Bouncing lightweights at Rowing World Cup II

Racing on the 1972 Olympic Regatta course, these international events included a huge 26 entry field for the lightweight men’s single, with lots of new names to the international scene.

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LW1x) – Heats

This event attracted three heats with the top three of each heat advancing to tomorrow’s semifinal. Sweden’s Sara Karlsson has been taking well to the single this year. Karlsson has moved her training base to Austria while she studies and it seems to be doing her no harm. In heat one Karlsson finished with the second fastest qualifying time. Japan’s Atsumi Fukumoto and Stefanie Borzacchini of Austria also qualify from heat one.
The fastest qualifying time went to heat three with the long, solid strokes of Marie-Louise Draeger (GER). Olympian Draeger stayed ahead of Manami Hayashi of Japan and Sweden’s Kristina Knejp who also qualify for the semifinal.

In heat two Switzerland got two boats through to the semifinal. Eliane Waser and Angelina Casanova finish first and third respectively with Mexico squeezing in-between in second. Lila Perez Rul of Mexico raced in the lightweight double at the 2008 Olympics and moved back to the single last year.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LM1x) – Heats

A huge 26 boat field meant that this event had six heats with the top three. There is also a chance for the next fastest time from all of the heats to make it through, thus even those boats coming last had an incentive to sprint to the finish.

Sprinting, however, was not such an easy prospect in these conditions, but Rasmus Quist of Denmark gave it his best shot. Quist managed a 36 stroke rate at the finish of heat one bringing him to the finish line in first place. Olympic medallist Quist is in the single as he builds up again after the Beijing Olympics hoping to get back into his country’s lightweight double. Also making it through from heat one was Zlatko Karaivanov (BUL), Alexander Rath (AUT) and Patrick Joye (SUI).

Heat two was not so good for Ailson Silva of Brazil. Silva finished third last month at the Rowing World Cup in Bled, Slovenia, but today he had a huge battle to finish third in his heat. Ahead of Silva were Are Strandli of Norway and Igor Khmara of Azerbaijan in first and second respectively.

Heat three was led from start to finish by reigning World Champion, Duncan Grant of New Zealand. Grant stayed ahead of the higher rating Lyubomir Gospodinov of Bulgaria in second with Ruben De Gendt (BEL) qualifying for the quarter-final from third.

The fastest qualifying time, and fastest overall race, was heat four. France’s Maxime Goisset of France had a very close battle with Peter Chambers of Great Britain and Javid Afandiyev of Azerbaijan was right there with them. Goisset is an Olympian while Chambers is the younger brother of rowing Olympian Richard. Afandiyev comes through from under-23 racing last year.

Heat five had a first half battle between Peter Galambos of Hungary and Germany’s Jonathan Koch. Despite Koch’s greater international experience, with the 2008 Olympic Games under his belt, Galambos prevailed at the finish to cross the line in first. Koch and Slovakia’s Lukas Babac also qualify for the quarter-final from second and third respectively.  

The final heat, heat six, had a cross-section of countries with Germany, Austria, Venezuela and Japan competing. Due to the finishing times, all four boats qualified: Christian Hochbruch (GER), Joschka Hellmeier (AUT), Jose Guipe Jimenez (VEN) and Kenta Kotani (JAP) all move on to this afternoon’s quarter-final.

Also qualifying for the quarter-final due to their finishing time was; Aymen Mejri of Tunisia, Denmark's Martin Batenburg, Vassil Vitanov of Bulgaria and Horacio Rangel Ramirez of Mexico.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S PAIR (LM2-) – Heats

The two heats lining up had rowers wanting to be in the top spot for a direct path to Saturday afternoon’s final. All other boats would return for a repechage this afternoon. The two qualifying boats finished with practically identical finishing times. In heat one Simon Schuerch and Raphael Jeanneret of Switzerland Two led from start to finish and completely outraced their fellow countrymen, Switzerland One, who finished third. Schuerch and Jeanneret kept the pressure on for the entire race, rating a solid 33 at the end.

Despite a first half battle with Denmark in the lead, Chile finally prevailed in heat two. Fabian Qyarzun Zbinden has teamed up with the very experienced Miguel Cerda Silva for Chile and they finished nearly two seconds ahead of Japan in second.