Repechages
The fastest two Women’s Pairs will earn places in the A-Final in tomorrow’s first race. Romania, Germany and Argentina were all in Heat 1 and set the three fastest times of crews in the Repechage. However, when Olympic dreams are on the line China, South Africa and Italy will surely find something extra. Start List: ITA GER ROU CHN RSA ARG
Four places are up for grabs for the six Women’s Quads in their repechage. Only one crew went through from each heat so there are some very strong crews in this race. Whatever the outcome, racing will be frantic and hard-fought to the line. Start List: GBR NZL AUS USA POL CHN
If the Women’s Quads was frantic the Men’s Eights Repechage will be feverish. Again, four crews will progress and two will go to the B-Final to race each other. Great Britain were fastest of these crews in the heats and came closest to the Germans. Ukraine were the slowest crew but had a fast finish. There will be no time for tactics in this one. Crews will be looking to get out in front and hang on for the final surge to the line. Start List: CAN POL AUS GBR NED UKR
The Men’s Quads will continue the theme of quick races as four crews race for three places in the semifinals. Don’t be fooled by Italy’s semifinal time; they paddled in from 150m. The USA crew may be the ones to miss out but nothing is certain in the Reps. Start List: USA NZL SUI ITA
Men’s Pairs is another four boat race where one crew will miss out on a place in the semifinals. The American pair were less than a second off qualifying in their heat, but Serbia set a faster time. Hungary were off the pace from the start in the heats and may be the unfortunate crew to go out. Start List: HUN SRB GER USA
HeatsOnly two boat classes with heats today and it’s set up to be the prequel to a ‘Rowing Ashes’ battle. Despite the crews not meeting each other today, the underlying theme of the heats is Australia vs Great Britain.
W2xHeat 1: The big story is Great Britain’s double of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins. Unbeaten since they went into the double, this boat is seen as Grainger’s last (but best) chance at the elusive Olympic gold medal to round off her career. The Antosova sisters make up the Czech double and will hope to improve on a third and fourth place from the World Cup series. The New Zealand boat have beaten the Czechs once and lost once this year. It may be a close race for second place. Start List: NZL GBR CZE CHN NED
Heat 2: Australia have their own ambitions in this event and are seen as the biggest threat to the GB dream. Kim Crow is doubling up as the Australian single sculler and showed great speed on day 1 by winning the heat. This may work to the Australian crew’s advantage or detriment but the fatigue probably won’t show this early on in the week. The Polish double took home a silver and a bronze from the World Cups and will hope to gain a place direct to the final. The USA crew won the qualification regatta after being formed in April. Start List: GER UKR USA AUS POL
M4-Heat 1: The big story in this event is the battle between the Australian crew and the British. It’s currently 1-1 this season. The Aussies race in the first heat. Expect them to set out their intentions for this regatta for the GB crew and its home crowd to see. Start List: NZL AUS SRB CAN GER
Heat 2: This heat features four finalists from the Munich World Cup, so the fight for the top three places and semifinal qualification will be one to watch. GB will look to better the Australian performance. The mind games begin. Start List: ROU BLG GBR CZE
Heat 3: The Greeks have had a good World Cup, with a silver and bronze, and may be the crew who get closest to the GB/AUS battle. They took silver at last year’s World Championships; the USA were fourth and Netherlands sixth. The Italians haven’t made an A-Final this year but will be fighting hard to avoid the Repechage. Start List: NED USA ITA GRE
