Heating up Amsterdam - World Cup day 1

In this first day of heats racing China again showed the power of their lightweight women but also a surprise showing in the lightweight men’s double. New Zealand arrived on the scene with a large and confident contingent and Bulgaria’s best Rumyana Neykova returned to the international fold.

Lightweight Women Single Sculls (LW1x) – Heats

Marit van Eupen is back in the single after racing in the open women’s pair at the last Rowing World Cup. Van Eupen of the Netherlands is the current World Champion in this event. She says she didn’t feel valued in the women’s squad so is back in her favoured event. Van Eupen got out in front of the first of four heats and gained an open water lead, able to push along at a relaxed 27 to 28 strokes per minute. With just the first of each heats going directly to the semifinal, van Eupen moves on. All others will return for repechages this afternoon.

Heat two was all about Michaela Taupe of Austria. She has been plugging away at the elite level for 16 years and broke into the medals ranks finally at the first Rowing World Cup in front of her home crowd at Linz/Ottensheim, winning silver. Taupe held off Olympic medallist Germany’s Daniela Reimer and Denmark.

Ireland’s Orla Duddy started out in the lead of heat three. But she could not hold off the experienced Maria Pertl of Denmark who pushed through from third to take the lead in the final sprint. Pertl goes directly to the semifinal.

In the final heat Laura Tasch of Germany decided she didn’t want to do an extra race. The bronze medallist from the 2007 Rowing World Cup in Linz, Austria, is part of Germany’s strong lightweight group that are all hoping to be part of their country’s Olympic double. She got out into the lead and held off Ireland Orla Hayes who came through from behind to take second. Tasch advances to the semifinal.

Michaela Taupe (AUT)
“I could really control the race, it was really good but I never raced Marit Van Eupen yet and am really curious to see was I can do against her!”

Kaarin Scanlan Morales (COL)
“I was really underrated, I need to do the speed work I couldn’t do because I was ill, although this is no excuse. My first race is always the worst one; now I’m angry and it will go much better in the repechage.”

The hazard of rowing lightweight struck Ana Santoyo of Venezuela. She weighed in 200gm over the required 58kg and did not have enough time to loose it. This is the end of Santoyo’s World Cup.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Heats

The first half of heat one was all about Great Britain (Alisdair Leighton-Crawford) and the Netherlands (Jaap Schouten). Using a home course advantage, Schouten got into the leading position and never looked back becoming the sole semifinal qualifier from this first heat.

Dutch sculler Tim Heijbrock got off to a strong start but a stronger finish by current World Under 23 Champion in this event, Storm Uru of New Zealand put Heijbrock into the repechage and Uru through to the semifinal.

New Zealand featured again in heat three. Duncan Grant left nothing to chance, still rating a high 44 strokes per minute at the 500 metre mark. This broke Grant clean away from the rest of the field and gave him the luxury of rating 29 towards the end. Grant and Uru are part of a group of four New Zealand lightweights all hoping to be in the Olympic double. In this round they will have to be content with the non-Olympic single event.

The fourth and final heat went to Pierre-Etienne Pollez of France who battled with Hong Kong China down the Bosbaan course, but managed to shake him off and take a place in the semifinal. Pollez has been dabbling in and out of the national team and last raced internationally a year ago at the final World Cup in the lightweight pair. He moves on to the semifinal.

Jaap Schouten (NED):
“I went for the first 500m where I was hoping for a little bit more competition but as I was ahead I could just control the rest of the race. It’s really good as I don’t need to race this afternoon.”

Arnaud Pornin (FRA):
“I was ahead of Storm Uru after 300m but my oar got stuck under a buoy and I lost all my chance in this heat. But it is encouraging for the repechage”.

Duncan Grant (NZL):
“All races are tough but I had a good one. It’s great that both of us from NZ directly qualified.”

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Heats

The much touted post-baby return of Bulgaria’s Rumyana Neykova opened the first of three heats. Pitted against reigning World Champion and long-time rival, Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus in her first returning race. Karsten decided to show Neykova who was boss and took off with a storming start leaving Neykova to watch her wake. With two boats qualifying for the semifinal Karsten and Neykova are the ones to advance.

After a strong opening in heat two by Julia Michalska of Poland, the experienced Xiuyun Zhang of China took the lead and remained there. Two qualifying boats meant that Michalska seemed content with second and Zhang could take her pressure off towards the end of the race in her first qualifying spot.

