Men’s single: the race to watch at European Champs

With slight tail-wind conditions that caused ripples on the water, athletes returned for their second chance to keep their hopes of racing in Sunday’s finals alive.

Today’s repechages saw a number of close battles as crews, realising that this was their last chance to move on, fought it out right to the end. There was also racing in the semi-finals of the men’s single sculls and lightweight men’s double sculls – the two events with the highest number of entries. The men’s single caused the greatest excitement when the spread of times between the qualifiers in the semi-finals ended up being less than three seconds.

The women’s pair (W2-) repechage was not the result Belarus was after. Of the five crews racing, four would advance to the final. Belarus’s fifth place finish put them out of contention. Belarus sat in fourth for the start of the race, but did not have the stamina to maintain 2000m of solid boat speed. Instead it was Croatia’s Sonja Keserac and Maja Anic that had the best boat speed. Keserac, 24, and Anic, 20, are in their first season together and raced to tenth at last month’s World Rowing Championships. Also qualifying were Ukraine, Italy and Germany.
Laurent Cadot and Jean-David Bernard of France raced last month in the men’s four at the World Rowing Championships and finished fifth. They have a European Championship bronze medal from 2008 in the men’s pair (M2-) and both were at the 2004 Olympics in their country’s eight. The adaptable Bernard has raced in everything from lightweight events to the single. Today they led the repechage of the pair after shaking off an early challenge by Germany. By the second half of the race the finishing order had been sorted out with France and Germany in the two qualifying spots.

The second repechage of the men’s pair added Hungary and Poland to Sunday’s final. These two crews held their own battle at the head of the field with Poland holding the advantage right into the final sprint of the race. But Hungary’s Adrian Juhasz and Bela Simon decided to show Poland their sprinting prowess and they crossed the line in first.

The one repechage in the women’s double sculls (W2x) turned into a three-way battle for two qualifying spots with Germany ending up being the unlucky ones. Germany held the lead for the majority of the race but Finland and Estonia both managed to overtake them. Finland includes Sanna Sten who medalled at the Beijing Olympics in the lightweight double. Sten has decided to change to the open weight boat class with her Beijing partner Minna Nieminen. At Brest, Nieminen could not make it so Sten raced with Ulla Varvio.

Russia has had mixed rowing fortunes in recent years, with scullers fairing slightly better than their sweep rowers. Today Nikita Morgachev and Nikolay Spinev of Russia raced in the first repechage of the men’s double sculls (M2x). Spinev, 35, is an Olympic Champion and the veteran of three Olympic Games. Morgachev’s rowing career is a bit shorter but he still has much experience with an Olympic Games under his belt and international racing that dates back a decade. The Russian duo led this repechage from start to finish with Belarus holding on to second. These are the two qualifying boats.

In repechage two Artem Morozov and Vitaliy Kryvenko of Ukraine held the first place just a fraction over Serbia who chased them for the entire 2000m. Morozov and Kryvenko are the 2008 bronze medallists from the European Championships and they will be planning to go for a better finishing colour this year. Ukraine and Serbia advance to the final.

The two repechages in the men’s four (M4-) added four more crews to Sunday’s final.  Greece are the reigning European Champions in this event but they found themselves in second place of repechage one. Instead it was Spain in the lead. Greece held tightly to Spain’s lead, but the Spaniards, who with one different crew member, finished eighth at last month’s World Rowing Championships, were in control. Spain and Greece get to race in Sunday’s final.

Ukraine and Romania also added crews to tomorrow’s final by taking first and second respectively in repechage two. These two countries had to break away from Poland to ensure their qualifying spots.

The women’s single sculls (W1x) was very clear cut for the winners of the two repechages. It was no surprise to see Russia’s very experienced Julia Levina heading repechage one. Switzerland’s Regina Naunheim challenged Levina for the first half of the race before settling into what looked like a contented second place. Both boats go to the final. Frida Svensson of Sweden was the clear leader of repechage two. Svensson has had a reasonably unenlightened season with an injury that disrupted the middle half of the season. Svensson had a clear water lead over Nataliia Lialchuk of Ukraine who managed to take out the final qualifying spot.

