Quality repechages at the Sydney World Cup

At this course, 14 years ago, the rowing world was delighted by iconic races like the final of the men's pair, when FISA's president-elect Jean-Christophe Rolland (FRA) won after holding a sprint that began at the 1000m mark.

There was also the career-ending men's four race of Steve Redgrave of Great Britain that earned Redgrave his fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal. In the women's single sculls Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus and Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria ended their final in a photo finish that awarded Karsten the gold medal.

Today the World Cup moved through repechages with rowers enjoying flat water, mild temperatures and overcast skies.
The lightweight men's single sculls repechage saw three emerging rowing nations make it through to the final. Vietnam's Linh Nguyen Van won the race after a first-half battle with Hong Kong's Wai Kin Wong. Australia2 and Vanuatu also made it through.

The fastest qualifying time in the two repechages of the lightweight women's single sculls was Jin Ji Yoo of Korea1. Ji Yoo will be joined in Sunday's final by Miao Wang of China2 and two Australian crews, Sarah Pound and Annabel Gibson.

Repechage One of the women's pair was a tightly fought race between China2 and Canada2. In the final sprint Canada got the edge with Natalie Mastracci and Susanne Grainger moving to the final with the fastest qualifying time. Both Mastracci and Grainger raced in Canada's women's eight at last year's World Rowing Championships where they took bronze. China1, China2 and United States1 also mad

e it through to the final.

A pile of top names contested the repechage of the women's double sculls. Leading the way were the 2013 World Champions, Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania. Following the Lithuanians were 2013 World Champions in the women's quad, Annekatrin Thiele and Julia Richter of Germany. Then Carling Zeeman and Antje von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, from the 2013 Canadian silver medal women's quad, had to battle with Denmark's top sculling boat. These are the four crews that qualified for Sunday's final.

Going out hard at the start did not pay off for the Netherlands2 boat of Olivier Siegelaar in the repechage of the men's single sculls. After 1500m Siegelaar stopped rowing. This gave the rest of the crews the opportunity of racing in Sunday's final. Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania had the fastest time with Netherlands3, China and Australia2 also going to the final.

Olympic title aside, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic found herself coming third in the repechage of the women's single sculls after two Chinese scullers stormed to first and second. Jingli Duan was first in a very respectable time of 7:34 and Yan Jiang was second and just a fraction of a second ahead of Knapkova. China3, Weiwei Zhu also qualified for the final.

Hats off to Hong Kong's Kwong Wing Chow and Chiu Mang Tang. They won the repechage of the lightweight men's single sculls when they got the better of Australia2 of William and Timothy Day to finish first. These are the two boats that will contest the final on Sunday.

Sunday's finals begin at 8:32 (Sydney time) on 30 March 2014.