Sophie Balmary of France does her best when she is in the lead. That’s where she put herself in the third and final heat. This left Frida Svennson of Sweden (last year’s bronze medallist) to play it safe in second unchallenged surprisingly by Germany’s Peggy Waleska who will have to return for the repechage. Balmary and Svennson move on to the semifinal and one step closer to the Ladies Trophy as part of the Holland Beker race.

Ekaterina Karsten’s trainer, Norbert Ladermann (BLR)
“It’s definitely better than the heats in Linz”

Annick De Decker (BEL)
“I was stuck in the buoys. It was just ok for a first time but watch out, I’ll be better this afternoon.”

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Heats

This event doubles as the top event for single scullers, the Holland Beker Trophy and the Netherlands top single sculler Sjoerd Hamburger didn’t disappoint in the first of six heats. Hamburger led over Switzerland’s best, André Vonarburg. Thirty-three entries in this event meant that the top four from each race would advance to this afternoon’s quarterfinals. Hamburger and Vonarburg advance along with Uhl of Austria and Egypt’s Mohamed Abd El Ghaffar.

Current World Champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand featured in his first international race for 2007 in heat two. Despite pre-race comments that Drysdale was not sure of his high-end boat speed, the New Zealander led from start to finish. Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria (bronze at Athens) tried to hold on to second after Latvia came racing through at the finish. Drysdale, Yanakiev, Bokums of Latvia and Australia move to the quarterfinal.

Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic had a very impressive win at the first Rowing World Cup earlier this month but in heat three he didn’t look quite so confident. Chased by the son of France’s top coach, Pierre-Jean Peltier, Synek held the lead but did not dominate. He continues on to the quarterfinal along with Peltier, American singles newcomer Jonathan Burns and Sweden’s late starter Paul Rosenquist.

At the head of the field Marcel Hacker of Germany took his shaven head into a clear lead over China’s Liang Zhang. Nothing changed in the order with Hacker easily extracting himself from the following boats. Hacker moves on to the quarterfinals with Zhang, Austria’s Kriebich and Angel Fournier of Cuba.

Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway was left out of the medals at the first Rowing World Cup and in heat five the Norwegian found himself up against Olympic fourth-place finisher Santiago Fernandez of Argentina. Fernandez challenged and re-challenged Tufte who did enough to remain in the lead. Both boats will go on to the quarterfinal and will be joined by Dirk Lippits of the Netherlands, who appears to be delaying his retirement, and Cuba’s Yuleidys Cascaret.

Alan Campbell of Great Britain got off to a flying, 51 strokes per minute, start as he is accustomed to do. Winner of last year’s Holland Beker Trophy, Lassi Karonen of Sweden took chase. At the line Campbell qualifies from first, Karonen from second and they will be joined in the quarterfinals by Ukraine and Belgium.

Sjoerd Hamburger (NED) “I was leading and went down two strokes in tempo so that if needed, I could increase it again. I could have sculled faster but it wasn’t necessary at this moment of the competition. My goal was to finish first of the heat so that I wouldn’t have to compete in the quarters against other participants who finished first.”

Christof Uhl (AUT) 
“It really was very tough in the last 200m but thank God I qualified.”

Mahe Drysdale (NZL)
“It was a comfortable race with 4 qualifying out of 5, I just went for a little sprint because you need to look after yourself in the first race when you have quarter finals ahead of you.”

Allar Raja (EST)
“I forgot that only the first 4 qualified …”

 

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Heats

A step up from the first Rowing World Cup, this event opened with the return to good health of Australia’s Sally Kehoe with partner Kate Hornsey. Kehoe missed out on racing at Linz/Ottensheim due to illness, but she is back and, along with Hornsey, took the lead over Germany’s top pair, Nicole Zimmerman and Elke Hipler. But Zimmerman and Hipler barely gave Australia an inch. These two crews move directly to the semifinal with all other crews returning for this afternoon’s repechage.

It isn’t unusual to see China race a heat as though their life depended on it and that’s the way they raced in heat two. Up against former World Champions Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles of New Zealand, Yage Zhang and Yulan Gao of China took to the lead. Haigh and Coles grabbed the challenge and coming into the finish both crews were rating 35 as they charged for the end. Just one metre separated them with China having the advantage. Both crews go on to the semifinal.

