The wind gods looked kindly on the lake today and light tail winds followed all the races and FISA was able to catch up on the missed events from yesterday.
Women’s Quad: The British crew cruised home to win the first race of the day with the Germans following and in the second heat Ukraine and Australia followed suit ahead of the rest of the field qualifying for for the A final.
Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls: [first two crews to semi finals] Again the British crew of Purchase and Hunter lead the field and with a noticeably strong back swing and a long finish their time of 6:20.1 was second fastest. The other heats were won in 6:17 and 6:22 by NZ and Canada wearing fetching yellow bandannas. The United Arab Emirates crew made their first international appearance – a new nation for the FISA family.
Men’s four: Light drama near the finish line as the British crew were chased home by France and had to sprint up to rate 46 to slide across the line first by half a length in 5:50. In the second heat the Australian challenge died (maybe they blew up?) as they steered onto the buoy line in the last 250m losing out to New Zealand and the USA in a time of 5:49 – only the first crew goes to the A final.
Men’s quadruple sculls: Germany and Russia won the first heat and go onto the A final in 5:44 and in the second head Croatia and Australia also qualified comfortably ahead of Britain, New Zealand and Italy in 5:41. The wind dropped between the heats.
Men’s lightweight fours: The first heat had a three way sprint to the line. Only two crews go to the semi final. China won coming from third in 5:54 with Denmark losing out to Germany, the European Champions. They clearly know the distance as the Danes stopped on the stroke that crossed the line. In the second heat Britain led the Dutch in chased by the French rating 42 in the last few meters but losing out. The winning time 5:56. Lastly the Swiss won chasing a rate of 40 in the third head and a time of 5:57 over the USA at a more comfortable rate 37. The wind dropped in this heat shifting to side tail.
Men’s pair: Semi final places were easily achieved by Britain and New Zealand in the first two heats both crews leading from far ahead of the rest in 6:21 and 6:25 respectively. The Greeks won the third heat in 6:28.
Women’s single sculls: As expected the known scullers, Knapkova of Czech Republic, and Karsten of Belarus both won their heats comfortably in 7:26 and 7:28. There was a good tussle between Emma Twigg of NZ and Sweden’s Frida Svensson for the winning place with Svensson overtaking Twigg in the last hundred meters to take the race by a foot in 7:26.
Men’s single sculls: Four very exciting heats began with Ondrej Synek beating Belgium’s Tim Maeyens in 6:47 both scullers well ahead of the pack. Only the heat winner goes directly to the semi final. The second heat ended in a scrap between Alan Campbell for Britain and Tonu Endrekson of Estonia with the Briton winning in 6:48. Endrekson got the jump in the run-in to the line and took four strokes before Campbell managed to match his boat speed and start a sprint which took him to a 2/3 length lead at the finish. Home boy Mahe Drysdale was challenged by both Lassi Karonen of Sweden and Luka Spik of Slovenia through most of the race. All three raced hard but Drysdale had nearly a length at the bubble line. Olaf Tufte won the last heat in 6:50 from a hard-sprinting Liang Zhang of China.
Women’s pair: Two heats each won in fine style by New Zealand and USA. Neither crew had an easy race – the Americans chased by Gerrmany to finish in 7:03 and the Kiwis by Britain and Australia winning in 7:04. The Britons under-rated the home girls most of the way and Australia left their challenge too late to get into the final directly.
Women’s lightweight single: Only nine entrants in the event means first two in each heat go to the final. The Germans sculler Marie-Louise Draeger won comfortably in 7:49 from Sara Karlsson of Sweden and Louise Ayling of New Zealand fought all the way to beat Laura Milani of Italy by half a length in 7:49 in the other heat.
Men’s lightweight single: Three heats with first three crews going to the semi finals. The Italian Marcello Miani won the first in 7:06 from Japan and Germany; New Zealander Duncan Grant won the second in 7:09 comfortably ahead of Peter Chambers of Britain and the Netherlands. The new talent Peter Galambos of Hungary easily won the third heat in 7:05. The wind dropped in the second heat compared to the first.
Men’s double sculls: France and Germany toughed out the first heat with the French looking the stronger and one second ahead on the line in 6:11 with Norway third. Britain’s Wells and Bateman won the second heat from USA in 6:14 and the third was taken by New Zealand’s Cohen and Sullivan from Estonia in 6:10. Luka Spik doubled up from the singles race earlier to come fifth.
Women’s double sculls: Only one crew went straight to the final in the two heats and the reigning World Champions, Poland, won the first heat in 6:46 from the USA. Britain led commandingly taking the second heat in 6:55 from Germany.
Women’s four: A race for lanes between four crews ended with Australia winning from USA and New Zealand. The Dutch, defending champions, raced the first half and then paddled home in fourth place.
Related articles
- Strong winds disrupt World Champs (news.bbc.co.uk)
- Drysdale doesn’t miss a beat in racing comeback (3news.co.nz)
- ‘Mighty Lighty’ Hannah keeps dream alive (news.theage.com.au)
- Goodsell and Hosking reach semi-finals (guardian.co.uk)
