Who's hot at the final Olympic qualification regatta

Australian men's four going for gold in Lucerne

A large turnout of 44 countries are racing in the fourteen Olympic events with the lightweight men’s double and the men’s single topping the number of entries. Both of these events have 17 countries entered.

The lightweight men’s double is going to be one of the most hotly contested events. Included in the 17 entries are the two-time Olympic Champions, Tomasz Kurcharski and Robert Sycz of Poland. Then there are the Czech Republic twins, Jan and Ondrej Vetesnik who are bronze medallists from the European Champs and former under-23 champions. Silver medallists from the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, New Zealand’s Peter Taylor and Storm Uru will also be hard to beat for those precious two qualification positions.

The men’s pair includes the winners of the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen of Canada and fifth place finishers, Lin Wu and Shunyin Zhang of China. The two available spots will also be hotly contested by first Rowing World Cup silver medallists Florian Stofer and Stefan Sax of Switzerland as well as the unstoppable Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic in the pair with Jakub Makovicka.  

Pippa Savage of Australia is likely to be leading the way in the women’s single. Savage finished sixth at the recent Lucerne Rowing World Cup, with only Olympic qualified boats ahead of her. Russia’s Julia Levina last raced at the 2007 European Championships, finishing sixth. With two Olympic Games under her belt, Levina has the experience to make it three. Germany, for the first time ever, will not attempt to qualify in this event.

Bulgaria’s 18-year-old Aleksandar Aleksandrov won gold as a junior last year at Beijing. He then finished third at the European Championships. Although inconsistent in his racing, Aleksandrov will be a hot contender for the three spots available in the men’s single. Watch out too for Ken Jurkowski of the United States. At his first international race in a single earlier this month the very systematic Jurkowski finished ninth overall.

The odds are good in the women’s pair. Two spots are available for the five boats entered. Recent results indicate that Inene Pascal-Pretre and Stephanie Dechand of France have a good shot at one of these after finishing sixth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup.

The Australian’s could be in luck in the women’s double. Sonia Mills and Catriona Sens won the B Final at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup and with that result they look to be leading the pack of nine countries racing in this event at Poznan.

Brother’s Martin and Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria have had mixed results over their last three years together in the men’s double. But with older brother Ivo’s Olympic medal experience they should be up there at the front. The Italian’s, Federico Gattinoni and Matteo Stefanini, will put up a good fight and so will Russian Olympic gold medallist Alexey Svirin who has teamed up with former junior champion Alexander Kornilov. The Greeks are out following a positive doping test for European Cup champion Ioannis Tsamis.

There is little doubt that, barring disaster, the Australians will be leading the way in the men’s four. They finished first at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, toppling World Champions in their wake. Watch out for China who never cease to surprise and Croatia with three-time summer Olympian Igor Boraska sitting in three seat.

The lightweight women’s double has 2004 Olympic bronze medallists Kirsten van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen of the Netherlands lining up. In Lucerne, the duo pushed through to second showing that they have the speed after regrouping last October. Watch out too for Renee Hykel and Jen Goldsack of the United States. If they can comfortably make weight they will be hard to beat.

The lightweight men’s four is going to be brutal. Ireland is pulling out all of the stops and have just replaced bow Eugene Coakely as they go for maximum speed. They finished a very close sixth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, just behind Germany in fourth. Germany will be the other boat to beat for the qualification seat in this event. Watch out too for South Africa who have been plugging away in this event in recent years.

It is anyone’s guess in the men’s quad, but it is likely that one of the two spots will go to Canada. The Canadians finished sixth at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, the best showing of these eight countries racing.

Fifty-four athletes will be going for the two team spots in the women’s eight and there is no doubt that this will be a furious fight until the end. Canada and the Netherlands have already proved that they have the speed after finishing a very close third and fourth respectively at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup. But there is no doubt that the Chinese will be doing whatever it takes to get one of these qualifying spots. The honour of their country is China’s added incentive.  

The Netherlands finished eighth at Lucerne in the men’s eight and since then has changed the coach and strengthened their boat. Switzerland and Italy have had changes to their line up since 2007. With that France looks to be the most consistent. But anything could happen when eight men go for broke.  

This regatta is open to crews from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and any other country wishing to qualify in an event that was not on the programme of their regional Olympic qualification regatta.

A total of 28 boats will win spots following the Poznan regatta bringing the tally of boats that will compete in Beijing to 550 athletes making up 202 boats.

Already boats have qualified for the Beijing Olympics from the 2007 World Rowing Championships where 129 qualification spots were contested. The African qualification regatta added nine boats in July 2007 followed by the Latin American regatta with 17 boats in November 2007. Earlier this year, in April, the Asian Regatta added 17 boats to the qualified list.  

Number of qualification spots available at Poznan

Women’s single (W1x): 3
Men’s single (M1x): 3
Women’s pair (W2-): 2
Men’s pair (M2-): 2
Women’s double (W2x): 2
Men’s double (M2x): 2
Men’s four (M4-): 2
Lightweight women’s double (LW2x): 2
Lightweight men’s double (LM2x): 2
Lightweight men’s four (LM4-): 2
Women’s quad (W4x): 1
Men’s quad (M4x): 2
Women’s eight (W8+): 2
Men’s eight (M8+):
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