Moving through semifinals at the Under 23 Championships

The day started off with pleasant temperatures for the lightweight men’s pair semifinals. Racing then moved to repechages and quarterfinals before afternoon’s session of the semifinals got under way

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Semifinals
The reigning under-23 World Champions, Francesco Schisano and Vincenzo Serpico of Italy blasted out at the start of Semifinal One and then inched their way away from the rest of the field. Schisano and Serpico had the fastest qualifying time from the heats two days ago and they looked to be the crew to beat. This left Germany’s Lasse Werder and Jonas Briese to follow in second and Canada’s Maxwell Lattimer and Evan Cheng in third. These three boats looked to easily be in the qualifying spots. Argentina put in a late charge but it was just a bit too late. Italy, meanwhile, looked absolutely dominating at the head of the field, rating 35 through to the finish. Germany and Canada kept the heat on each other until the end with Germany finishing with the second-place edge.

In Semifinal Two Great Britain got off to a good start. The British crew of Matthew Bedford and Wilf Kimberley won their heat two days ago indicating that they were a crew to watch. By the middle of the race Bedford and Kimberley had a small edge over Jan Hajek and Michael Humpolec of the Czech Republic. Hajek and Humpolec had an extra race in the repechage to make it through to this semifinal, but the extra race didn’t seem to be bothering them as they continued to challenge the British.

Coming into the final sprint Hungary’s Istvan Bodrogi and Peter Vermes pushed hard closing on the Czech’s. Rating 37, Bodrogi and Vermes were catching up. But a calm and collected Hajek and Humpolec held them off. Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Hungary had made it to the A-final.
Finalists: ITA, GER, CAN, GBR, CZE, HUN