Universiade rowers shape up for the finals

The first day of heats and repechages had sorted out the line ups for today’s racing and the morning session was all about deciding who would race for top honours in Monday’s eight medal finals.

The women’s double sculls final looks set to be dominated by the new Lithuanian combination of Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite. This duo has already displayed their speed on the international stage earlier in the season and they come to Kazan as favourites for gold in the final. Thus the main challenge is likely to be for silver and bronze. Belarus and the Ukraine will be boats to watch here but the experience of Olympian Lenka Antosova in the Czech boat may guide her boat to a podium finish.

The lightweight men’s single sculls is always a battle from start to finish and after the semifinals it is looking like Monday’s final will be no different. Bronze medallist in the lightweight double from the 2012 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, Julius Peschel of Germany, may well be the sculler to set the pace in the race for gold. Peschel led his Semifinal Two from start to finish without feeling under too much pressure from the rest of the field. He will face scullers from Russia, Australia, Poland, Hungary and Switzerland in the race to become Universiade champion.

Lithuania’s force at this regatta could be felt in the men’s double sculls as Rolandas Mascinskas and Saulius Ritter made easy work of their semifinal, leaving the rest of the field to battle for position. Featuring in Semifinal One, but failing to make an impact on the field, was Monaco. This boat includes double Olympian Mathias Raymond who has said that this Universiade regatta will be his last international competition in rowing. Lithuania’s closest challengers in the final are most likely to be Ivan Dovodko and Olexandr Nadtoka of Ukraine. They too won their semifinal but it took a big effort to hold off the Russians to maintain the psychological edge of going into the final as semifinal winners.

The final of men’s single sculls will be a showdown between Olympians Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania and Mexico’s Patrick Loliger. These two scullers came first and second respectively in Semifinal One and maintained these positions throughout the race. They will be joined by a determined field of Belgium, Ukraine, Poland and Australia.

The 2012 University Rowing Champion, Kirsten McCann of South Africa looks to be on track to take gold again on Lake Kaban. She rowed the 2k course comfortably to clock the fastest time of the two lightweight women’s single sculls semifinals. However, on home water, Russia’s Olga Arkadova will not be letting McCann take the podium top spot too easily.

Five finals – W2x, W1x, M4-, LW2x, LM4- will race on Sunday with the remaining eight finals beginning at 10:40MST (+2 hours CEST) on Monday, the final day of the 2013 Universiade rowing regatta.

Full results from Sunday 7 June can be found here.