Adaptive finals in the heat at the Munich World Cup

AS women’s single sculls (ASW1x) – Final
Out of the start Jongrye Lee of Korea took an early lead which is quite a feat when you are racing World Champion Alla Lysenko of Ukraine. Lee, 49, however, is no slowpoke. She finished fourth last year and also raced at the 2008 Paralympic Games. But by the half-way point Lysenko had the lead with Claudia Santos of Brazil now following in second.

Where was last year’s silver medallist, Nathalie Benoit of France? Back in the field Benoit would have to do a huge second 500 effort if she wanted a medal. Today it was not to be. Lysenko took first winning by six seconds over Santos with Liudmila Vauchok of Belarus taking third. This is a great result for Santos and Vauchok who finished fifth and sixth respectively last year. 

Results: UKR, BRA, BLR, FRA, ISR, KOR

B-Final
Three boats raced for spots seven to nine at this regatta and all three are contenders for the Paralympic Games. Filomena Franco of Portugal had the fastest pace. Franco raced at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing where she finished eleventh. Poland’s Martyna Snopek then took over in the lead. Snopek has been racing internationally since 2006 and got to the b-final in the 2008 Paralympic Games, but was unable to race. Snopek commanded the race until the end.

Results: POL, POR, HUN

AS men’s single sculls (ASM1x) – Final
The longer strokes of Erik Horrie of Australia was serving him well as he got out into the lead in this race that was conspicuous in the absence of World Champion, Tom Aggar of Great Britain. Jun-Ha Park of Korea pushed Horrie hard and at the half way point only just over a second separated these two boats.

Horrie, who was third at last year’s World Rowing Championships, looked more comfortable as the race progressed. At the line Horrie took his first gold medal. Park followed three seconds back in second and Great Britain’s Andrew Houghton finished with bronze at his first international race since 2010.

Results: AUS, KOR, GBR, UKR, ESP1, ESP2

B-Final
With Ukraine not racing for medical reasons, five boats lined up to race for seventh to eleventh position. In the lead was Luciano Luna de Oliveira of Brazil. Luna de Oliveira earned a spot in the Paralympic Games when he raced in Belgrade at the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta in May. He had a huge lead over second placed, Johannes Schmidt of Germany. Luciano Luna de Oliveira crossed easily in first, a huge 21 seconds ahead of Schmidt in second.

Results: BRA, GER, POL1, HUN, POL2 (UKR1 did not start)

TA mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) – Final
France’s Perle Bouge and Stephane Tardieu took an early lead over Australia at the start with the two matching each other through to the middle of the race. Then Gavin Bellis and Kathryn Ross of Australia did a solid move, rating 38 strokes per minute. The move worked. Last year’s bronze medallists, Australia managed to get ahead of last year’s silver medallists, France to take gold.

Results: AUS, FRA, UKR, ITA, ISR, POL

LTA mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+) – Final
As has been the norm over the last few years, a showdown was expected between Great Britain and Canada. But when Canada had a sub-par heat on Thursday, it looked like Great Britain’s crew may dominate. It was, however, Ukraine and Germany who jumped out fast at the start. Germany then got out in front with a 35 stroke rate pace. Great Britain then began to move and by the half-way point the British had moved into second and were beginning to close on the Germans.

The higher rating British inched closer and closer with Germany responding. But the response was not enough. Great Britain earned the gold medal with Germany finishing just half a second down in second. The finishing time of 3:25 was just four seconds outside of the World Best Time. Ukraine held on to take third.

Results: GBR, GER1, UKR, FRA, BRA, CAN

B-Final
With just two boats racing a one-on-one style event took place. Using a 35 stroke rate Ireland was able to get their boat out in front of the lower-rating Belarus. Both of these boats have qualified for the Paralympic Games with Ireland doing it at last year’s World Rowing Championships, while Belarus earned a bipartite invitation just a couple of weeks ago. Ireland performed better than Belarus to finish first.

Results: IRL, BLR