Blue Riband events work through first round

In the women’s eight the United States showed that they are still the crew to beat while Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand looked strong in the men’s single in his return to the international scene. The women’s single had all the top names easily getting through the first round and the men’s eight put Canada and Germany into the spotlight.

Women’s Eight (W8+) – Heats

Divided into two heats, the women’s eight required crews to get in the top two if they wanted to go directly to Sunday’s final. This was the first of the four Blue Riband events at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup and it opened with Canada’s new eight leading the way in heat one. Canada won at the Henley Royal Regatta last week and they come to Lucerne with their very experienced coxswain 51 year old Lesley Thompson-Willie. Great Britain and the Netherlands fought it out for the second position with the smoother British crew able to outclass a rushed looking Dutch eight. Canada and Great Britain go directly to the final with Canada recording the fastest qualifying time, albeit only just.

The United States are the reigning World Champions. This is the first time they have raced internationally this season. Despite a last minute change to their crew and two of their athletes already racing once this morning, the United States completely outclassed the rest of the crews. They held a long, controlled stroke to take their boat to the finish line in first. A rather rough – in comparison – German crew had to get past China to take out the second qualifying spot.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Heats

With 20 crews entered these single scullers were divided into four heats. The top two boats from each heat would get a direct path to tomorrow’s semi-final and it was no surprises in heat one with World Champion and the world’s best single sculler, Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch of Belarus leading from start to finish with ease. This left the rest of the field to race for second and Belgium’s Annick De Decker, 35, doing it the best. De Decker is a late bloomer in the sport starting to race at the international level when she was 32. These two scullers earn a spot in the semi-final with Levina recording the fastest qualifying time.

Another regular on the international rowing scene, Julia Levina of Russia dominated heat two. Levina is a veteran of three Olympic Games, all in the quadruple sculls. Now in the single Levina has already medalled this season and finished second to Karsten at the Holland Beker recently. Levina was followed home by Isolda Penney of Canada. This is Penney’s first year on the international scene and, like De Decker, is a late-comer to rowing. Levina and Penney move on to the semi-final.

Sweden’s Frida Svensson had to overhaul both Great Britain’s Debbie Flood and Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania to find the lead. The gutsy Swede started off in third but pulled through into the lead coming into the final sprint. Vistartaite, 21, put in a good effort, overrating Svensson, but looked a bit rough around the front. Still she did enough to get through to the semi-final along with Svensson.

The fourth and final heat and the 62nd race of this regatta, featured Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic. Knapkova has been racing the single for her entire rowing career which began internationally in 2001. For that whole period she has been up against Karsten. Knapkova seems to be biding her time until her opportunity comes. Today she had an easy race of it cruising home ahead of Genevra Stone of the United States who led Knapkova briefly early on in the race. Knapkova and Stone go directly to the semi-final tomorrow.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Heats

In the biggest event of this regatta, 33 crews lined up to try their luck, or talent, in the men’s single. Divided into six heats, these scullers needed to finish in a top four position to make it through to this afternoon’s quarter-finals. In heat one, Igor Kusmin of Estonia took the lead followed closely by Juho Karppinen of Finland. Juho is the son of the famous Perti Karppinen and he comes to international rowing with the aim of making the 2012 Olympic Games. But it was fellow Scandinavian, Lassi Karonen of Sweden who took control of the race coming into the middle of the race. Karonen is a regular in the A-final but doesn’t often get a shot at the medals. Today he remained in the lead and held off a last minute dash by Liang Zhang of China. Karonen qualifies from first with Zhang, Karppinen and Kuzmin qualifying from second, third and fourth respectively.

World Champion Mahe Drysdale made his first World Cup for the season here in Lucerne,in heat two of the men’s single. Drysdale has spent the first half of the season recovering from a back injury but a win last week at the Henley Royal Regatta showed that he certainly had good form. Drysdale finished with the fastest qualifying time by taking first in a relatively comfortable fashion. Also qualifying was Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba, Fabrizio Guettinger of Switzerland and Great Britain Two, Brendan Crean.

Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic has won both World Cups this season, but today, in heat three he followed Germany’s Falko Nolte for the entire race. Nolte is Germany’s sole single sculler at this regatta as Marcel Hacker is out due to injury. Was Synek holding back? Was the heat getting to him? Coming into the finish Synek took his time to look over at Nolte and check his stroke rate before crossing the line in second. Nolte and Synek qualify for the quarter-final along with Nick Hudson of Australia and Michael Arms of New Zealand.

Belgium’s Tim Maeyens is back in the single after starting off the season as part of his country’s quad. Maeyens signaled his return to the single by finishing second to Synek and the Dutch Holland Beker race. Today Maeyens raced in the lead of heat four and made easy work of the race with little pressure from the rest of the field. Behind Maeyens, Roel Braas of the Netherlands remained in second for the entire race to qualify and also going to the quarter-finals this afternoon are Austria’s Ralph Kreibich and Bajrang Lal Takhar of India.

The two-time Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte of Norway rowed over in the lead of heat five. Tufte doesn’t often lead at the start, but today he held the starting edge over Peter Lambert of South Africa and Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis. Tufte is one of the hardest workers on the men’s single circuit and his heavy training load is legendary. By the half way point Griskonis, Lambert and Hannes De Reu of Belgium were still holding on to Tufte’s pace. Tufte did just enough to stay ahead while Griskonis had to work relatively hard. Tufte, Griskonis, Lamber and De Reu will return this afternoon for the quarter-finals.

Heat six was an audience’s delight when crowd favourite Alan Campbell of Great Britain put on a show coming into the final sprint in front of the grandstands. Campbell had been leading for the majority of the race after a burner of a start. Only Malcolm Howard of Canada was anywhere near to Campbell. Then going through the third 500m Campbell let his pace drop a bit and Howard caught up. As the grandstands came into view Howard had slipped into the lead. With a huge cheer from the British, Campbell responded and took his rating up. Howard responded. The crowd loved it. Howard finished first, Campbell second and both of them will go to this afternoon’s quarter-finals. Also in the quarter-finals will be Jaakko Hasu of Finland and Stergios Papachristos of Greece.

Men’s Eight (M8+) – Heats

This event was divided into two heats with the first boat only in each heat able to go directly to Sunday’s final. The reigning World Champions, Germany held a close battle with Australia’s new line up in heat one. The Australian crew includes the men’s four that won at last month’s Rowing World Cup and the young crew is full of courage and enthusiasm. They overrated Germany and managed to take the lead through the middle of the race. Germany fought back to earn the only qualifying spot at the line. All other boats will race in the repechage this afternoon.

Canada recorded the fastest qualifying time in their heat two race. Despite being a very different crew from the Canadian eight that took gold at the Beijing Olympics, this eight must feel the pressure of having to succeed. Today they raced a confident race from the front of the field under the guidance of coxswain Mark Laidlaw. China was the early challenger to Canada, but last month’s silver medallists could not keep up the pace and were overtaken by Great Britain and Poland. A last minute dash at the 250m mark by Great Britain brought them closer to the Canadians. But Canada remained comfortably in front and in control. Canada goes directly to the final.

The 12 countries entered represent a cross-section of the nations that not only love competing in the men’s eight, but have a strong passion to win. The current World Champions Germany are back and after winning at Rowing World Cup II last month look to be the team to beat. The two crews closest to knocking Germany off their perch were China and Great Britain. These two crews will not give up without a fight and Germany needs to play smart to stay in front.

Then joining in the fun for the first time this season are perennial rivals the USA and Canada. They are both boating new crews from their 2009 line-ups and will be open to surprise. Then there are the Australians. Sitting in this crew are the four men that won the men’s four at Munich.

Do not discount Poland. They are driving towards having a top crew for the 2012 Olympic Games and their drive looks to be heading in the right direction. Then there are the Dutch who finished second in Bled and often manage to pull off something special.