Adaptive rowers open the Samsung World Rowing Cup, Munich, Germany

The 1972 Olympic Regatta Course, situated just outside of Munich, turned on a warm evening with calm waters of almost no wind, mixed with a very slight head wind at times. Racing was dominated by the favourites with Ukraine World Champion, Alla Lysenko the stand-out competitor in her dominating performance.

AS Women’s Single Sculls (ASW1x) – heats
A total of nine countries lined up divided into two heats. The top to boats in each heat would get to advance to the final on Saturday. Heat One featured 2010 World Champion, Nathalie Benoit of France. Benoit finished with silver in 2011 and is aiming for her first Paralympic Games this year. She faced four other crews who will be racing at the Paralympic Games including bronze medallist from 2011, Moran Samuel of Israel. But it was Belarus’s Liudmila Vauchik who put up the biggest challenge, chasing leader Benoit to the line. Benoit and Vauchik move directly to the final.

There is no doubting the skill of Alla Lysenko of Ukraine. The reigning World Champion met three other 2012 Paralympic competitors in Heat Two. This is Lysenko’s first international race for 2012 and she proved to be far superior to her competitors, gaining an open water lead within the first 200m of the race. Lysenko powered on to win easily in a time of 6:03, by far the fastest qualifying time. Brazil’s Claudia Santos came through in second to take the other qualifying spot.

AS Men’s Single Sculls (ASM1x) – Heats
Two heats lined up with the aim of a first place finish if athletes wanted to miss the possibility of a repechage and go directly to the final. Heat One featured four athletes who will be heading to this summer’s Paralympic Games including last year’s bronze medallist, Erik Horrie of Australia. In the absence of Great Britain’s Tom Aggar and Russia’s Alexey Chuvashev, Horrie made extremely easy work of his heat racing home in 5:10, a huge 13 seconds ahead of Jun-Ha Park of Korea. Horrie, thus, advances to the final.

Heat Two’s best possibility to win looked to be Spain’s Edorta De Anta Lecuona as the highest placer from last year’s World Rowing Championships. But it was Great Britain’s reserve, Andrew Houghton, who stole to show. Houghton showed immense power, making the most of every stroke so that by the half-way point he already had an open water lead. At the finish Houghton earned a spot in the final by finishing seven seconds ahead of Ukraine2, Igor Bondar. This is a great result by Bondar at his international debut, especially as he finished ahead of Ukraine1, Andrii Kryvchun.

TA Mixed Double Sculls (TAMix2x) – Heats
The progression here was that the first crew only, from each of the two heats, would get to go directly to the final on Saturday. In Heat One a very tight race unfolded between Australia’s Kathryn Ross and Gavin Bellis and Ukraine’s Iryna Kyrychenko and Dmytro Ivanov. Australia and Ukraine finished third and fourth respectively at the 2011 World Rowing Championships and thus know each other’s talents. But this is the first season of Paralympic medallist Ross teaming up with Bellis and the duo were hoping to show what they could do. At the line Ross and Bellis managed to squeeze ahead to earn a spot in the final.

France’s World silver medallists and World Best Time holders, Perle Bouge and Stephane Tardieu had the pedigree to dominate Heat Two and the duo got off to a good start. But Israel’s Reuven Magnagey and Olga Sokolov did not let the French get away easily, sticking with them through the first half of the race. Bouge and Tardieu then used their high-rating, long strokes to pull away from Magnagey and Sokolov. Bouge and Tardieu earn the sole qualifying spot for Saturday’s final.

LTA Mixed Coxed Four (LTAMix4+) – Heats
The final event of the day, the LTA mixed coxed four, featured two heats with the top boat only from each heat getting to advance directly to the final on Saturday. Heat One had reigning World Champions, Great Britain lining up. The British crew of Pamela Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith, James Roe and coxswain Lily Van Den Broecke are full-time athletes with gold at the Paralympic Games their firm outlook. They took the lead early on in the race, doing their best to push away from France in second. Using a solid stroke rate Great Britain continued to lead with France putting in a big effort in second. It will be only Great Britain, however, that gets to go directly to the final. France will return tomorrow to race in the repechage.

Heat Two featured Great Britain’s perennial rivals and last year’s silver medallists, Canada. But it was Germany that took the lead in this race with Canada only managing to hold onto third through the first half of the race. Germany’s crew of Anke Molkenhin, Astrid Hengsbach, Tino Kolitscher, Kai Kruse and coxswain Katrin Splitt made the most of the ‘home court’ advantage and got their nose in front of a very persistent Ukraine crew.

Germany held their race plan together and by the finish line they had been able to build up a three second lead over Ukraine. Germany’s finishing time of 3:32 gave them the fastest qualifying time as they progress directly to the final on Saturday.