The 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic moved on to the semifinals as these junior crews moved closer to qualifying for Sunday’s finals. Racing over 2000m through very wet conditions which was described at times as a solid wall of water, crews did a fine job to fight for their right to move on in this regatta.

Junior Men’s Coxed Four (JM4+) – Semifinals A/B

Germany are the reigning World Champions of this event, but this year the German crew had taken the hard way to the semifinal by having to race the repechage. They won yesterday’s repechage and today fronted up with the strategy of being as aggressive as possible at the start. With about 40 strokes rowed Germany had the lead. But it didn’t last long as last year’s bronze medallists, Italy pushed through to the front and began their breakaway move.

Meanwhile, the United States, who had practically missed the start, pulled their socks up and got their act together to move through from the back of the field. A piece at the 900m point got the US into fourth and they began to close on Italy. At the line Italy held on to first with the United States qualifying in second and in an extremely tight battle between Ukraine and Germany at the line, Ukraine got the final qualifying spot. Germany is out of the final.

Switzerland came through from Thursday’s heat as the fastest boat and today they came back to the water to race in semifinal two. With that knowledge Louis Margot, Markus Kessler, Alex Pluess, Augustin Maillefer and coxswain Marco Brechbuehl of Switzerland took off in the lead and never looked back. Switzerland has never featured before in this event, but it looks like they have hit the perfect combination this year as the crew crossed the line in first and posted the fastest qualifying time for tomorrow’s final.

Australia has maintained two of the athletes that took silver last year (Amies and Moore) and today they held on solidly to second throughout the race. Amies and Moore are part of a talent ID programme that is developing athletes for the 2016 Olympic Games. New Zealand came through in third to round out the qualifying boats

 

Junior Women’s Single Sculls (JW1x) – Semifinals A/B

Toni Boteva of Azerbaijan after having qualified for the Final A in the junior women's single sculls at the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010. (Photo by Detlev Seyb/MyRowingPhoto.com)Last year Germany won this event and here at Racice the new German sculler, Judith Sievers has showed that she may have medal winning talent. In semifinal one Sievers headed out of the blocks just behind Annick Taselaar of the Netherlands who is competing at her third junior championships. By the middle of the race Sievers had earned the lead with both Taselaar and Greece’s Aikaterini Nikolaidou in close proximity.

Nikolaidou, who came directly through the heats to this semifinal, moved closer and closer to Sievers. It was going to be a tight fight to the line. A massive push right at the finish brought Nikolaidou right up with Sievers, but Sievers had just enough momentum to cross the line first. Sievers, Nikolaidou and Taselaar go to the final.

Semifinal two had Latvia’s Elza Gulbe in the lead with Laura Oprea of Romania tracking closely. Going through the middle of the race Gulbe and Oprea remained locked together and their personal battle moved them away from the rest of the field. Coming into the final sprint Oprea had gotten her nose ahead of Gulbe with Toni Boteva of Azerbaijan now moving through. Boteva is at her third junior champs, but for the last two she competed for Bulgaria. At the line Oprea, Gulbe and Boteva became the three crews to go to the final on Sunday.

Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x) – Semifinals A/B

At the start of semifinal one very little separated Portugal, Slovakia, Greece and Italy. It took until the half way point for some sorting out to happen. Andre Redr of Slovakia moved into the lead with Dionysios Angelopoulos sticking tightly to Redr’s pace. The persistence of Angelopoulos paid off and a push through the third 500 gave the Greek the lead. Angelopoulos is at his third junior worlds and the experience looked to be paying off. Redr looked to have run out of raw speed as he now contended with Manuel Igneri of Italy. At the line Angelopoulos, Igneri and Redr had qualified for Sunday’s final.

German junior single sculler Felix Bach after having won his semifinal at the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010. (Photo by Detlev Seyb/MyRowingPhoto.com) The reigning World Champion, Felix Bach featured in semifinal two. But despite his pedigree and known speed on the indoor rowing machine, Bach came out of the start in second behind Jakub Podrazil of the Czech Republic. Still, by the half way point Bach had worked through to the lead with Podrazil unable to react to Bach’s pace. Now Podrazil found Andrew Campbell of the United States beating down on him. Campbell raced in the double last year, but looks to be very confident in the single. Podrazil countered the challenge from Campbell and at the line Bach had crossed first with the fastest qualifying time for tomorrow’s final. Podrazil held on to second and Campbell earns the final qualifying spot.

Junior Men’s Pair (JM2-) – Semifinals A/B

At the end of these two semifinals the times of the six qualifying crews were close enough that it pointed to a very hot race in Sunday’s final. Winner of semifinal one, Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis of Greece earned the fastest time of 6:43, but only just over winners of the second semifinal, Radoslav Drenovski and Aleksandr Glotov of Azerbaijan who were clocked at 6:44.Jure Grace (b), Grega Domanjko (s) of Slovenia, French William Chopy (b), Benoit Demey (s) and Greek Apostolos Lampridis look exhausted after having qualified for the Final A in the junior men's pairs semifinal at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010:   (Photo by Detlev Seyb/MyRowingPhoto.com)

Semifinal one had Nastopoulos and Lampridis leading from start to finish and earning enough of a margin by the middle of the race that they were able to sit back, relax and watch the close battle between South Africa, France and Slovenia. These three countries remained on top of each other making the remaining two qualifying spots undecided right to the line. Greece crossed first, France got there just ahead of Slovenia and unlucky South Africa will have to compete in the B-final tomorrow.

