did a fine effort to hold off Bulgaria. Sitting in the Bulgarian boat is current Olympic Champion from the single, Rumyana Neykova rowing here with partner Kristina Boncheva. 2008 Olympic silver medallist from the quad, Debbie Flood of Great Britain with Kristina Stiller finished third and go through the repechage.

Julian Bahain and Julien Despres of France set the pace in heat one of three heats in the men’s double. Both Bahain and Despres raced at the Beijing Olympics, but in different boats. The choppy water saw the French catch a crab with 400m left to row, but the duo picked themselves up and pressed on to the finish. Despite a slow start, Poland’s Michal Sloma and Wiktor Chabel came back to take the lead from Croatia in heat two. Heat three had Italy leading from start to finish. Jean Smerghetto and Luca Ghezzi of Italy were pressed by Germany but stayed enough ahead to finish first.

Greek crews are making the most of the home course advantage. This was evident in the men’s four with Greece leading heat two of two heats from start to finish and finishing it in the fastest qualifying time. This sends the Greeks directly to Sunday’s Final where they will meet winners of the first heat, Italy. The Italians came out from the start in a bunch but soon managed to shake off the other crews and cross the line in the lead.

Chrysi Biskitzi and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece were the winners of heat one in the lightweight women’s double sculls. Biskitzi rowed at the Beijing Olympics with Tsiavou and also competed in Athens four years ago. They are the current European Champions in this event. The Greeks go directly to the Final where they will meet winners of the second heat, Poland. Ilona Mokronowska and Weronika Deresz of Poland will give the Greeks a run for their money as they looked very solid on the Schinias course winning heat two.

The lightweight men’s double sculls featured Greece’s most accomplished rowers, Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros of Greece finished with silver at last month’s Olympics and the audience showed their appreciation to these two scullers. Mougios and Polymeros did not let them down, winning heat one with over a boat length lead at the finish. Reigning European Champions, Zsolt Hirling and Tamas Varga of Hungary were pushed by Poland in heat two but finished in front. Italy’s Lorenzo Bertini and Daniele Gilardoni took out heat three after a tight battle down the Schinias course against Slovenia.

Taking the top lightweight pair in the world and sticking them in the lightweight men’s four looks like the right move. Italy’s Armando Dell’Aquila and Andrea Caianiello led their four to a win in heat one of two heats. This means that the Italians go directly to the Final. There the Italians will take a centre lane next to the winners of heat two, Serbia. Recording almost an identical time to the Italians, Serbia will definitely be putting up a strong challenge for gold in the Final.

Despite a number of new combinations racing in the women’s quadruple sculls, it turned into one of the most interesting races of the regatta. With six countries entered in this event, the race today was a race for lanes. The most experienced crew was the Russians and they held the lead for most of the race. But a big push at the end gave Ukraine the lead. Then behind Russia, Austria, Romania and Germany fought it out together for the entire 2000m. Romania and Germany finished just behind Austria in a photo finish.

There is no denying the class of Estonia in the men’s quadruple sculls. Stroked by rowing legend Jueri Jaanson, Estonia led heat one from start to finish demonstrating beautiful rowing synchronization. They will go directly to the Final on Sunday where they will meet Ukraine, who won heat two. At the back of heat two Denmark suffered from the conditions with stroke Rasmus Quist catching a huge crab. Denmark will return for this afternoon’s repechage.

Romania is the reigning European Champions of the women’s eight and in today’s race for lanes they put themselves in a fine position to defend this title. Romania, stroked by rowing stalwart Doina Ignat led from start to finish. Great Britain did their best to close on the Romanians, but did not have the same push.

Finishing the morning of heats racing, the men’s eight heat one saw Germany make easy work of it with an open water lead when they crossed the finish line. Germany will go directly to the Final and will take over a centre lane next to the winners of heat two, France. The French shook off Russia at the start and moved well ahead. Meanwhile, at the back of the field, Croatia looked to have problems within the boat and will get another chance in this afternoon’s repechage.