Australia’s top pair of Kim Crow and Sarah Cook are used to dominating and this is exactly what they tried to do in heat three. But in this close field the Australians were back in third. Cook and Crow kept the pressure on and coming into the final sprint they were neck-and-neck with Germany’s Christina Gerking and Maren Derlien. Less than half a second separated these two crews at the finish with the edge going to Crow and Cook. Both will move on to the semifinal.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – Heats

Niksa and Sinisa Skelin finished second at the first Rowing World Cup and did it by doing a flying start then holding on. Following a different strategy today in the first of three heats, the Skelin’s came out of the blocks in third. But they soon pushed through to get ahead of Great Britain’s new pair of Tom Solesbury and Tom James. With the top British duo in the eight for this regatta, Solesbury and James are going to try and prove themselves at the international level. At the finish Croatia had the lead and Solesbury and James qualify for the semifinal from second. All other boats will have to return for the repechage this afternoon.

New Zealanders George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle won the World Rowing Championships two years ago and were not happy to finish in silver position last year. Back for another international season Bridgewater and Twaddle met France’s Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot for the first time. Peron and Cadot took the lead at the start with New Zealand taking chase. At the first Rowing World Cup the French duo excelled in the early rounds of racing but only managed sixth in the final. Today they again got off to a good regatta start fighting with the Kiwis down the course. A 38 stroke rate piece took Bridgewater and Twaddle into a brief lead but France came back to win. Both boats move on to the semifinal.

South Africa’s top, and most successful rowing duo, Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech had a disappointing 2006 season. Back for another year they debuted their 2007 international season in heat three. But the South African’s found themselves up against bronze medallists from the first Rowing World Cup, Andreas Penkner and Jochen Urban of Germany. At the finish Penkner and Urban came out on top with Di Clemente and Cech qualifying from second.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Heats

After shaking off a fast starting Jitka Antosova and Gabriela Varekova of the Czech Republic the very experienced and qualified German duo of Manuela Lutze (2004 OIympic gold medallist) and Susanne Schmidt took the lead. Both boats will move on to the semifinal along with Norway in third. Ukraine were unlucky after equipment failure at the halfway point prevented them from finishing the race.

Heat two of three heats featured winners from the first Rowing World Cup of the season, Qin Li and Liang Tian of China. The duo took the lead leaving Germany2 of Juliane Domscheit and Jeannine Hennicke to keep up. Both crews go through to the semifinal along with Belarus.

They may by Olympic and World Champions but New Zealand’s Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell slipped into third position last year. Back for the first time internationally this season, the Evers-Swindell come to Europe from a southern hemisphere winter and they made no mistakes by leading from the start over Finland’s lightweight crew of Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen. The New Zealanders remained in the lead with Finland qualifying from second and China2.

Georgina Evers-Swindell (NZL):
“It’s our first time in Europe this year, it’s good to be here and have a race but this was just a heat and we are looking forward to the semifinals.”

” border=”0″ src=”/medias/images/media_352575.jpg” title=” © Peter Spurrier/Intersport-Images ” width=”250″ />Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Heats

A new GPS system to provide more racing information for the viewing public is being tested for the second time in this season and in heat one of four heats, New Zealand attempted to test it out from the front of the field. But their early show of power was soon lost to the winners of the first Rowing World Cup, Great Britain’s Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham with the return of Scott Brennan (following a post-2004 retirement period), and David Crawshay of Australia. Just two boats would qualify directly for the semifinal meaning that New Zealand will have to return for this afternoon’s repechage.

Slovenia’s most medalled rowing duo, Iztok Cop and Luka Spik separated into singles for the first Rowing World Cup. Back in the double and racing in heat two the duo showed that being apart had not hurt their doubles boat speed. They easily dominated this event with the Czech Republic following back in the second qualifying spot. But disaster 250m from the finish for the Czech’s (their boat speed dropping right down) let Cuba (Janier Concepcion and Yoennis Hernandez) take the second qualifying spot. Slovenia go to the semifinal with the fastest qualifying time.

Heat three featured current World Champions Jean-Baptiste Macquet and Adrien Hardy of France in the lead. Hardy and Macquet have done a lot of soul searching after finishing fourth in the first Rowing World Cup. They were followed by Under 23 World Champions, Dzianis Mihal and Stanislau Shcharbachenia of Belarus who were giving the French a good taste of their boat speed. Macquet and Hardy remained in the lead with Belarus qualifying for the semifinal from second.

The final heat saw Estonia in the lead. The Estonian entry featured Jueri Jaanson who, in his 42^nd year, is not slowing down. Teamed up with Tonu Endrekson, the duo led the entire race over Poland’s Michal Sloma and Marcin Brezezinski. Word is that Estonia hopes to form a quad, but for now Jaanson and Endrekson are doing some damage in the double. Along with Poland, Estonia moves on to the semifinal.

