Semifinals up the stakes at Aiguebelette World Rowing Cup

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Semifinals

From yesterday’s heats China’s Tiexin Wang recorded the fastest qualifying time. Wang is currently leading the World Cup series in this boat class after taking first at the World Rowing Cup I in Sydney. For today’s Semifinal One Wang continued on his winning ways by leading from start to finish. Wang raced at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the lightweight men’s four but has now switched successfully to the single. Behind Wang, Daniel Lawitzke of Germany One followed closely, but had to accept second at the finish. A solid finishing sprint gave Denmark’s Steffen Jensen the final qualifying spot for tomorrow’s A-final.

In Semifinal Two Germany Two’s Jost Schoemann-Finck almost matched Wang’s time by leading the entire race. Pushing Schoemann-Finck along was Nedelcho Vasilev of Bulgaria and Damien Piqueras of France Two. These three boats kept each other honest as they pushed the pace. It also meant they managed to move away from the rest of the field and secure spots in tomorrow’s final.

Qualifiers: CHN, GER1, DEN, GER2, BUL, FRA2

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Semifinals

Great Britain’s Ruth Walczak is one of the better ranked athletes in this boat class with a bronze medal from last year’s World Rowing Championships. But today, in Semifinal One, Walczak found herself being challenged by China’s Dandan Pan. Pan, 18, started this season with a silver medal from the first World Rowing Cup in Sydney and she looked in fine form as she kept a very steady pace for the entire 2000m race. This steady pace got Pan in front of Walczak who ended up not pushing it in the final sprint. Behind these two leaders Christina Pultz of Denmark got the better of Austria to grab the final qualifying spot.

Julia Edward of New Zealand recorded the fastest qualifying time in yesterday’s heats. In today’s Semifinal Two she again recorded the fastest time. Edward normally rows in the lightweight double, but her partner, Lucy Strack has stayed home to work on her technique leaving Edward to go it alone for this regatta. After overtaking Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany Two, Edward took the lead and never looked back. Meanwhile Draeger saw herself being heartily challenged by Julie Marechal of France and Australia’s Maia Simmonds. A better second half by Marechal brought her home in third to qualify for the A-final along with Edward and Draeger.

Qualifiers: CHN, GBR, DEN, NZL, GER2, FRA

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Semifinals

Semifinal One looked like a team trial for the United States national team with three US boats leading the way. All of these athletes are vying to be in the top boat – the women’s eight – for the World Rowing Championships and coach, Tom Terhaar must have been watching with a smile on his face from the shores of Lake Aiguebelette. In the lead at the start, however, was Canada. But then the Americans picked up the pace and by the half way point USA4 was leading with USA1 in second. Then, Victoria Opitz and Meghan Musnicki of USA3 did a huge push, got past the Canadian’s and went after their teammates. Finishing in a very fast time of 7:02 Opitz and Musnicki staked their claim on the top spot. USA1 qualified from second and USA4 took third.

What a race! The faster semifinal turned out to be Semifinal Two with all of the top three boats being faster than the winner of the first semifinal. Setting the standard in this race were Olympic Champions Heather Stanning and Helen Glover of Great Britain. Glover is also the World Champion as she continued to compete while Stanning took a post-Olympic one year hiatus. Back together Glover and Stanning set the fastest time yesterday in the heats and today they led from start to finish.

Behind the British was a tussle for the second and third spots. In the tussle was New Zealand, USA2 and China One. These three countries went stroke for stroke through the middle of the race with continued close margins right through to the line. This fight brought the fleet closer to Great Britain, but rating 34, Glover and Stanning looked in control. At the finish New Zealand had missed out leaving the United States and China to take ownership of a spot in the A-final.

Qualifiers: USA3, USA1, USA4, GBR1, USA2, CHN1

Men’s Pair (M2-) – Semifinals

The World and Olympic Champions, Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand, had the fastest time in yesterday’s time trial, racing it to the end. Today they looked more relaxed. Keeping their strokes long and in perfect synchronicity, Murray and Bond moved into the lead over Bastian Bechler and Anton Braun of Germany One. The Germans medalled at the European Rowing Championships and in their first season in the pair together they look like they are making an impressive line up.