Germany got off the line the quickest in the second semifinal with Drenovoski and Glotov moving with them. This is Drenovoski’s third world champs, but formerly he competed for Bulgaria. By the half way point, Drenovoski and Glotov had pushed into the lead leaving Germany to do their best to hold on. Now putting the Germans under pressure was Bulgaria. A very strong middle 1000 had brought the Bulgarians up to Germany’s level. But the push must have really taken it out of Bulgaria who found themselves under threat in the last 200m from Turkey. The Turks, however, had run out of race. Azerbaijan, Germany and Bulgaria go to the finals.

Junior Women’s Double Sculls (JW2x) – Semifinals A/B

Romanian Iuliana-Madalina Iacob (b) and Maria-Evelina Cogianu (s) miss out on qualification for the Final A in the junior women's double sculls at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010. Background: Elena Coletti (b) and Giada Colombo (s) of Italy exhausted after finishing the semifinal in first place. (Photo by Detlev Seyb/MyRowingPhoto.com)In the heats two days ago France was very unlucky when a crab took them out of the lead and to the back of the field. They raced in the repechage yesterday recording the fastest time and today lined up in semifinal one. At the start France took the lead but it didn’t last long as Elena Coletti and Giada Colombo of Italy moved through to the front. France initially held on but the Italians proved to be much stronger. Then Germany started to move through. The Germans are the reigning World Champions and this crew was proving to have a strong second half to the race. France slipped behind them with now Romania putting the pressure on.

In the final sprint there was nothing between Germany, Romania and France. A huge push by Germany with 200m remaining got them into second with France qualifying from third to the misfortune of Romania.

The second semifinal turned out to be the slower race with Australia’s Jessica Hall and Madeleine Edmunds taking over in first. But Hall and Edmunds did not have an easy time of it as they were chased hard by Greece. Neither of these countries were in the final last year but they were currently putting themselves in a very good position to contend it in 2010. Coming into the final sprint Australia remained ahead with Greece now going neck-and-neck with the Netherlands. Greece managed to stay ahead…albeit just. Australia, Greece and the Netherlands are in the final.

Junior Men’s Double Sculls (JM2x) – Semifinals A/B

Alberic Cormerais (b) and Mickael Marteau (s) of France after having qualified for the Final A in the junior men's double sculls during the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010.As the rain continued to fall in heavy sheets, France and Germany left the starting blocks together in semifinal one. Germany are the reigning World Champions of this event and their crew this year had the second fastest time coming through from yesterday’s quarterfinals. The Germans have retained Timo Piontek from that gold medal crew to race this year. By the half way point Stephan Riemekasten and Piontek of Germany had pushed away from France and looked very much in control. Meanwhile the remainder of the field was way back, putting France under no pressure, but the third place qualifying spot was still very much up in the air. With Germany and France taking first and second a huge closing 100m by Greece earned them the third qualifying spot, but denied Hungary.

Romania were second last year and they lined up in semifinal two having the fastest qualifying time from yesterday’s quarterfinal. Right from the start Ionut Luca and Cristi-llie Pirghie of Romania had the lead. However, going through the middle 1000 Italy really put the pressure on. Romania remained in control and in the last 250m of the race neither Romania nor Italy really had to do a full-on sprint. Qualifying from third, the Netherlands had to give it their all. The Dutch duo’s final push propelled them ahead of Denmark, from fourth into third, and into a spot in the final.

Junior Men’s Quadruple Sculls (JM4x) – Semifinals A/B

Marco Calamaro (b), Matteo Baluganti, Michele Manzoli, Marco Ferracci (s) of Italy compete in the junior men's quadruple sculls semifinal during the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010. (Photo by Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)Semifinal one opened with Marco Calamaro, Matteo Baluganti, Michele Manzoli and Marco Ferracci of Italy in the lead. The Italians had earned this spot in the semifinal through the heats two days ago, so they came into this race well rested. In dominating form, Italy remained out in front as Australia and New Zealand did battle through the middle of the race. Superior stamina for New Zealand gave them the edge in the second 1000m as Australia slopped back. Then Norway, who had been sitting way back in the field, decided to change that situation in the closing sprint. Increasing their stroke rate to nearly 40 strokes per minute, Norway brought their boat into the third and final qualifying spot. Italy, New Zealand and Norway will be in Sunday’s A final.

A close start in semifinal two meant that four boats were very much in contention of taking the lead. But this had all changed with only about 60 strokes rowed. Ukraine was the first victim. They could not hold the pace and started to slip back, never gaining their pace again. Now it was Germany and Great Britain who had command of the race. Tracking Germany, Great Britain was just back a fraction but remaining very much on the German’s leading pace. The door remained open for a crew to take the third spot. It took until the final sprint for that to be decided. With last year’s World Champions, Germany remaining just ahead of the British in first, Poland pulled out a huge sprint that brought them into the last qualifying spot. Germany, Great Britain and Poland are in the final.