Vaclav Chalupa (CZE):
“we’re not happy with this race, we can do better”

Iztok Cop (SLO):
“In Linz it was the first race and the plan was to race it in the men’s single. Now we’re back in the double and want to get faster as the event becomes somewhat “crowded”. We are ahead of an interesting season”

Adrien Hardy (FRA):
“Our racing was not constant enough; we changed some technical elements after Linz but these are not automatic yet. There are some new crews since Linz and that’s cool; we like tough racing!”

Men’s Four (M4-) – Heats

This event has been diluted following the two-time World Champions, Great Britain, choosing to compete in the eight and Germany a last minute scratch due to medical reasons affecting Toni Seifert. In heat one of three heats New Zealand took a storming start and remained in the lead for the entire race. The Czech Republic shook off Croatia to take second and both boats earn a spot in the semifinal.

The second heat presented one of the most exciting races of the day when Dutch favourites – and potential event favourites – the Netherlands went head to head with Ireland. Sean O’Neill, Cormac Folan, Sean Casey and Alan Martin of Ireland have been working away under international coach Harald Jahrling and it seems to be paying off. The Netherlands finished just ahead of Ireland and both boats move to the semifinal.

The final heat had France in the lead from start to finish. This crew showed their blossoming talent last year at the World Rowing Championships when they finished sixth and a third at the first Rowing World Cup proved their increasing worth. They advance to the semifinal along with Slovenia in second.

Eric Murray (NZL):
“We just wanted to make sure we made the first two, that’s what we did and for the rest, we’ll race one race at a time.”

Geert Cirkel (NED):
“We wanted to end first. In heats one has to do as good as possible but it’s in the final that we have to show what we can do!”

Rok Kolander (SLO):
“It’s racing, no training any more and we had to pull harder but nevertheless we can still pull harder, you’ll see!”

Julien Despres (FRA):
“We started quickly and contained the assaults of the other teams. We are feeling better than in Linz, where we finished 3^rd and here we won our heat, our first goal is reached!”

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Heats

The first Rowing World Cup saw a huge shakeup when World Champions and World Best Time holders, Dongxiang Xu and Shimin Yan of China not only got beaten but finished right outside the medals in fourth. Today they’re back in heat one and held a close battle with Germany’s Berit Carow and Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany. Breaking away at the finish China take first and Germany second – the two semifinal qualifying spots.

China made it a double header by leading heat two from start to finish. Their second crew of Haixia Chen and Hua Yu beat Xu and Yan at the first Rowing World Cup and are back on track today. They move on to the semifinal along with Great Britain’s Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell.

At the first Rowing World Cup Denmark’s Katrin Olsen and Juliane Rasmussen surprised everyone by winning this very competitive race. Their coach Vagn Nielsen has split them up for this regatta in perhaps an elaborate seat racing strategy. The new combination of Rasmussen and Kirsten Jepsen got the upper hand over their teammates Olsen and Sine Christiansen. Both boats earn a direct spot in the semifinal.

” border=”0″ height=”200″ src=”/medias/images/media_352577.jpg” title=” © Peter Spurrier/Intersport-Images ” />Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Heats

With four heats and only the first boat advancing directly to the semifinal, racing was ruthless, at least in the opening half of the race. Taking control of heat one China’s Guolin Zhang and Jie Sun showed their coaches that they are a good combination. Zhang and Sun both raced at the first Rowing World Cup but with different partners finishing well down in the rankings. Together they look to be clicking. They will be the only boat going directly to the semifinal leaving in their wake the very accomplished French duo as well as Poland’s two-time Olympic Champions.

Great Britain’s Zac Purchase is better known for his single sculling skills. He is the reigning World Champion of the lightweight single and holds the World Best Time in this event. The year before he won at the Under 23 level. Now focused on the Olympic event, the double, Purchase has teamed up with Mark Hunter and together they finished second at their first international race together – the first Rowing World Cup. Today they continued on their winning ways taking out heat two over the New Zealanders. Great Britain go on to the semifinal.

Heat three opened with Chile taking a strong lead with the United States holding on tightly. But Chile paid for their early pace and couldn’t find enough of a sprint at the end. Instead it was Austria that had the goods. Juliusz Madecki and Sebastian Sageder of Austria go directly to the semifinal.

