31 Aug 2013
Record-setting day at World Rowing Championships
The Italian lightweight women's double of Laura Milani and Elisabetta Sancassani also made history by becoming the first women in Italian rowing to earn a senior World Championship title.
In a day that saw a medal spread covering 14 nations, Germany earned three of them including a gold for the women's quadruple sculls that capped off an unbeaten season. Norway's Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli earned gold in the lightweight men's double sculls marking the first senior World Championship title for their nation in this event.
Great Britain earned one gold and two bronze medals with the gold going to Helen Glover and Polly Swann in the women's pair. This is Glover and Swann's first season together for which they remain unbeaten.
One of the closest finishes of the day came in the men's four with the Netherlands the surprise winners over Australia and the United States. Also close was the men's quadruple sculls with Croatia earning their second World Championship title. Croatia last took the title in 2010.
The final day of racing, Sunday 1 September starts at 15:03 (local Korean time) with the men's double sculls. New Zealand completed a clean sweep in this boat class at the 2013 Samsung World Rowing Cup series, but over the past week Norway's Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch have been showing new-found boat speed leaving this final less clear-cut. The case is similar in the women's double sculls where the dominating crew this season has been Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania. But over this week both Great Britain and Belarus have been stepping up their pace with the ability to challenge for the medals.
In the lightweight men's four the dominating boat this season has been a new New Zealand combination. The New Zealander's, however, were beaten by Great Britain in the semifinals. This puts a question mark over the favourites. Denmark, who have been second to New Zealand all season, had a great semifinal race and there is no doubt the final will be tight.
It will be hard to look past Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic in the men's single sculls. Synek has had a reasonably easy time coming through to the final and he is confident of his ability in the final. Synek's greatest threat to winning his second World Championship title will come from Marcel Hacker of Germany. Hacker had also had an easy route to the final. Both of these scullers will be watching out for Alan Campbell of Great Britain and Cuba's Angel Fournier Rodriguez.
In the women's single sculls there is every possibility that Australia's Kim Crow will unseat World and Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic. Crow goes into this final unbeaten all season. Knapkova will have to find another gear to beat the Australian.
The World and Olympic Champion United States women's eight looks set to take their seventh consecutive World Championship title. The crew had an easy win in their heat earlier in the week. The only country that may get close looks to be Romania. The United States men's eight is not so dominating but still has a chance at a medal in the final race of this regatta. World and Olympic Champions Germany recorded the fastest time in the heats earlier in the week with Great Britain and Poland also fast down the course.