Knockout time at 2013 European Rowing Championships

Athletes faced comparatively cool conditions with a rather brisk and gusty head wind blowing. This was reflected in slower times with stronger athletes able to take advantage of the situation.

Semifinals require crews to finish in the top three for advancement to Sunday’s finals and the heat was on as athletes raced hard for advancement. Germany and Italy had boated complete teams of 53 athletes covering all 17 events and both countries will go into tomorrow’s finals with good medal prospects. At the other end of the scale, Lithuania brought just three crews and all three made it to the finals.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Semifinals
Semifinal One began with Omar Aymerich of Spain taking advantage of being on his ‘home court’. Aymerich got into the lead as the start and moved away to a huge four second lead by the first 500m mark. Aymerich remained in the lead through the next quarter of the race but then his early speed began to take its toll and the rest of the field rowed through Aymerich leaving him near the back of the field. Instead in the lead was Pedro Fraga of Portugal. Fraga won his heat yesterday and is a very experienced international racer – mainly in the lightweight men’s double sculls.

Switzerland’s Michael Schmid chased Fraga hard, but Fraga was racing the superior race and remained in the lead. Then Simone Molteni of Italy picked up his game and moved ahead of Slovenia and into third. This race aptly showed that positing in the first half of the race did not reflect the finishing order. At the line Fraga, Schmid and Molteni had qualified for the final.

Reigning World Champion Henrik Stephansen of Denmark raced in Semifinal Two. Stephansen was the fastest qualifier from yesterday’s heats and by the half-way point today the Dane had the lead with Germany’s Jonathan Koch following in second. Koch first raced in the single back in 2005 at the under-23 level and he has been plugging away since then. Stephansen, known for his immense power, continued to push away from the field with Koch slipping back to be challenged by Spyridon Giannaros of Greece.

In the final sprint Stephansen had the luxury of being able to cruise while Giannaros sprinted and overtook Koch. These three scullers had qualified for the final.
Finalists: POR, SUI, ITA, DEN, GRE, GER

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Semifinals
A 22-boat line up started out yesterday and heats, then repechages narrowed them down to the 12 boats racing in the semifinals. In Semifinal One the fastest qualifiers from the heats, France’s Jeremie Azou and Stany Delayre got out to a very confident start. But they were facing the Swiss double of Simon Schuerch and Mario Gyr. Schuerch and Gyr had to race in yesterday’s repechage and they had a cracker of a race against Austria which took them to breaking the European Championship Best Time. By the middle of the race Azou and Delayre were still in first with Schuerch and Gyr sitting in second just ahead of Norway’s Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli.

Both the French and Swiss crews raced at the London Olympics – France in the lightweight double and Switzerland in the lightweight four. As the final 500m came into view Norway pushed to get ahead of Switzerland, but Schuerch and Gyr fought back keeping the finishing order at France, Switzerland and Norway. These are the qualifying boats.

As head winds showed gusts of up to 10m/s the second semifinal got underway. Greece’s Panagiotis Magdanis and Eleftherios Konsolas took off the best with Italy and Ukraine chasing hard. Magdanis and Konsolas came second at the 2011 European Championships in this event and then went on to finish eighth at last year’s London Olympic Games. Italy’s Andrea Micheletti and Pietro Ruta then pushed into the lead as the Greeks began to slip a little. Margins remained tight coming into the third quarter of the race with a very tight battle going on between Greece, Ukraine and Austria.

Stroke rates began to rise and the tension was on as only the top three crews would go on to tomorrow’s final. In an almighty sprint to the line Italy held on to the lead with Austria’s Paul and Bernhard Sieber giving it their all in the face of challenges from Ukraine and Greece. At the line Ukraine missed out. Italy, Austria and Greece had earned spots in the final
Finalists: FRA, SUI, NOR, AUT, ITA, GRE

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Semifinals
The reigning European Champions, Laura Milani and Elisabetta Sancassani found themselves back in third at the start of Semifinal One . But margins were tight with Germany and Denmark just ahead of the Italians. By the middle of the race these three crews had broken away from the rest of the field as they raced for honour and qualification for the finals. Then Denmark’s Christina Pultz and Helene Olsen began to drop back as Italy and Lena Mueller and Ana Noske of Germany went head to head.

There was nothing in it between these two crews at the head of the field and, despite both being in qualifying positions neither relented. At the line Sancassani and Milani had won, Noske and Mueller was second and Denmark held on to third.

Sweden’s Cecilia Lilja and Emma Fred were conducting a well-timed and smart race in Semifinal Two. Lilja and Fred first teamed up in 2009 and since then they have raced together and in other boats including the lightweight quadruple sculls at last year’s World Rowing Championships. By the middle of the race Lilja and Fred were still in front but Katarzyna Welna and Weronika Deresz of Poland were right with the Swedes and remained in a challenging position through the second half of the race.

Meanwhile Russia’s Diana Stepochkina and Natalia Varfolomeeva were sitting comfortably in third with no threat to their qualifying position from the rest of the field. But Stepochkina and Varfolomeeva did not seem to be able to challenge the two leading crews. As Sweden and Poland remained out in front and holding their own small battle, Russia held on to the third spot. These became the three qualifying boats.
Finalists: ITA, GER, DEN, SWE, POL, RUS

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Semifinals
Coming through from the heats, the top three crews – Croatia, Germany and the Netherlands – were separated by just one second in time. This boded well for some very tight semifinal racing.

In Semifinal One Croatia and the Netherlands lined up, but it was Estonia, who had to race through the repechage, who had the best start. Estonia are the reigning European Champions but they have a new line up for 2013.