The reigning World Champions showed why they are reigning World Champions. Denmark’s Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist were piped at the start but upping the rating and a strong second 500m gave them a sound lead that carried them through to the finish and on to the semifinal.

Guolin Zhang (CHN):
“It was quite an easy race. We trained in Hazewinkel (BEL) between Linz and Amsterdam. After this event we go back to China and don’t race in Luzern. There has been quite a lot of reshuffling in the crews and for me it goes much better now.”

Zac Purchase (GBR):
“The first 1000m was not too good but afterwards it was OK. It’s quite bouncy out there, not really comfortable, a little bit like a wave machine.”

Rasmus Quist (DEN):
“We didn’t have a good race, it wasn’t working as it should and we had some problems with the waves. We know we can do better as this race wasn’t fluent enough, too choppy.”

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – Heats

Three heats with the top two boats in each heat moving on directly to the semifinal presented a real lightweight renaissance for the Dutch. With three entries the first heat presented the top two. Surprisingly, in the outside lane, it was Netherlands2 that had the upper hand finishing first over Denmark. Both boats qualify for the semifinal with Netherlands1, in third, having to return for this evening’s repechages.

Alwin Snijders (NED): “The Danish crew is always very fast but we did a real good race. Our boat is a new combination: I won bronze in Linz, Roeland Lievens and Paul Drewes won silver in Linz and Arnoud Greinadus was replaced in the other LM4- and therefore joined us.” Paul Drewes adds “it our first race, we’re only been together for two weeks. We are the “drop outs” of the other boat but we beat them. We’ll see what it gives later but for the moment we enjoy our result.”

Netherlands3, represented by their under 23 team members, just missed out of qualifying in heat two, despite putting on a solid show. Instead it was Great Britain who qualified. The British finished third at the first Rowing World Cup and look to be on the path of continual improvement. They kept a steady 35 stroke rate through the body of the race before upping it to 40 in the last 250m to hold off Poland. Poland qualify from second while the Netherlands3, in third, will have to go the way of the repechage.

Heat three staged a battle of the 2005 World Champions, France, versus the 2006 World Champions China. France, featuring 2000 Olympic Champion Jean-Christophe Bette led for the first half of the race. China fought back and got the edge going through the third 500m. At the line China was first by less than a second and the fastest qualifying time. Both boats go directly to the semifinal.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Heats

The first of three heats featured the Czech Republic in the lead. The Czech’s are known for always getting at least to the final in this event and they put themselves in a good position by finishing first. France pushed through to take second. Also qualifying is a new USA line-up.

Ukraine had an edge at the start of heat two and retained that edge doing enough to stay ahead of the rest of the field. They finish just ahead of Slovenia in second with China taking the third and final qualifying spot.

Heat three featured two-time World Champions and World Best Time holders, Poland. The Poles haven’t lost a race since 2005 and they continued on their first place race leading this heat for the entire race. In a fine demonstration of rowing style, Poland win and take with them to the semifinal Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Women’s Eight (W8+) – Heats

Two heats in this event meant that only the first place finisher would advance directly to the final. Boating the same line up that finished third at the first Rowing World Cup in Austria, the Netherlands took the lead and didn’t look back. An unflustered, solid performance earn them a spot in Sunday’s final and a day off from racing.

A fast starting China tried to hold on to the lead for the full 2000m in heat two. But the rest of the field fought back with winners from the first Rowing World Cup, Germany pushing through to overtake China. At the line just Germany will move directly to the final.

Men’s Eight (M8+) – Heats

China showed at the first Rowing World Cup that they had what it takes to be there with the best. Today they led the first of two heats showing no respect for reigning World Champions Germany. Actually no crew was showing any respect for Germany. The Chinese still had the lead going into the final 500m as Great Britain2 – the crew made up of their World Champion men’s four plus the World Cup winning men’s pair – started to wind, and wind. Great Britain take the only direct qualifying spot in the final while a tremendous effort by Switzerland pushes them into second. Switzerland will have to contest the repechage but with added confidence.

It takes a lot to make commentator Robert Treharne Jones excited, but this race, the last heat of the regatta, did it for him. Great Britain1, Poland and Belarus took off together in heat two and remained tightly intertwined for the first half of the race. Even with 1500m down these three crews were stuck together like glue. It would have to come down to the final sprint to determine the lone qualifying boat. As Belarus dropped off the pace Great Britain took their rating to 38. Poland fought back at 42. No gap appeared. A photo finish gave a pinhole of an edge to Poland. 1/100 of a second. Poland go directly to the final.