A cool start for Munich World Cup heats

A chilly start to the Rowing World Cup season began with a huge field of 63 heats racing in tail wind conditions that increased to blustery tail and choppy water at the Olympic Regatta Course in Munich, Germany. A new trial progression system meant that events with 25 or more entries would advance to a quarter-final stage, removing the repechage stage. For events with less than 25 entries the standard system of advancement through repechages remained. 

Women’s Single Scull (W1x) – Heats

Twenty-four crews lined up which meant first place in each of the four heats would go directly to the semi-final with the rest of the field returning for a repechage. Last year’s bronze medallist at the World Rowing Championships, Michelle Guerette of the United States, took an early lead over Irina Fedotova of Russia. Fedotova has been on the international scene since 1992 and through three Olympic Games with mixed results and today she put the pressure on Guerette but could not reel the strong American in. Fedotova will return for the repechage.

Russia’s Julia Levina put the pressure on 2005 silver medallist Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, but the confident Knapkova shook off the Olympic medallist and in the process recorded the fastest qualifying time of the four heats.

A steady 29 stroke rate gave World Champion Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch of Belarus the lead in heat three and just enough speed to keep ahead of Christiane Huth of Germany. This means Karsten continues her winning streak that has left her untouchable for over a year in the absence of Bulgaria’s Rumyana Neykova who is pregnant with her second child.

Sophie Balmary of France showed her strength over the winter by setting a new world record on the indoor rowing machine. Today in heat four she moved away to an open water lead leaving her competition with no room to reply. Balmary moves directly to the semi-final.

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – Heats

The tail wind continued with an added choppy water element for the six heats involving 32 boats in the men’s single event. Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway opened up the proceedings by not only winning but recording the fastest qualifying time in heat one. But Dirk Lippits of the Netherlands kept Tufte honest always staying within striking distance of the Norwegian. With four boats qualifying for the quarter-finals Gabor Bencsik of Hungary and former junior single champion, 19-year-old Daniel Frateanu of Romania also advance.

A five way battle opened heat two with Tim Maeyens of Belgium gaining a slight edge over Italy’s Alessio Sartori. But it was the slower starting Ralph Kreibich of Austria that showed his true colours by moving from fifth place through to second to force a full-on closing sprint. Maeyens remained in first breaking the seven-minute mark, Kreibich, in his 14th international season, finished second, Sartori in third and Slovenia’s Matej Rodela took fourth.

The third heat saw a close battle go on between Swiss hero Andre Vonarburg and Under-23 Champion Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands. Croatia’s Mario Vekic, Jaakko Hasu of Finland and Austria’s Norbert Lambing meanwhile fought it out for the two remaining spots. Vekic and Hasu move on to the quarter-final.

Winner of Great Britain’s trials, Alan Campbell is used to rowing on the rough River Thames and handled the Munich conditions well to take first in heat four. This led last year’s world bronze medallist Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic to cruise home, under no pressure to do more than qualify in second. The procession continued with Peter Lejko of Slovakia cruising in third and Finland’s Tommi Sahila in fourth.

Racing on his home course in heat five, Marcel Hacker of Germany hasn’t had such good luck since becoming World Champion in 2002. Today he got the season off to a good start by overtaking Slovenia’s Luka Spik to finish first. Hacker also won a couple of weeks ago at the Duisburg Regatta and continues on a good footing. This left Christof Uhl of Austria and Martin Yanakiev of Bulgaria to take the final two qualifying spots.

Lassi Karonen of Sweden has gradually been improving since taking to the single two years ago. Today he led heat six over Olympic bronze medallist Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria. But the gutsy effort by Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania must be noted. The 20-year-old raced to fourth at last year’s Under-23 Championships and this is his first season racing as a senior. Griskonis finishes in third ahead of Pierre-Jean Peltier of France who also qualifies.

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Heats

Emily Martin of Australia ranks in the top ten women rowers for 2005 after notching up two World Champion titles last year in the eight and four. Today she paired up with Sarah Heard to lead heat one of six heats. Despite the top four boats of five qualifying and Italy being dropped, the four leading crews raced it to the end. Australia remained in the lead followed by Canada who overhauled Great Britain and China to finish second.

Heat two had three boats qualifying for the quarter-final and it was Germany’s Maren Derlien and Nicole Zimmermann who chose to dominate. Derlien has been plugging away since becoming a junior champion in 1993 and with new partner, regular in the eight, Zimmermann they attack a new season. Sitting in second was Denmark with Belarus following in third.

Megan Cooke of the United States and Elise Laverick of Great Britain raced each other last year in the double. They meet again in heat three of the pair for the first time in 2006. Cooke along with Anna Mickelson have already been selected as the US entry for this year’s World Rowing Championships and get off to a solid start this season by winning the heat with Great Britain taking second and China finishing third.

Australia qualified their second of four crews in heat four when they took on the United States. Amber Bradley of Australia comes to the pair after spending her international career sculling and finishing third last year in the double. Her new partner Kate Hornsey earned two World Champion titles last year by winning the four and eight. Rounding out the qualifiers was the United States and Germany.