The men’s single sculls (M1x) had their repechages yesterday with the semi-finals raced today. This race was won by Greece’s Ioannis Christou last year, but the Greek had to fight hard to finish second in the first semi-final. Christou started out at the back of the pack with Germany and Croatia’s Mario Vekic battling it out for the lead. In a huge sprint for the line, Germany was unable to hold the pace and missed out on qualifying for the final. Instead, Vekic charged for the line to finish in first, just a fraction ahead of Chrisou with 2007 and 2008 Junior World Champion, Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Bulgaria, putting it all together to finish third. Only one second separated the top four crews at the line.

The second semi-final also held spectators on the edge of their seats with six crews all within a qualifying spot chance coming into the final sprint. In the middle of the pack two top lightweights from the double, Frederic Dufour (FRA) and Tamas Varga (HUN) went tooth and nail. Dufour got the better of Varga and qualified from third. Lithuania’s Olympian Mindaugas Griskonis finished first with Lukas Babac of Slovakia taking second. The spread of finishing times between the two semis was just three seconds. There will be six rowers all in for a shot at the European Championship title on Sunday. Watch this race closely.

Austria’s Stefanie Borzacchini has teamed up with single sculler Michaela Taupe-Traer and together they led the repechage of the lightweight women’s double sculls (LW2x). The Austrian duo held off Russia who had to push past Spain to qualify along with Austria for tomorrow’s final.

The semi-final of the lightweight men’s double sculls (LM2x) went totally to plan following results from yesterday’s heats and repechages. Beijing Olympic silver medallists Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros of Greece led the first semi-final with France and Poland following them down the course forming a perfect arrow-shaped boat pattern. The order did not change right to the line and these are the three qualifying crews.

Semi-final two began with Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes of Portugal in the lead. This partnership remains together after racing at last year’s Beijing Olympics and they are currently Portugal's top performing rowing crew. Fraga and Nuno are known for their high rating and other crews never underestimate them. Italy’s Lorenzo Bertini and Elia Luini, however, had just a slightly better paced race than the Portuguese and managed to pip Fraga and Mendes at the line. Italy, Portugal and Austria are in the final on Sunday.

The first repechage in the lightweight men’s four (LM4-) had the same two crews in the two qualifying positions for the entire race. Serbia held the lead and Spain followed in second. Spain kept Serbia honest with a steady and consistent pace over the Brest regatta course. These are the two qualifying crews.

The second repechage turned into a full-on battle between Italy and the Czech Republic. Italy are the defending European Champions, but they have an entirely new line up this year. The Czech Republic have reordered their 2009 crew, moving the Vetesnik twins from bow pair into the middle of the boat. Italy and the Czech Republic remained locked together with the Czech Republic finally managing to just break away into first at the end. The Czech Republic and Italy are in Sunday’s final.

If yesterday’s heats are anything to go by, the two repechages in the men’s quadruple sculls (M4x) were going to be close and intense. Repechage one did not disappoint with Russia, Belgium and Slovenia taking the race to a very close finish. Slovenia, stroked by Iztok Cop, were the unlucky crew finishing outside of qualification in third. Russia just held on to first over Belgium which was stroked by the powerful, pocket-sized single sculling medallist, Tim Maeyens.

Repechage two was a rather more sedate affair with Germany and Belarus taking the top two qualifying spots early in the piece and pushing away from Estonia in third. Germany led for the majority of the race, but they seemed content to let Belarus cross the line in first – much to the delight of the crowd.

The crowd remained on their feet as the nine Belarusian women’ in the women’s eight (W8+) repechage, brought their boat down the 2000m course in the lead. The crowd also enjoyed watching Russia bring their boat home in second place. Poland and France also qualified for the final from this race. Only Great Britain was unlucky and will not advance their crew. Great Britain has only entered two crews at this regatta using it as a racing opportunity for more junior members of their national squad.

The final repechage of the day, the men’s eight (M8+) was won by Estonia. This crew has been building ever since they took to the water together at the 2005 World Rowing Under-23 Championships. The crew finished seventh that year and were hailed for the accomplishment of such a small country being able to boat an eight. The crew went on to win the 2007 under-23 championships but were not so successful in 2008 when they finished sixth. The goal has always been the 2012 Olympics for this young crew. The Estonians go to tomorrow’s final along with Romania.