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World Rowing Championships begin

29/08/2005

Australia's lightweight men's four at Gifu

A day later than originally planned, the 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan opened in perfect conditions with barely a whiff of wind. Fast times demonstrated the level of athlete ability and maybe a hint of a current on the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course. Starting off with the first round of heats, crews raced for a spot in the final or semi-final, decided by the number of entries in each event.

Lightweight Women's Single
One of the strongest rowing nations in the world Germany got the ball rolling in heat one when Laura Tasch led the way settling into a solid 34 strokes per minute through the body of the race. But her early enthusiasm was a bit too enthusiastic and Tasch's inexperience showed through as first Bénédicte Luzy-Dorfman of France then Teresa Mas De Xaxars Rivero of Spain pushed past. Head-to-head, Luzuy-Dorfman and Mas De Xaxars Rivero crossed the line in a photo finish with only 1/100 of a second separating them to take the top two qualifying spots.

Heat two featured favourite for this event, Marit Van Eupen of the Netherlands who won last month at the BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne. Van Eupen worked her way to a clear lead with Marrero settling solidly into second. Switzerland's Lea Fluri showed she meant business in heat three by leading from start to finish over Croatia's single sculling stalwart of ten years, Mirna Rajle.

It took until heat four for the fastest qualifying time to be recorded when Great Britain's Jo Hammond and Chrysi Bisskitzi of Greece fought it out for the entire 2,000 metres. Despite Hammond and Biskitzi being easily in the two qualifying spots the two were merciless on each other finishing just 0.41 of a second apart in a fast 7.34 and a matching stroke rate of 35 at the finish line.

Lightweight Men's Single
Four heats representing 20 countries started with Greece's first Olympic medallist in rowing (lightweight men's double) Vasileios Polymeros leading the way. Portugal's Paulo Pereira Dos Santos held on to Polymeros's pace over the first 1,000 metres and then did just enough to hold off France. Pereira qualifies from second.

Heat two featured a hot three-way battle between Gerard van der Linden of the Netherlands, Marcello Miani of Italy and Peter Loerinczy of Hungary. Taking his rating to 39 as the bubble line approached, Loerinczy got just ahead to deny Miani of second. Van der Linden qualifies from first.

Ingo Euler of Germany wants to finish his rowing career at the top and in heat three he took the first step to do that. Leading over Tim Eichmann of Switzerland, the two scullers had such a good margin over the rest of the field that neither needed to sprint.

This year's Under-23 Champion, Zac Purchase of Great Britain got off to a fast start in heat four but with very little margin over Kazushige Ura of Japan and Lithuania's Rolandas Kazlauskas who, up until now, has been rowing for Hong Kong China. To the cheers of a large Japanese crowd, the three boats had nothing between them as they charged for the line. Ura was unlucky, finishing in third he will get another chance to qualify through the repechages.

Women's Single Scull
There were no surprises in the first two heats with heat one being led by the Czech Republic's Mirka Knapkova and the second by Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus. The top three scullers from each heat would qualify and joining Knapkova from heat one was a clear water procession with Sweden's 24 year old Frida Svensson sitting in second and Rika Geyser of South Africa back in third.

Karsten's lead in heat two was not as formidable as sometimes seen as single sculling newcomer, Michelle Guerette of the United States sat just off Karsten's stern. Happy to sit in third Yulya Levina of Russia also qualifies from finishing third.

Sophie Balmary of France comfortably led heat three over Germany's Peggy Waleska with Annie Vernon of Great Britain sitting in third. Both Waleska and Vernon have spent the season swapping between different sculling boats as their respective coaches work on finding the best combinations. Being in the single means they missed qualifying for priority boats. Balmary, Waleska and Vernon advance to the semi-final.

Men's Single Scull
Under-23 competitor and former Junior Champion Aleksandr Kornilov of Russia set the early pace of heat one. An unruffled Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand let Kornilov do what he could and then with less than half of the race gone Drysdale had found the lead with David Crawshay of Australia chasing hard. Not quite hard enough - Drysdale becomes the sole qualifier.

Once it was clear that Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic had a good lead the rest of the field seemed to leave him to it. In second, and now preparing for the repechage, Tim Maeyens of Belgium took the pressure off in the closing stages of the race looking like he was feeling the heat a bit too much.

Dutch Under-23 Champion Sjoerd Hamburger gave Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway something to think about. With Tufte in the lead, Hamburger stuck doggedly to Tufte forcing the Norwegian to pull out a piece at the 1,250 metre mark to try and shake off Hamburger. The piece worked. Tufte moves on to the semi-final.

