Olympic qualification heats show early speed

There are Olympic dreams at stake for these athletes. A relatively sombre mood permeated around the Malta Lake rowing course in Poznan although rowers were enjoying mild temperatures, no wind and calm water. Today’s heats had a feel of importance about them and sprint finishes were common. The idea here was to be in either the top two or top three to qualify directly for the semifinal and miss going through the repechages.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

Heat One
Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Bulgaria (reigning junior champion) broke the waters using his high rating style to push ahead of Maxim Zhemaldinov of Russia. The race soon sorted itself out into three leaders with Austria’s Ralph Kreibich also getting the better of Zhemaldinov who was starting to fade. Kreibich has been racing internationally since 1992 but is yet to make the Olympics. Coming through in second behind Aleksandrov gets Kreibich into the semifinal and one step closer to the Olympics. Zhemaldinov also qualifies.

Heat Two
Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania set the standard in heat two from start to finish and in the process secured the fastest qualifying time. Croatia’s Damir Martin did his best to keep up with Griskonis. But in a very tight race, the big fight was going on for the final qualifying spot. There was nothing between Greece, Latvia and Poland. All three athletes were rating in the high 30s. The best sprint went to Ioannis Christou, 22, of Greece. Griskonis, Martin and Christou move on to the semifinal.

Heat Three
For years in Estonia Jueri Jaanson owned the single. Now that Jaanson has moved into the double, Andrei Jaemsae has taken over in the single. In this third and final heat Jaemsae found himself behind a very aggressive effort by Andraz Krek of Slovenia. Krek had the lead but he was unable to shake Jaemsae who was unrelenting. Coming through the 1500m, Jaemsae successfully challenged Andraz for the lead. As Andraz began to run out of steam, Ken Jurkowski of the United States, who has a World Champion medal from his country’s flagship boat, the eight, comfortably pushed into second. Jaemsae, Jurkowski and Krek make the semifinal.

Damir Martin, CRO
"It was a little faster than I expected. I was in my normal position for the race and in the last 200 meters the Greek put the pressure on. I saw him coming the last five strokes.”
On his chances for Beijing? “Everyone hopes they have a good chance. Yes, a good chance for me.”

Mindaugas Griskonis, LTU
“Today I was good, but tomorrow I don’t know. Everybody is strong.”

Men’s Pair (M2-)

Heat One
Switzerland’s Florian Stofer and Stefan Sax are their nation’s top two sweep rowers. They got pulled from the Swiss eight when selectors decided that they had a better chance of qualifying for the Olympics in the pair. At the Munich Rowing World Cup they won silver and today they overtook Vaclav Chalupa and Jakup Makovicka of the Czech Republic to move into the lead. Coming through from the back of the field, Bruno Amorim and Roberto Rodrigues of Portugal had to fight through Kazakhstan and Slovenia to qualify from third.

Heat Two
Italy has put the very experienced Raffaello Leonardo and Giuseppe De Vita together in the pair and it looks to be a good choice as they kept their nose ahead of Lin Wu and Shunyin Zhang of China to remain in first. Noe Guzman Del Castillo and Pedro Rodriguez Aragon of Spain put up a good fight to stay with the leaders in the first half of the race and then did enough to hold on to the third qualifying spot. Italy, China and Spain move on to the semifinal.

Heat Three
When Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen of Canada won at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, they upset the reigning World Champions, Australia. There is little doubt this result puts them in very good stead to qualify for the Olympics. Today they had a very easy time of it in heat three, crossing the line at an easy 26 stroke rate. Over four seconds back Ireland’s Jono Devlin and Sean Casey were under no pressure to take second and Bela Simon and Gaspar Vinko of Hungary qualify from third.

Bruno Amorim, POR
“It is very difficult to qualify. There is Italy, Czech, China… so for us it’s very difficult. We have only been in this new boat a week. We’ve been training in a much older boat in Caminita (city in Portugal) for the last seven years so there is some time to adapt.”

Scott Frandsen, CAN
“We’re taking it one step at a time. This is a completely different situation and different boat [comparing to the Canadian men’s eight he was part of in Athens]. Things happened in Athens and we’re trying to write our own story. It’s a different race and we’re taking it one step at a time.”

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)

Originally two boats would qualify from this event for the Beijing Olympics, but with a vacant spot available due to host nation China already having qualified both male and female crews, there are now three spots available.

Heat One
With just two boats going directly to the semifinal, Slovenia decided their tactic was to get out fast and hang on. This worked for the first half of the race before the steady and powerful race plan by Jesus Gonzalez Alvarez and Juan Zunzunegui Guimerans of Spain brought them through from the lower end of the field into first.

In an all-out sprint to the line which had Spain at a 37 stroke rate, Slovakia’s Maros Sloboda and Lukas Babac went for broke getting up to 40 strokes per minute. Slovenia went to 39 but missed out. Canada also went for broke but with the top four crews finishing in less than a second of each other, Canada’s time was just a bow ball too slow. Spain and Slovakia move on to the semifinal. This is a huge advantage as they will not have to make weight and then race the repechages on Monday.

Heat Two
Former under 23 champions, Jan and Ondrej Vetesnik of the Czech Republic, decided this heat was theirs. They took off at a cracking pace and established themselves at the head of the field. Had they expended too much energy too quickly? It appeared not. As the Polish reigning World Champions slipped back in the field, the Vetesniks remained in the lead. Pushing through into second, brothers Richard and Eugene Coakley of Ireland got themselves into a qualifying position. Up until a couple of weeks ago Eugene had been in his country’s lightweight four, but got swapped out. He is making the best of the situation. The Vetesniks and the Coakleys qualify for the semifinal. Poland, in fourth, will get an extra race in the repechage.

Heat Three
After finishing just behind Great Britain at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, all eyes are on New Zealand’s new double combination here at Poznan. Storm Uru and Peter Taylor have been part of New Zealand’s four strong lightweight men with lightweight single World Champion, Duncan Grant also in the mix. Taylor tried to qualify in this event last year but was unlucky, and with new partner, 2007 under-23 Champion Uru they have progressed well.

Uru and Taylor led from start to finish looking long in the water coming into the line at a 33 stroke rate. Turkey’s Ahmet Yumrukaya and Cem Yilmaz remained firmly in second and also qualify for the semifinal.

Eugene Coakley, IRL
“We’ve been in this boat just one week and it’s our first 2k so we’re pleased. We have a bit of work still to do and we’re on a steep learning curve and hope to be better in the semi. We’re quite positive about our chances (for Beijing). The biggest change about racing in the double now (from men’s lightweight four) is the faster starting dynamics for sculling.”

Ahmet Yumrukaya, TUR
“We had a good start, and after 1000m we were in control of the other crews with New Zealand. We didn’t push too hard – we have more to push next time. For the Beijing spots New Zealand will be competitive. We’ve beat Spain (winners of first heat) before.”