Heat five saw a close battle between Australia and Germany. Sitting in bow of the Australian pair, 20-year-old Kim Crow is in her first year of rowing. Crow moved to rowing after stress fractures in her foot forced her out of the Australian track team where she was a 400 hurdles and 800 metre specialist. Together with Sarah Cook, Crow debuts her international rowing career with a win in the heat leaving the talented Lenka Wech, who returns to rowing after a post-2004 Olympic break, and partner Wilma Dressel of Germany in second. China also qualified by finishing third.

It took the final heat (six) to record the fastest time qualifying time when Canada’s Darcy Marquardt and Jane Rumball got a slight lead over Germany and stayed in first until the line. Romania and Korea also move on to the quarter-final.

Men’s pair (M2-) – Heats

A top place finish was needed for crews to advance directly to the semi-final and for the majority of racing it came down to a two-way battle with the remainder of the boats looking content to try the repechage qualifying route. This appeared to be the case in heat one with Canada and Serbia & Montenegro going head-to-head from the two middle lanes. Sitting in Canada’s boat Malcolm Howard finished fourth at last year’s World Rowing Championships in this event and with new partner Kevin Light, the pair had the staying power to wear out Serbia & Montenegro.

Heat two followed a different style of race. Currently ranked second in the world the South African duo of Don Cech and Ramon Di Clemente have been competing together since 1998 and they took off with a flying 42 strokes per minute. Germany, in second, couldn’t hold this start or reel Cech and Di Clemente back in. South Africa move to the semi-final.

Italy and the Netherlands were seeded in the two middle lanes and after shaking off Slovenia they made it a two-boat battle. But it was last year’s bronze medallists, Luca Agamennoni and Dario Lari of Italy that had the better stamina, rating a solid 32 at the finish, to qualify for the semi-final.

They have an Olympic silver medal, but Croatia’s Niksa and Sinisa Skelin finished out of the medals in 2005. The brothers look like they’re building up nicely for Beijing with a win in heat four and the fastest qualifying time. But the Chinese are also building for Beijing and gave Croatia a run for their money going neck-and-neck through the 1,000 metre mark. The relatively inexperienced Yongquiang Zhang and Xiangdang Wang of China finished second and will now go through the repechage.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Heats

The three heats in this event saw a real mixture of new combinations with the loss of a number of crews through retirement and movement to other events. The top three finishers in each heat would qualify for the semi-final and in the opening heat Great Britain’s new pairing of Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington grabbed the lead and held tightly to it. Vernon, 23, and Bebington, 23, have both come through Great Britain’s talent identification programme and today finished with the fastest qualifying time. Behind the Brits, Belarus and the Czech Republic also qualify.

The United States got off to a flying start in heat two and tried to hold on. But Germany’s Magdalena Schmude and Stephanie Schiller had different ideas. France also pushed through. All three crews qualify for the semi-final.

The new Chinese combination of Olympian eight’s rower Ziwei Jin and first time international, Bin Tang led heat three leaving Italy’s Laura Schiavone and Elisabetta Sancassani (6th in 2005) and the Netherlands to make up the other qualifying spots.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Heats

Opening with 27 entries, rowers in the six heats raced for quarter-final qualification opening in heat one with the fastest of the six races. The speed was forced by a tight tussle between Germany’s new number one line-up of Robert Sens and Rene Bertram and 2001 World Champions Akos Haller and Tibor Peto of Hungary. This indicated Sens’ successful move from a long career in the quad, to the double. Also in the initial hunt was Germany’s number two crew who finish in third with Lithuania qualifying from fourth.

Back in the double is Olympic Champion Adrien Hardy of France. He took on heat two with partner Jean-Baptiste Macquet and kept a small but handy lead over Switzerland for the entire race. Qualifying in third, Poland and in fourth China, these crews also move on to the quarter-final.

A nail-bitingly close three-way race brushed the cobwebs off for Belgium, Norway and Italy’s number two crew. Belgium’s Stijn Smulders and Christophe Raes came out ahead and set themselves up for a solid start to the season. Behind them Norway, Italy Two and Greece also advance to the quarter-final.

Great Britain and Estonia grabbed the front spots in heat four and tried to edge away from Germany. At the finish the slight advantage by Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham of Great Britain paid off to give them first. Estonia take second and Germany’s third crew qualify from third.

Racing in heat five continued with similarly tight tussles as France and Estonia took off together. At the other end of the 2,000 metre blustery tail wind course Jonathan Coeffic and Julien Bahain of France had finished first. Coeffic and Bahain come together for the first time as France’s number one double, but, judging by qualifying times, their number two boat is nipping firmly at their heels. Estonia qualifies, along with Russia for the quarter-final.

France featured yet again in heat six jumping out to a fast start over second in the world, Luca Ghezzi and Federico Gattinoni of Italy. But Italy fought back followed by Australia. France held on and in a sprint to the line Italy had just a slight edge over France with Australia qualifying from third.

(To be continued…)