Former World Champion Marcel Hacker of Germany worked at holding off Sweden's Lassi Karonen to take the qualifying spot. Karonen put up a good fight and even held a small lead going through the middle of the race. Hacker recovered the lead and advances to the semi-final.

Women's Pair
In the first of two heats Australia's Sarah Outhwaite and Natalie Bale showed that winning at the Rowing World Cup in Eton wasn't a fluke. The duo had to shake off the new American pair of Lindsay Shoop and Caroline Lind. A better second half by the Australians forced Shoop and Lind to return for the repechage.

Olympic finalists Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles of New Zealand continue where they left off at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne - in first and on their way to the final.

Men's Pair
Luca Agamennoni and Dario Lari from Italy pushed past a fast starting United States pair to take the lead. Two qualifying spots were available and it was Canada's Malcolm Howard and Chris Jarvis that overtook the United States in the final sprint to finish second and force the Americans to come back for the repechage.

It was no surprise in heat two when dual Rowing World Cup winners, New Zealand's Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater, took the lead. This left Great Britain's Tom Broadway and Phil Simmons and the Czech Republic to fight it out for second. Simmons and Broadway got the upper hand and move on to the semi-final.

Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech are not only the flagship crew for South Africa but also the African continents most successful rowers. They led heat three from start to finish with Greece's new pairing of Nikos Pagounis and Ioannis Christou overtaking Australia to take second.

Croatia's Niksa and Sinisa Skelin warmed into their next four year cycle towards Beijing with a win in heat four. But Slovenia's Gregor Novak and Bostjan Bozic kept the race well and truly alive by challenging the Skelins. Both crews move on to the semi-final.

Women's Double Sculls
At the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne New Zealand's Caroline and Gerogina Evers-Swindell lost their first race in three years to Miglena Markova and Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria, but only by a whisker. As a consequence of pre-heats seeding, New Zealand was in heat one and Bulgaria in heat two of the two heats that made up this event. Both countries easily won their heat to go directly to the final.

Men's Double
Four heats with a total of nineteen nations began their progression to World Champion status opening with Christian Schreiber and Rene Burmeister of Germany leading heat one. Behind them the real race was going on for second and the only other semi-final qualifying spot. Hungary's Gabor Bencsik and former World Champion partner Tibor Petoe had to work their way past Serbia & Montenegro, then the United States to find that position. Germany and Hungary move on to the semi-final.

In heat two Iztok Cop and Luka Spik (gold in 2000, silver in 2004) led from the start over Stijn Smulders and Christophe Raes of Belgium. Both crews now move one step closer to the 2005 World Rowing Championships final by reserving a spot in the semi.

Adrien Hardy and Sebastien Vieilledent, France's Jonathan Coeffic and Jean-Baptiste Macquet won heat three by overtaking Dmitro Prokopenko and Volodimir Pavolovskij of Ukraine who medalled at the BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Munich. Both boats move on to the final.

Heat four was all about Russia's Denis Kleshnev and Nikita Morgatchev and Italy's luca Ghezzi and Federico Gattinoni. The hunched Russian crew had the early advantage before Italy took over and moved their boat further into the front of the field. Both boats will move on to the semi-final. This event is shaping up to be a hot semi-final as only one and a half seconds separate the times of the top boats.

Men's Four
The Netherlands has taken three of their Olympic silver medal eight members and stuck them in the four this year with the addition of Geert Cirkel. Together in heat one they led a tight race over Italy. Despite two spots being up for grabs for advancement to the semi final, both crews raced hard so that at the finish the Dutch boat had recorded the fastest qualifying time of the three heats.

Lining up in heat two Great Britain's 2005 unbeaten four of Andy Hodge, Alex Partridge, Peter Reed and Steve Williams got off the start line rating 46 strokes per minute. By the half way point the Czech Republic had secured the second qualifying spot with Slovenia fighting hard to overtake. At the finish Great Britain remained in first with the Czechs holding their own in second.

In the third and final heat of the day the United States were taken by surprise when instead of the usual fight with Canada, New Zealand had the lead. This was all to change as the New Zealanders started to tire in the second half of the race. The United States pushed into the lead with Denmark following the American example and Canada also on the pace. At the line the United States and Denmark were the two qualifying boats and also the only boats from their respective countries to qualify.

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