Murray and Bond then showed their superiority and moved completely away from the field. Once in a very comfortable spot, Murray and Bond chose not to push it to the line. Bechler and Braun remained in second with Serbia and Mexico carrying out a huge closing battle for the third spot. A jubilant Patrick Loliger Salas and Leopoldo Tejada Rios of Mexico crossed the line first. Loliger’s swap from the single scull and into the pair looks to be going well so far.

Semifinal Two saw three new combinations for 2014 make it through to the A-final. Out in front was Argentina One of Rodrigo Murillo and Martin Lasserre. But the Argentinean lead was small and going through the middle of the race there was only 1.5 seconds separating the top four crews. The second half would decide the finalists. As Murillo and Lasserre remained in the lead Great Britain’s Matthew Gotrel and Paul Bennett did a big push to get into second. As the close of the race approached the crowd at the finish added encouragement to the French duo of Valentin Onfroy and Laurent Cadot. The encouragement was enough to bring the French into third to qualify along with Argentina and Great Britain.

Qualifiers: NZL, GER1, MEX, ARG1, GBR1, FRA

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Semifinals

This boat class began with the biggest number of entries at 30 and now narrowed down to 12 and finally six. On top of hard racing these lightweight rowers have the added element of getting to the correct weight to race. This added element sometime impacts their performance, making results harder to pick. But there was no doubt who had all of their ducks lined up correctly in Semifinal One. Winners of the European Rowing Championships and good friends, Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou of France One led from start to finish. Delayre and Azou found themselves being pressed hard by reigning World Champions Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli of Norway. Through the middle of the race there was very little in it. Then Delayre and Azou lashed out in a full on sprint. Rating 40 Delayre and Azou got away from Norway to cross the line just three seconds outside of the World Best Time.

Behind the French, Brun and Strandli were solidly in second. Meanwhile Germany One and the United States had been swapping for third place. A better finish by Joshua Konieczny and Austin Meyer of the United States gave them a spot in the final.

Germany got a crew through to the final in Semifinal Two when Jason Osborne and Moritz Moos of Germany Two had a great race at the head of the field. By the middle of the race Osborne and Moos were a boat length ahead of their competition with a full-on battle going on between Austria, the Netherlands and Great Britain. In the sprint to the line Tycho and Vincent Muda of the Netherlands held their form the best to take second. Brothers Paul and Bernhard Sieber of Austria took third with Great Britain missing out. The effort exerted by Jamie Kirkwood of Great Britain was evident as he collapsed in the boat just after the line.Confirmation later showed that he was fine.

Qualifiers: FRA, NOR, USA, GER2, NED, AUT

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Semifinals

Semifinal One saw the fastest qualifying time when silver medallists from the European Rowing Championships, Great Britain, held a very consistent pace through the race. Imogen Walsh and Katherine Copeland of Great Britain One started out in the bunch and then slowly worked their way into the lead. Meanwhile China and Sweden held a battle that saw the lead change several times. Then, with the final sprint coming into view, Walsh and Copeland got into the lead with China One of Tianyu Teng and Wenyi Huang getting into second over a slowing Sweden of Cecilia Lilja and Emma Fredh. These are the qualifying crews.

Semifinal Two saw a bit of a slower pace, but still some intense racing went on. Leading the way was Germany’s Anja Noske and Leonie Pless. By the middle of the race Brazil had come through to take second over Canada’s 2012 Olympic crew of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee. Brazil, featuring World Champion lightweight single sculler Fabiana Beltrame, held on. In the final sprint Germany remained in the lead as Brazil faded and was overtaken by Canada and Eleanor Piggott and Charlotte Taylor of Great Britain Two.

Qualifiers: GBR1, CHN1, SWE, GER, CAN, GBR2

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Semifinals

Coming out of the World Champion men’s quad and into the double for this regatta seems to be working well for Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia. The brothers led Semifinal One from start to finish keeping a very steady pace to hold the lead. Behind the Sinkovic’s, silver medallists from the European Rowing Championships, Azerbaijan, slotted into second and worked away from Poland and Great Britain One. Coming into the final sprint, Croatia had a decent margin with Aleksandar Aleksandrov and Boris Yotov of Azerbaijan comfortably in second. A better closing 500m by John Collins and Jonathan Walton of Great Britain One gave them a spot in the A-final.

