The joys and regrets of B Final racing

Today’s “Group A” B Finals at the Shunyi regatta course at the 2008 Beijing, Olympics saw athletes race to be number seven to 12 in the world. The weather remained perfect. The water was flat, the skies clear and the times reflected slight head wind conditions.

Women’s Single Scull (W1x) – B Final

Frida Svensson of Sweden appealed her semifinal result after she suspected weed was stuck in her rudder. This appeal was rejected after no weed was found on her boat. So Svensson decided to give it her all in her B Final race. But also giving it her all was New Zealand’s Emma Twigg. This is Twigg’s first Olympic Games and the 21 year old had high hopes. But no final kick in her semifinal race meant that she was pipped into fourth at the line.

Twigg and Svensson led the race with only Italy’s Gabriella Bascelli within striking distance. And in the final sprint Bascelli struck. Twigg could not react. Svensson hung on. Svensson earns the seventh spot in the world.

Results: SWE, ITA, NZL, AUS, SRB, FRA

Emma TWIGG (NZL)
“I didn’t have the best row; I had no wind in the last 500m and this has been my downfall these Games. I’m now going to go and enjoy the rest of the Games and, when I get home, take it easy and have some downtime. I had higher expectations for the Olympics, but I guess for your first Games it doesn’t always go to plan. I am going to get stronger for the next four years.”

Frida SVENSSON (SWE)
“Winning the B Final is a small comfort after yesterday. I would have preferred to have had the same race in the final. It was not the best feeling race I’ve had, the quarterfinal was my best race. I’ve got no holiday as I’m going to the Swedish National Championships and racing the single, quad and eight. I’ve really enjoyed the Games, even if it’s not the result I wanted. It’s been a great summer vacation. I’m definitely going to watch Lassi (Karonnen) in the final tomorrow. I am moving into the Olympic Village tomorrow and am looking forward to spending time with the Swedish team.”

Men’s single scull (M1x) – B Final

Marcel Hacker of Germany’s best Olympic result is a Sydney Olympics bronze in this event. At Athens he also raced in the B Final. Today Hacker stormed off the start line rating a powerful and fast 40 strokes per minute for the first 250m of the race. This gave Hacker a full boat length lead and the position he loves to be in – watching the rest of the field.

Switzerland’s Andre Vonarburg tried to hang on at the start but then left it up to 22 year old Olympic newcomer, Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania to do what he could. A huge push by Griskonis at the 1600m mark got him in front of Vonarburg and closer to Hacker. Hacker, rating 35, held on to finish first. Griskonis, in second, is definitely a sculler to watch for the future.

Results: GER, LTU, SUI, GRE, USA, AUS

Women’s pair (W2-) – B Final

This race was led by Portia McGee and Anna Cummins of the United States from start to finish. The duo kept a solid 33 stroke rate to keep ahead of Canada in second. The Canadians got off to a solid start but slipped further behind the Americans as the race progressed. McGee and Cummins then moved out to a stunning open water lead. Cummins is already an Olympic silver medallist from racing in her country’s eight at the Athens Olympics. She is also the only member of the American Olympic rowing team to be racing in two events. On Sunday Cummins will have a chance to go for gold in the United States women’s eight.

As the final stretch came into view a burst by the French brought them in front of Canada and closed the gap on the United States. Cummins and McGee remained in control with no need to sprint the finish.

Results: USA, FRA, CAN, AUS

Men’s pair (M2-) – B Final

Taking off at a cracking pace at the start was Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot of France. They were followed very closely by the Czech Republic’s Vaclav Chalupa and Jakub Makovicka. Stroke man Chalupa is an Olympic regular. The 40 year old’s first Olympic Games were in 1988 in Seoul. At that stage Makovicka was just seven years old. Chalupa’s best result came in 1992 when he won silver in the single. After Ondrej Synek took over as his country’s top single sculler, Chalupa dabbled in different team boats.

With the French slipping back behind a fast moving Serbian pair of Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic, the Czech Republic held on to second. Jagar and Stojic, however, had a bit more juice than the Czechs. Serbia finishes first. At the back of the field Italy rowed with their spare after Giuseppe de Vita got ill and Croatia could do nothing to get to their 2004 Olympic silver medal results.

Results: SRB, CZE, FRA, DEN, ITA, CRO

Nikola STOJIC (SRB)
“After the semifinal we felt kind of stupid. We hit a buoy with 750m to go and lost speed. Maybe it was only 1 second, but that was enough to make us fourth. Today we won so easily, we should have been in the Final A. But we still have the European Championships, where we will defend our title. We are staying here one more week and will try to watch other sports. In Sydney and Athens we could only watch the women’s marathon, but here I want to see Serbia in water polo and volleyball.”

Women’s double sculls (W2x) – B Final

Kateryna Tarasenko and Yana Dementyeva of Ukraine made good work of just staying in the lead. The duo took off in front followed by Sonia Mills and Catriona Sens of Australia. But coming through the middle of the race less than three seconds separated the top three crews.

This margin became tighter as the final sprint appeared. A big push by the Romanians in the third 500 had given them second ahead of Australia and brought them closer to Ukraine. Tarasenko and Dementyeva fought back. So did Sens and Mills. Ukraine held on to first and Australia regained second.

Results: UKR, AUS, ROU, ITA

Men’s double sculls (M2x) – B Final

Germany had a very slight edge coming out at the start, but by the first 500m mark Belarus had taken over in the lead. Dzianis Mihal and Stanislau Shcharbachenia of Belarus own the under 23 World Best Time and have been racing together since they were on the junior national team in 2003. The usually fast starting Russians slipped into second behind Belarus, but could not hold the pace and slipped back again.

Coming into the final sprint Bart Poelvoorde and Christophe Raes of Belgium had found their legs and had already pushed past Russia and Germany to close on Belarus. Mihal and Shcharbachenia held them off. Belarus cross the line in first.

Croatia did not start the race due to injury.

Results: BLR, BEL, GER, BUL, RUS, CRO

Martin & Ivo YANAKIEV (BUL)
“We are not satisfied with our performance, we should have been at least first in the Final B. We are so sorry because we had chances, but our performance was only mediocre. We were still tired after our last race. The climate gives us problems and we couldn’t give our best performances. The Chinese are marvellous. After this we plan a long vacation, maybe a year, and we’ll think about the future.”

Men’s four (M4-) – B Final

Racing for the day ended with the closest finish. With the current world champion, New Zealand and regular international medallists, the Netherlands sitting in the starting blocks everyone knew that a close contest would ensue.

Coming out at the start the Netherlands took over in the lead followed closely by the United States. New Zealand looked almost out of the picture at the tail end of the field. Going through the middle of the race New Zealand had already squeezed past Italy, Ireland and Belarus. But the New Zealanders still had a bit to make up to reach the Dutch.

As New Zealand closed on the Americans in second, the Netherlands hung grimly on to first. New Zealand got their stroke rate up to 44 in the sprint to the line. In the last stroke the New Zealanders had done it. First by 0.07 of a second.

Results: NZL, NED, USA, IRL, ITA, BLR