Preparing for finals at Youth Olympics

Crews lined up in the semifinals of the women’s single sculls to determine who would advance to the final. Off the starting blocks Anna Zabova of the Czech Republic had a quick start, but was soon challenged by Krystsina Staraselets of Belarus, who came into Semifinal One with the fastest time. By the 500 metre mark, Alejandra Alonso of Paraguay pushed her way into second position, showing she was serious about making it to the final. Zabova looked like she ran out of steam and dropped back to fourth, while Bulgaria’s Desislava Georgieva did a push with 250m left. At the line it was Belarus, Bulgaria and Paraguay to the final.

There was no doubt about the leader in the Semifinal Two. Greece’s Athina Maria Angelopoulou shot into the lead, with two seconds over Camille Juillet of France by the 500 metre mark. Sonata Petrikaite of Lithuania pushed past Great Britain’s Anna Thornton with 250 metres left to take the third qualifying spot to the final.

The first Semifinal of the men’s single sculls saw several leaders over the 1000 metre race. Cuba’s Orlando Sotolongo led at the 500 metre mark, but was being pursued by Brazil, Canada and Great Britain. It was Daniel de Groot (Canada) who had the best sprint to the line to take the first qualifying spot to the final. Great Britain followed closely behind, with Cuba holding on to the third position. Brazil’s Uncas Tales Batista just missed out.

In Semifinal Two, it was Germany’s Tim Ole Naske who led the way from start to finish. He claims the fastest qualifying time, but just 0.08 seconds separated him from de Groot of Canada. Boris Yotov of Azerbaijan took the second qualifying spot to the final and it was Poland’s Mateusz Swietek who was able to keep his bow in front of New Zealand to take the final spot.

After yesterday’s heats in the women’s pair, the crew lined up today for the repechage races. This gave crews another opportunity to qualify for the final, with the top two boats from each repechage earning a place.

To the pleasure of the home crowd, China came through the repechage in the lead, and recorded the fastest qualifying time of 3:30.84. Qualifying behind them was the United States. Chile and Poland earned spots in the final from repechage two.

In the first repechage of the men’s pair, Turkey took the lead, with Croatia qualifying in second position after just clipping the United States by 0.04 seconds at the line. Slovenia and Poland took the first two spots from repechage two to qualify for the final.

The B-finals will be up first on day four of racing, on 20 August at 10:00 in Nanjing, with finals beginning at 11:20. Follow the results on www.worldrowing.com.