Surprisingly Estonia still had the lead at the half-way point with Olympic silver medallists, Croatia just a fraction behind them and Italy and Russia also very much on the pace. Croatia then squeezed into the lead with Italy moving up as well. Could Estonia hold on? Almost out of nowhere Ukraine, seeing the finish line in sight, took up their stroke rate and charged. There was nothing in it on the line with the course commentators unable to pick it. Croatia had taken first, the massive sprint by Ukraine had paid off taking them to the line in second and the Italians were the final qualifiers in third. Estonia had just missed out on the final.

Switzerland led the way in Semifinal Two. This crew has two members that raced in the quad at the Olympic Games last year and this new crew looks to have good speed. But by the second 500m, Olympic Champions, Germany had pushed into the lead. The German crew includes three members of the Olympic Champion crew with Paul Heinrich coming into the boat. Germany then found themselves facing a major threat from Poland.

Poland have rebuilt their quad this year and this race indicated that the new crew had very good speed. Switzerland held on in third. The German – Poland – Switzerland battle left the rest of the field in their wake with these three boats being the ones that will move on to tomorrow’s final with the three fastest qualifying times.
Finalists: CRO, UKR, ITA, GER, POL, SUI

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Semifinals
In Semifinal One Norway’s Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch got off the line first. Hoff and Borch won their first international medal in 2012 at the Munich World Rowing Cup before going on to finish third at the 2012 European Rowing Championships. They raced to seventh at the London Olympics and they look set to work towards the 2016 Rio Olympics. After recording the fastest qualifying time from yesterday’s heats it was maybe

not surprising to see Hoff and Borch in the lead. By the half-way point, however, Lithuania’s Rolandas Mascinskas and Saulius Ritter had overtaken the Norwegians.

Hoff and Borch held on and the Lithuanian’s and Norwegians battled it out to the line. A very solid sprint at the end took Hoff and Borch back into the lead and a first place finish. Lithuania were back just a few jiffies in second and Denmark took the final qualifying spot by finishing third.

At the start of Semifinal Two Germany’s Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger took a flyer of a start. Knittel and Krueger became World Champions in 2009, but have had an up-and-down time since then. Maybe these European Championships signalled the start of a positive season for them. As the race progressed Knittel and Krueger were able to slowly work away from the rest of the field.

Behind Germany, the Italian crew of Francesco Fossi and Romano Battisti slotted cleanly into second with Austria and Azerbaijan battling it out for third. The Austrians (Camillo Franek and Clemens Obrecht) got the better of the battle with Germany, Italy and Austria being the qualifiers for Sunday’s final.
Finalists: NOR, LTU, DEN, GER, ITA, AUT

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Semifinals
Marcel Hacker of Germany must have a soft spot for this regatta course. He won his first World Championship title on these waters at the 2002 World Rowing Championships. Hacker came through to these semifinals with the fastest time from yesterday’s heats and he raced today in Semifinal One

Had Hacker gone out too fast and too hard? It appeared not as the German remained easily in front going through the middle 1000m of the race. Meanwhile a stiff battle was forming between Braas and Dani Fridman of Israel. Fridman first raced internationally seven years ago and he has been plugging away internationally sometime in the single and sometimes in the double.

In the final sprint Braas and Fridman pushed each other to the line. But this tussle did not get them much closer to the German. Hacker crossed the line with a huge seven second margin. Braas was second and Fridman took third. They will all go to the final on Sunday.

Double Olympic silver medallist, Ondrej Synek (CZE) was the race leader, unsurprisingly, in Semifinal Two. But despite Syenk’s credentials he was not dominating nearly as much as Hacker did in the previous race. Instead Synek looked content to sit just out of reach of Bulgaria’s Georgi Bozhilov in second. Bozhilov, meanwhile, was contending with the reigning European Champion, Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania. Griskonis has won this title three times including the last two years and with three-quarters of the race rowed Griskonis had pushed into second.

In the sprint to the line Olympic finalist Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan came back from a rather average first half to overtake Bozhilov and grab the third qualifying spot. Synek and Griskonis took first and second respectively.
Finalists: GER, NED, ISR, CZE, LTU, AZE

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Semifinals
Straight from the Olympic Champion women’s quadruple sculls, Nataliya Dovgodko of Ukraine has been showing at this regatta that the single suits her just fine. Dovgodko took the lead at the start of Semifinal One with Olympic Champion from the single, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic following in second and Estonia’s Kaisa Pajusalu in third. But it looked like Dovgodko had gone out just a bit too hard. As Dovgodko started to feel the head, Knapkova smoothly and powerfully not only overtook the Ukrainian, but also moved out to more than a boat length lead.

With that Knapkova didn’t look back and proceeded to open up a clear water lead. Meanwhile Sweden’s former World Champion, Frida Svensson got her nose ahead of Dovgodko and tried to move up on Knapkova. Svensson didn’t make it. At the line Knapkova was first, Svensson second and Dovgodko in third. These are the three qualifiers from this semifinal.

This was a five-boat semi due to Ireland’s Sanita Puspure withdrawing for medical reasons.

In Semifinal Two Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig led from start to finish by getting out quickly and earning enough of a margin that no one seemed able to catch her. Lobnig is the reigning under-23 champion in the women’s double but this is the first time she has raced internationally in the single.

With Lobnig in the lead, this left the very accomplished former junior and under-23 rower, Julia Lier of Germany to follow in second with Inge Janssen of the Netherlands slotting into the third spot. Nothing changed in the order as this race headed to the line in what had shaped out to be a predictable pattern. Austria, Germany and the Netherlands will meet again in tomorrow’s final.
Finalists: CZE, SWE, UKR, AUT, GER, NED