Second chance racing at European Champs

In the women’s single, three boats would have a second chance at qualifying for the semifinal. Katalin Szabo of Hungary won bronze at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in the single earlier this year. Today was Dutch rower Jacobine Veenhoven’s first international race in this event – in the past she has raced in the eight and pair. Ukraine’s Anastasiia Kozhenkova has A-Final experience at under-23 level. These three athletes move on to the semifinal – Ukraine from first, the Netherlands from second and Hungary from third in the only repechage race in this boat class.

In the men’s single, two repechages would qualify six additional boats for the semifinal. In Repechage One Andraz Krek of Slovenia steadily moved up the field from third to cross the line first, ahead of Italy’s Filippo Mannucci and Croatia’s David Sain. This is Krek’s first year of senior racing in the single, while Mannucci has extensive World Championship experience and gold medal success in the lightweight quad. In Repechage Two, Russia’s Sergey Fedorovtsev who finished seventh in the quad at the 2008 Olympics, stayed in the lead until the half-way mark, but lost stamina in the second half, falling back into third. Fedorovtsev qualifies along with Dutch rower Robin Van Keeken and Germany’s Martin Gulyas.

The only repechage in the men’s pair saw four crews line up to grab three qualifying spots for the semifinal. Georgia were the unlucky crew, with a new Croatian combination of Erik Brec and Petar Lovric taking first, Turkey finishing in second and Spain third.

The six crews lining up in the repechage of the women’s double would aim for the top four spots to make it to the A Final. Lane three featured 2008 Olympic champion in the single, Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria, racing with Kristina Boncheva. But the Bulgarians trailed behind in sixth until the half-way mark, managing to move up into third in the second half. Instead it was Italy’s top female single sculler Gabriella Bascelli, combined with usual lightweight Erika Bello, who led the race throughout and grabbed the first qualifying spot ahead of Greece. Great Britain’s Beijing silver medallist in the quad Debbie Flood takes the final qualifying spot from fourth with crewmate Kristina Stiller.

The men’s double sculls also only had one repechage scheduled for this afternoon. Six crews would try and snatch the top three spots to race in tomorrow’s semifinal. Those top three crews – Slovenia, Lithuania and Greece – were evident from the start, with Slovenia’s Spik brothers starting in the lead and staying there until the line. Olympic Champion and multi World Champion in this boat class Luka Spik usually races internationally with Iztok Cop, but switched partners for these championships racing instead with his younger brother Jan.

Eight crews lined up in two repechages to take the last four spots available for the A Final in the men's four. Repechage One was a race between Ukraine, Belarus and Great Britain. Swapping between first, second and third throughout, one would miss out – Great Britain. In Repechage Two, Serbia wanted to qualify badly and started out hard. Poland and Spain kept their energy for the second half of the race to qualify while Serbia ran out of steam and missed out. 

Making it to the A Final meant not finishing last in the five-boat repechage of the lightweight women’s double sculls. Regular medallist in the lightweight single, Laura Tibitanzl of Germany, is racing here with Anja Noske. By the half-way mark the duo were in the lead and stayed there, finishing ahead of Austria’s Michaela Taupe-Traer and Agnes Sperrer – Taupe-Traer has also won several medals in the lightweight single at recent Rowing World Cup events. Hungary and Great Britain qualify from third and fourth respectively.

Three of the five boats entered in the repechage of the lightweight men’s double sculls would advance to the semifinal. Belgium overtook early leaders Denmark with Israel following in third. Ukraine and Finland miss out and go to the C Final.

Two repechages in the lightweight men’s four meant an additional four crews would advance to the A Final. It was very close racing between France, Russia and Poland in Repechage One with less than one second separating them at the 1500m. But it was France’s experienced crew of Moreau, Pouge, Faucheux and Raineau who crossed the line first, with Russia taking the second qualifying spot. There was no doubt who would qualify from first in Repechage Two – the Czech line-up dominated the rest of the field throughout, challenged in the second 1000m by Turkey who moved up from an initial fourth and finished just four hundredths of a second behind the Czechs.

A top two finish would also be necessary in the two repechages of the men’s quad to have the chance to race in this weekend’s A Final. Repechage One featured Belarus, who preserved three crew members from Beijing to race here at the European Rowing Championships, and Russia, who included two of its Beijing Olympians. But Belarus did not manage to move up from third, leaving the two qualifying spots to Germany, who crossed the line first, and Russia. In Repechage Two, the Czech Republic have preserved three members of their crew that raced in the quad in Beijing. Their Beijing experience seems to have paid off as they dominated their race throughout. Croatia also qualify from second.

In the last race of the day, six crews lined up at the start to take the remaining four qualifying spots for the A Final in the men's eight. Poland come to these championships off the back of a win at the University Games earlier this month. This young crew (with one change) finished a very credible fifth at the Beijing Olympics and they finished second at the 2007 European Championships. Showing off their experience, the Poles moved up from third to take the lead in the second half of the race. Sitting amongst the Croatian eight are Olympic medallists Niksa Skelin and Igor Boraska. With their experience in the boat, the crew who at the start lagged behind in sixth moved up to finish in third behind Russia and ahead of Great Britain.