Preview Day Three: Final crews go through heats

First up is the women’s pair repechage. This second chance round sees teams that did not make it through from heats racing two days ago race again. The fastest crew from Saturday by a good five seconds is Romania. Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu of Romania have won this race at the last two Olympic Games, but they have not been racing on the international scene until this year and their results have been mixed. As these Olympic Games unfold the question will be how their incredible experience can play to their favour. There are two qualifying spots from this race.

The women’s quadruple sculls repechage has four qualifying spots. At the head of the field it's likely to come down to a very tight race between the United States and Australia. The United States finished second at last year’s World Rowing Championships but they have a new line up here and thus are a relatively unknown quantity. Australia were fourth in 2011 and raced a very solid heat on Saturday.

The men’s eight repechage will certainly have the crowd support as Great Britain fronts up at the start line. Great Britain was the next fastest boat following Saturday’s heat and they have high expectations in this event. They will again race Olympic Champions, Canada, who were fourth in their heat. Keep an eye out for Australia who have every intention of going for the medals.

The men’s quadruple sculls repechage has four boats racing with the top three going through to the semifinals. The race, therefore, is all about not finishing last. Of these crews New Zealand showed the fastest form from Saturday’s heats. But there is likely to be more to come from Italy who have a fine legacy in this boat class after taking gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and also winning silver four years ago in Beijing.

Four crews in the men’s pair repechage will be vying for a top three position to advance through to the semifinals and it is likely that Serbia’s Nenad Bedik and Nikola Stojic will be the frontrunners. This boat is a mixture of youth and huge experience. Stojic, 37, is at to his fourth Olympic Games and in both 2000 and 2004 he raced in the A-final. Bedik, 23, has been partnered with Stojic to contest his first Olympic Games. Stojic and Bedik are likely to see stiff competition coming from Felix Drahotta and Anton Braun of Germany who have medalled earlier this season at the Samsung World Rowing Cup.

At 10:20am (GMT) heats get under way with the women’s double sculls. In the first of two heats is the very popular Katherine Grainger of Great Britain. Grainger is Great Britain’s most medalled female rower. She has three Olympic silver medals and is giving it her all to get the elusive gold. Grainger, along with partner Anna Watkins come to London unbeaten since they teamed up two years ago.

Heat two of the women’s double is likely to go Australia’s way. Kim Crow and Brooke Pratley of Australia have had a mixed season so far. Pratley had to overcome injury to get to London leaving Crow racing in the single for the first part of the season. In that time Crow qualified the Olympic single and is now the only rower at the London Olympics racing in two events. Crow and Pratley have raced the British once this year and at that time they finished second. Poland’s Magalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska were World Champions in 2009 and likely to put up a strong challenge in this race.

Rounding out the day of racing is the men’s four. This boat class has 13 nations competing forming into three heats. Winners of the final Samsung World Rowing Cup in June, Australia are certainly the favourites in heat one. The Australian’s, led by veteran Olympic Champion, Drew Ginn, hope to finish at London by winning back the fours title that Australia last saw in 1996 when Ginn was in the boat.

Great Britain are the three-time consecutive Olympic Champions in the four and they race in heat two. They come to London as the reigning World Champions and they should make easy work of their race. But Belarus look to be improving every time they race and they could create a bit of heat for the British.

The final race of the day, heat three in the men’s four features Greece. The Greek crew finished with silver at the 2010 and 2011 World Rowing Championships and, on a good day, they have a finishing sprint that can get past even the toughest competition.