Journies towards medals continue and end for student rowers in Kazan

For some athletes, today's racing marked the end of the hopes of medalling at this regatta, but for others their performances mean that they have earned their way to challenge for medals in Sunday's finals.

The morning session opened with racing in repechages in ten boat classes. Poland’s Magdalena Kemnitz and the Czech Republic’s Marketa Pazderkova booked their places in tomorrow’s final of the lightweight women’s single sculls, joining the four other scullers who qualified directly for the final from yesterday’s heats.  

Norway was the unlucky crew in the women’s four. They were the fifth boat to cross the line, with only the top four qualifying for tomorrow’s final. However, they form part of a larger Norwegian contingent at these championships, something that certainly bodes well for the future of university rowing in their county. After today’s repechage of the men’s pair, Poland and Italy will be joined by South Africa, France, Russia and Australia in tomorrow’s final.

Olympian Lenka Antosova and her partner Libuse Bruncvikova are through to tomorrow’s final of the women’s double, having won their repechage today. They also posted the fastest time of all four doubles that will progress to tomorrow’s final. In the men’s event, South Africa pipped Australia to the line to take the second of two final places. Ukraine were the winners of this repechage.

The repechages of the men’s and women’s singles saw a great mix of nations progress to tomorrow’s medal finals. In the women’s single, scullers from Ukraine, Belarus, Italy and Germany will meet the already qualified Dutch and Czech rowers in the final. The Ukraine’s Nataliia Kovaliova posted the fastest time of the two repechages. Her male counterpart, Sergii Gumennyi, also moves through to tomorrow’s final having won his repechage. He posted the fastest time of both repechages. In the men’s four, Italy and Russia will join Poland, China, the Netherlands and Germany in tomorrow’s battle for medals.

The final repechages to run today were in the men’s and women’s lightweight doubles. New Zealand’s women’s duo of Ellyce Stehlin and Ana Holt were on top form today and look set to really challenge for medals tomorrow. Ukraine was the only crew in this race to miss out on a place in tomorrow’s final. Finland’s Petajaniemi brothers really worked as a team today, to take the first of two A-final qualification spots in the men’s event. They crossed the finish line with three seconds to spare over Russia.

With the largest entry of all boat classes, semifinals of the lightweight men’s single sculls closed the morning session of racing in Kazan. In Heat One all eyes were on Hungary’s Peter Galambos. Galambos comes to this regatta having taken a silver medal at the World Rowing Senior Championships last month. He took the first of three A-final qualification spots, with Ireland’s Niall Kenny and Poland’s Bartlomiej Lesniak taking to two further spots. In Heat Two Switzerland’s sole competitor at these championships, Michael Schmid, posted the fastest qualifying time of both heats. Andrea Micheletti of Italy and Gilles Poyat followed in second and third place respectively and will race again in tomorrow’s A-final.

B-finals were the order of the day for the afternoon session of racing.  Lightweights were first on the starting blocks with the women’s single the first to race. Having missed out on the A-final, Elena Shlykova of Russia raced out of the start with the intention of dominating the race. And that is what she did, leading from start to finish and crossing the line comfortably ahead of Mexico’s lightweight sculler. A similar story played out in the men’s lightweight single. Sweden’s Oskar Russberg held off a challenge from Luke Watts of New Zealand to finish this regatta in seventh position overall.

Just two boats lined up for the B-final of the men’s pair and it was Ukraine’s Savon and Skoroplias who crossed the line comfortably over Norway.

Estonia’s Killing and Naarits got off to a fast start in the women’s double, but once Poland’s Ariana Borkowska and Agnieszca Kobus found their rhythm they managed to move into the lead to the finish line to record  seventh place finish overall to this World University Rowing Championships. In the men’s double the Czech Republic’s Rimak and Paroulek dominated the B-final from start to finish. Australia were their main challengers but the Czech double managed to increase their lead over Owen and Volker throughout the race.

The B-final of the women’s single looked like it could have been an A-final on the water as a full-on battle took place between these university rowers. Russia’s Alexandra Smirnova took command of the race, but she was never too comfortable in the lead as Finland’s Eeva Karpinnen and Australia’s Peta White refused to let her gain too much of a lead. This paid off for White in particular as Smirnova dropped back into third place, unable to answer challenges from these two scullers. White reached the line first, thus finishing seventh overall. In the men’s single the Czech Republic’s Jakub Houska had gotten himself into a comfortable lead by the half-way point of this race. At the line he was almost five seconds clear of Lithuania’s Mykolas Masilionis and thus finishes his time in Kazan in seventh place.

The B-final of the men’s four was just a three boat race. Czech university rowers Kapa, Horvath, Kedal and Vanek had control of this race
until the closing stages, when a push from Mullarkey, O’Connor, O’Driscoll and Lynam of Ireland saw them reach the line first.

The final race of the day also saw three boats line up at the start. Norway’s Christensen and Lavoll’s first 500m played an important part in their race as it was a lot down to the lead they gained here that kept them out in front for the remainder of the race. It was a solid performance that resulted in these two athletes crossing the line ahead of Poland and Malaysia to claim seventh place overall at this championship regatta.

Sunday is the final day of racing at the 2012 World University Rowing Championships at the Rowing Centre, Kazan, Russia. A-finals will see the world’s top university rowers stand on the podium. Racing starts at 10:00 MST and results will be posted here throughout the day. You can find today’s full results here. Take a look at photos from throughout the regatta here.