Juniors treat semis like finals at World Championships

This was do or die for many crews as they aimed to keep their hopes of making the finals alive and the word from their coaches must have been, ‘treat this like a final.’ In hot and calm conditions a big part of racing was handling the heat and holding it together over the 2000m regatta course. Under sunny skies and temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius these athletes gave it their all.

Junior Women’s Four (JW4-) – Semifinals
Semifinal One opened with Australia in the lead and the United States chasing hard. These two crews recorded similar times in the heats two days ago and through the first half of the race they matched each other’s pace. Then a big push by the United States in the third 500 propelled them into the lead. A tiring Australia had no reply. Last year the United States won this event and this year they have come to Plovdiv with a new line-up.

Once in the lead, the United States continued to power on leaving Australia to contend with a strong challenge by Italy. The Italians were fourth in 2011 and they are looking in a good position to step up this year. Just 40m from the line Italy overtook Australia but they could not close on the leading Americans. The United States, Italy and Australia had qualified for the final.

Semifinal Two saw a smooth and fast start by New Zealand and the start gave the Kiwis a boat length lead over their competition by the first 500m mark. Then China and Germany began to close on the New Zealanders. China had recorded the fastest qualifying time in the heats on Wednesday and they had now truly found their rhythm pushing into the lead through the 1000m mark. China then took off and broke clean away from the rest of the field.

Coming into the final 300m of the race New Zealand was holding on to second but Germany was closing hard. With about 20m left to row Germany, rating 39 to New Zealand’s 36, had got the nose of their boat into second. China crossed the line first, Germany was second and last year’s bronze medallists, New Zealand qualified for the final from third.
Qualifiers: USA, ITA, AUS, CHN, GER, NZL

Junior Men’s Four (JM4-) – Semifinals
Semifinal One featured the fastest qualifier from Wednesday’s heats, Romania. Today there were big expectations on the Romanian crew to perform, and they did not disappoint. By the middle of the race Romania had a three second lead over Great Britain who had slotted into second.

Romania, who were the bronze medallists last year, continued to move away from the field with Great Britain trying their best to close the gap. In the process Great Britain broke away from Austria in third. The race turned into a bit of a process with Romania keeping the speed on and rating 37 into the finish. Great Britain followed in second, also rating 37 and Austria, a little bit back qualified for the final by finishing third.

Semifinal Two saw Germany jump off the line with Slovenia in hot pursuit. Germany are the defending junior champions but they finished second to Romania in their heat two days ago. Today Germany tried to shake off Slovenia through the first half of the race but it took them until the third 500 to break away from the tenacious Slovenians.  With that Germany got an open water lead and Slovenia held on comfortably to the second spot.

Coming into the line Germany rated a comfortable 33 with Slovenia rating 35. Italy, who had been in the third placed position, then came through to the finish enjoying loud crowd support. These became the three qualifying boats.
Qualifiers: ROU, GBR, AUT, GER, SLO, ITA

Junior Men’s Quadruple Sculls (JM4x) – Semifinals
This event had begun two days ago with a full field of 27 countries entered. They had to go through quarterfinals to get to today’s semifinals and Semifinal One had the fastest quarterfinal qualifiers, Italy in the lead. By the half-way point Italy, who finished with silver in 2011, had a very small lead over Ukraine with Hungary also within striking distance.

Then Italy did a big push to set themselves up for the final sprint, but Ukraine were not letting go. As the last 300m came into view, Italy looked like they still had some energy while Ukraine looked like they were just holding on and both Hungary and Germany were storming through. With Italy crossing the line in first, Ukraine had held on to take second and the high rating Hungary managed to take third.

A great start by Russia got them off the line first in Semifinal Two. Russia are known to have a fast start, but could they hold on like they did when they won their quarterfinal yesterday? By the first 500m mark Romania (the reigning World Champions) had pushed into the lead with Russia holding on. But the margins between the entire six crews were negligible and at the 500m mark only three seconds separated the boats.

Then Romania decided to break away leaving a line of four boats all on top of each other with Great Britain now off the pace. With Romania firmly in first four boats continued to push to the finish and as only two qualifying spots remained the push was very intense. Who had the best finishing sprint? Romania crossed the line in first with the Netherlands coming through in second rating a solid 36. Then New Zealand came through. Russia and Croatia had been unable to hold it to the finish. Romania, the Netherlands and New Zealand had made it through to the final.  
Qualifiers: ITA, UKR, HUN, ROU, NED, NZL