Remaining Finals Places Confirmed in Zagreb

Two sets of semifinals were contested on Zagreb’s Lake Jarun this morning as crews looked to secure places in finals. Whilst there was little to no wind this morning, adverse weather is expected on Sunday 2 May which would create probably unequal and potentially unrowable racing conditions. Therefore, the finals will now be taking place later this afternoon.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Semifinals

 Reigning European Champions France proved that they are the crew to beat, looking strong out in front of the first semifinal. Meanwhile, Poland overtook the Czech Republic during the second quarter of the race. By the halfway marker, the lead three crews had established a strong lead with clear water back to Estonia in fourth place. France continued to dominate, gaining enough advantage to be able to drop their rating slightly in the closing stages of the race. With Poland in second, the Czech Republic managed to hold off a final charge from Estonia to take the third qualifying place. As expected from the heats, it was Switzerland1 who made an early impression in the second semifinal, ahead of their second boat and Germany1. At 1,000m, the Netherlands had moved into the top three places, pushing Switzerland’s second boat down into fourth. Switzerland’s first boat continued to lead the race with a battle between Germany1 and the Netherlands for second place.

Qualifiers: FRA, POL, CZE, SUI1, GER1, NED

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Semifinals

 In the first semifinal, Lithuania’s Saulius Ritter was very impressive, leading the race a length ahead of Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. By the halfway marker, with the top two crews having established a comfortable lead, things were looking pretty tight for the third qualifying place. Turkey’s Onat Kazakli had sculled through Mohamed Taieb of Tunisia and made a huge charge in the final quarter of the race trying to close the gap to Synek. In the final stages of the race, Synek just squeezed ahead of Ritter to take first place. In the second semifinal, Norway’s Kjetil Borch took the early lead and Germany’s Oliver Zeidler seemed pretty content. However, by halfway, Zeidler had moved ahead. Croatia’s Damir Martin was in third place and then there was several lengths of clear water back to fourth. The lead scullers dropped their rating in the final stages as the positions looked set.

Qualifiers: CZE, LTU1, TUR, GER, NOR, CRO1