Upsets in the semifinals – Rowing World Cup II

Lightweight Women Single Scull (LW2x) – Semifinal

The reigning World Champion in this event, Marit van Eupen of the Netherlands trained earlier this season with the women’s sweep squad with the aim of making the Dutch eight, but she has decided to return to the single and looks to be the favourite to win the event. Van Eupen led the first semifinal by getting out in front at the start and staying there. Behind van Eupen a tight three-way fight went on between Denmark’s Maria Pertl, Orla Duddy of Ireland and Andrea Dennis of Great Britain. With only two qualifying spots left these three crews Pertl sprinted into second and Duddy, at her first international regatta, pulled just ahead of Dennis to take the final spot.

Just 1/100th of a second separated the top two scullers at the finish of 2000m in the second semifinal. Laura Tasch of Germany had retained a mere bow ball of a lead over Michaela Taupe of Austria for the majority of the race. Taupe gave the German no more. The Austrian is in her 16th year of international racing and, despite average results, it looks like 2007 is her season. She finished second at the first Rowing World Cup and showed the strong German that she was not giving up. Germany’s number two boat, Daniela Reimer pulled through to take third and reserve two spots in the semifinal for German crews.

Lightweight Men’s Single Scull (LW1x) – Semifinal

Duncan Grant of New Zealand took bronze last year at the World Rowing Championships and led ahead of Jaap Schouten of the Netherlands who comes to the single after rowing in his country’s eight last year. The Netherlands showed true lightweight single strength at the first Rowing World Cup and today they were showing it again with their second sculler, Tim Heijbrock pulling into third. The question everyone must be asking is why Dutch coaches haven’t made an Olympic double boat out of these two rowers? Grant, Schouten and Heijbrock move on to the semifinal.

New Zealand made it a double header when last year’s Under 23 Champion Storm Uru finished first in the second semifinal. Uru has come along in leaps and strides and in 2006 he became Maori Athlete of the Year and he, along with Grant, is hoping to be in the lightweight double for the Beijing Olympics. Pierre-Etienne Pollez of France remained in second for the entire race while Great Britain’s Alasdair Leighton-Crawford took the final qualifying spot. Only half a second separates the finishing time of Grant and Uru who will meet in tomorrow’s final.

Women’s Single Scull (W1x) – Semifinal

Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus became 2006 World Rowing Athlete of the Year capping off her two-in-a-row World Champion titles. The Belarusian remains unbeaten ever since 2005 and she’s barely been challenged in her last two years of racing. Today Karsten took off in the lead of the first semifinal leaving Sophie Balmary of France to do what she could in second. Again, coming in the last 500m Karsten had no reason to sprint sculling along at 29 strokes per minute. Despite this easy rating Karsten still recorded the fastest final 500m speed of the field. Balmary takes second and Poland’s Under 23 World Champion Julia Michalska takes third.

China’s comeback sculler, Xiuyun Zhang missed the Athens Olympics due to a major heart problem. All healed Zhang has been improving with every 2007 race under the tutelage of coach Beppe de Capua, Italy’s former head coach. Zhang led the second semifinal over Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria. This race turned into a procession with last year’s bronze medallist Frida Svensson of Sweden taking third. None of these athletes challenged each other and no positions changed with Zhang, Neykova and Svensson moving on to the final. Overall Karsten qualifies with the fastest time.

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – Semifinal

The depth of this event and the battles that went on through the heats and semifinals meant that the men’s single would be a great battle and there was no doubt that is how it shaped up in the event that is doubling at this regatta as the Holland Beker Trophy. The first semifinal featured a tight race between Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway and current World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand. Tufte had the upper hand over the New Zealander and was not about to give it up. Drysdale had already pushed past the fast starting Alan Campbell of Great Britain but could do little to catch the Norwegian. Tufte, raising his rate to 39 in the last 200m, was not about to let Drysdale have first. Tufte qualifies from first, Drysdale takes second and Campbell finishes in third. A disappointed Dutch crowd will have to watch their top single sculler, Sjoerd Hamburger race in the B Final after he finished fourth.

