Day One Daily Digest : windy start for the 2022 World Rowing Cup II

Racing got underway today at the 2022 World Rowing Cup II in Poznan, Poland. The crosswind on Lake Malta added a bit of spice to the first heats of the competition.

Double trouble in the men’s single

World Rowing Cup II could be a remake of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta for Matthieu Androdias and Melvin Twellaar. The two battled in Tokyo in the men’s double sculls, with nothing separating their crews until a thrilling A-final won by the French. They both won their respective heats today – a comfortable win for Twellaar, who just won a silver medal at World Rowing Cup I, a hard-fought battle for Androdias, pressured by Quentin Antognelli of Monaco for a large part of the race. Both have secured a direct spot to the A/B Semifinal.

Out of the USA Men’s eight from Tokyo, Ben Davison managed to secure the only spot straight into the A/B Semifinal in Heat One. Close on his heels were Bastian Secher of Denmark and Hugo Boucheron of France – the other member of the golden French double in Tokyo.  Also avoiding tomorrow’s repechage is Canada’s Trevor Jones.

Florijn still looking strong

The 2022 World Rowing Cup I winner, Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands, seemed to look effortless as she crossed the line nine seconds ahead of her teammate, Lisa Scheenaard. Both will move forward to the A/B Semifinals on Saturday, joined by Australia’s Tara Rigney. Heat two saw a close finish between two experienced scullers,  Switzerland’s Jeanine Gmelin and Lenka Antosova of the Czech Republic. Coming in for the third direct spot was Charlotte Spence of New Zealand.

The qualifiers from the third heat seemed to ease off coming into the finish, with Shiyu Lu (CHN 1) and Ling Zhang (CHN 2) sandwiching Alexandra Foester of Germany.

Stars and stripes… and wins

The United States women’s pairs were on a mission. with only one qualifying boat in each Heat, they both finished first in tight races ahead of both women’s pairs from the Netherlands. The Tokyo medallists, Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester of the Netherlands, and Emily Hegarty and Fiona Murtagh of Ireland, will have to go through the repechages saturday morning.

A new Kiwi pair in the making ?

New Zealand’s Olympic Champions from the Tokyo 2020 men’s eight, Thomas Mackintosh and Matt Macdonald, are coming to Poznan with high expectations – and a bit of pressure, given the success of New Zealand in that boat class. They surely didn’t disappoint in their first race, with a convincing win. Japan made a strong impression by holding off Switzerland over the line to secure a direct spot to the A/B semifinal.

The USA’s Michael Best and Justin Grady, coming out of the US Men’s Eight from Tokyo, dominated heat two – in a sprint for the line, Moldova beat out France for the second qualifying spot to the A/B Semifinal. In the last race of the day, Niki van Sprang and Lennart Van Lierop of the Netherlands, who finished in a close fourth at the 2022 World Rowing Cup I, crossed the line first to claim their spot in the semis.

Looking ahead: Day Two

Athletes will trial the Athlete Lane Selection process for races after the Heats.

Racing resumes tomorrow, 17 June, at 9:00 CET. You can find the startlist here.