There looks to be a new top crew on the horizon in this boat class. In Semifinal Two Australia’s James McRae and Alexander Belonogoff led home a very competent field. This field included World Champions Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch of Norway. Hoff and Borch went through the middle of the race holding a close battle with Germany and New Zealand. The Norwegians then pushed into second with New Zealand’s new 2014 combination of Robert and Karl Manson taking over in third. The Germans tried to come back, but will have to accept racing in the B-final at this World Cup. Instead, qualifying for the A-final was Australia, Norway and New Zealand

Qualifiers: CRO1, AZE, GBR1, AUS, NOR, NZL

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Semifinals

The current World Cup leader in this boat class is Australia’s Olympia Aldersey and Sally Kehoe. Aldersey and Kehoe finished first at the Sydney World Rowing Cup and they are part of a small but effective crew competing for Australia here in Aiguebelette.  Aldersey and Kehoe had a fast start which set them up to lead the entire race. Behind them a very tight race was going on between New Zealand, Belarus and the Netherlands. This battle remained through the middle of the race and would need the final sprint to decide the qualifiers.

Calling on their years of rowing experience, Ekaterina Karsten and Yuliya Bichyk of Belarus pushed through into second with Claudia Belderbos and Inge Janssen of the Netherlands getting the better of New Zealand to take third.

Winners of the European Rowing Championships, Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj of Poland featured in Semifinal Two. Coming through the heats Olympic medallist Fularczyk and partner Madaj looked to be the crew to beat and today they proved this to be correct by taking the coveted first place spot. Similar to the previous semi, three crews were fighting for the remaining two spots. Great Britain’s Frances Houghton and Victoria Thornley had the edge with the United States’ Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek pushing hard. At the line Poland had held on to first with the United States and Great Britain taking the remaining qualifying spots.

Qualifiers: AUS, BLR, NED, POL, USA, GBR

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Semifinals

After medalling at last year’s World Rowing Championships, Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba became a sculler to take very seriously. Today Fournier was the dominating force in Semifinal One. Fournier showed that he had a strong start by taking off in the leading position and getting a full boat length lead with just 500m rowed. This lead was over Germany’s Marcel Hacker who is anything but slow when it comes to racing and has 25 years of international rowing to prove it. These two scullers then moved away from the rest of the field. Slotting into third was former French rower,  Julien Bahain who now rows for Canada. Bahain had had an active couple of years since competing at the London 2012 Olympics including a row across the Atlantic Ocean.

There must have been a gentleman’s agreement amongst the three leading scullers as all three chose to keep the order in tact and not sprint the finish.

The faster semi turned out to be Semifinal Two with a back-on-form Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand taking on World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Synek had the better start before Drysdale, but Drysdale overtook the Czech inch by inch. Synek held on and even got back into the lead for a short time. But Drysdale proved to be the more determined one today and at the line took first. Synek crossed in second ahead of a ding-dong battle between Roel Braas of the Netherlands and Stanislau Shcharbachenia of Belarus. The 42 stroke rate of Shcharbachenia earned him the third and final qualifying spot.

Qualifiers: CUB, GER, CAN, NZL, CZE, BLR

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Semifinals

Croatia’s Marcela Milosevic had an awesome start in Semifinal One, but she was soon reined in by the very experienced Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic. Knapkova is the current Olympic Champion and is looking towards another medal in 2016 at Rio. Once Knapkova had the lead she remained in first until the end. Knapkova, however, was pushed hard by both Jingli Duan of China and Magdalena Lobnig of Austria. Lobnig is this boat class’s up and coming sculler after finishing fourth at last year’s World Rowing Championships. At the line Knapkova, Lobnig and Duan all earned spots in the final.

Semifinal Two opened with Ireland’s top current performer, Sanita Puspure in the lead. This lead was soon taken away from her by winner of the first World Rowing Cup, Emma Twigg of New Zealand. Once in the lead Twigg worked her way away from the rest of the field and into a handy lead. Then, Genevra Stone of the United States upped the pace and managed to overtake Puspure in the final sprint to take second. Twigg remained in first with Puspure qualifying from third.

Qualifiers: CZE, AUT, CHN, NZL, USA1, IRL