Usually Marcel Hacker of Germany races the best when he is in the lead. But today Hacker showed that he can stay calm when he’s not leading. Instead it was the top qualifier from the quarterfinals and first Rowing World Cup winner Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic in the lead. But Hacker remained close to Synek, wearing him out as he went down the course. Commentator Paul Castle noted how uncomfortable Synek looked coming into the final sprint when Hacker attacked. With 200m left the German rowed through Synek. Synek held on to second with the best of Sweden and current holder of the Holland Beker Trophy, Lassi Karonen taking third by sticking with the Hacker – Synek battle.

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Semifinal

After winning in 2005 and coming second in 2006, New Zealand’s Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh vowed to come back and win again. They set themselves on the right path in the first semifinal. Coming out of the start in second behind Australia1 Sarah Cook and Kim Crow, the New Zealanders pushed back to take the lead. Crow and Cook tried to come back but Coles and Haigh held them off. Meanwhile Australia2, Sally Kehoe and Kate Hornsey were pushing away from the Germans to hold on to second. At the line New Zealand take first with the two top Australian boats taking second and third.

Germany had qualified four boats for this event and three of them turned up in the second semifinal, Germany1 was in the lead. Nicole Zimmermann and Elke Hipler finished with bronze last year and at the first Rowing World Cup helped their country’s eight to gold. Today they took their pair one step closer to a World Cup medal by staying in the lead and qualifying with the fastest time. This left ever improving Yage Zhang and Yulan Gao of China working hard to get ahead of Germany2. Zhang and Gao beat the New Zealanders in the heats yesterday and today got no reaction as they moved ahead of Christina Gerking and Maren Derlien of Germany2. China, along with Germany1 and Germany2, move on to the final.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – Semifinal

At the 2004 Olympics Niksa and Sinisa Skelin finished second. They continued together stating their aim to go to Beijing together, but a back injury for older brother Niksa set them back in 2006. They bounced back to finish second at the first Rowing World Cup. Today, they dabbled with their race plan in the first semifinal sitting in fourth through the first half of the race. Meanwhile 2005 World Champions New Zealanders George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, who had slipped to silver at the Championships in 2006, had worked through to first. But as the Croatians worked their way to the front of the field, Bridgewater and Twaddle found themselves holding on to second under threat from Andreas Penkner and Jochen Urban of Germany. Coming into the final 500m the New Zealanders had moved away from the Germans, who appeared to choose not to do the final sprint, and closed on the Croatians. Croatia upped the rating with 250m left to row and held off Bridgewater and Twaddle – just. Croatia, New Zealand and Germany will meet again in the final tomorrow.

In their first season together France’s Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot have been put together following the demise of the French men’s eight. They showed their strength at the first Rowing World Cup and continue to improve. In the second semifinal the French led over Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech of South Africa. Di Clemente and Cech have been together since 1998 and in that time have become the most medalled rowers in the whole of Africa. Their 2006 season was disappointing and they are back with the aim of Olympics number three. In the final sprint South Africa closed the gap on France taking the race to a photo finish. Peron and Cadot had just enough to remain in first with South Africa qualifying from second and the Czech Republic taking third. Great Britain2 were unlucky in the final sprint catching a hint of a crab that kept them in fourth.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Semifinal

Winners from the first Rowing World Cup Qin Li and Liang Tian of China made no mistakes in the first semifinal. The duo finished 8th in 2006 and have remained together as they head towards the Beijing Olympic goal. Li and Tian led the field as a four way battle went on between Finland, Germany, Norway and Belarus. Coming into the final sprint Manuela Lutze and Susanne Schmidt of Germany and Finland’s usual lightweight duo of Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen, were in the better qualifying positions. China, Germany and Finland move on to the final.

The New Zealand team has grown bigger and bigger in the last 2 – 3 years but one stable element has always been Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell in the double. They are household names in their country and are the reigning Olympic Champions. Last year the twins finished third at the World Rowing Championships and are back to rectify this situation. In the second semi-final the Evers-Swindell’s took the lead at the start leaving Jitka Antosova and Gabriela Varehova of the Czech Republic (Under 23 Champions for 2006) and Rui Xu and Yangyang Zhang of China2 to race between themselves. Antosova and Varehova managed to shake loose from the Chinese and went after New Zealand. The order, however, did not change. New Zealand, the Czech Republic and China2 go on to the final.