Blue Riband heats at Rowing World Cup in Munich

The eights have long been the glamour event helped by the raw speed and romanticism of eight people rowing in absolute synchronicity.

Today the Blue Riband races rounded out the heats with the single scullers and eights fighting through the tail-wind rough waters and then dealing with a light, but steady rain.

WOMEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (W1x) – Heats

This event attracted 19 entries minus China’s top single sculler, Bin Tang. The four heats had the top two from each heat advancing to tomorrow’s semifinal while all other crews would return for a second chance repechage later today.

Emma Twigg of New Zealand, silver medallist from last month’s Rowing World Cup I, featured in heat one and found herself up against Poland’s Agata Gramatyka. Gramatyka, 27, has one Rowing World Cup medal to her name and today she challenged Twigg for the entire 2000m. This Twigg-Gramatyka struggle left the rest of the field way, way far behind. Twigg prevailed at the finish line and both boats go to the semifinal.

Australia’s Sally Kehoe has dabbled in all sorts of boats in her career. Today she was back in the single and racing in heat two. Kehoe led from the start building up a full boat length over Julia Levina of Russia by the first 500m mark. Despite Levina’s experience, Kehoe held her off, rating 29 coming into the finish.  Kehoe and Levina advance to the semifinals.

China’s number two sculler, Jingli Duan gave it her all to challenge the world’s number one sculler, Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch of Belarus in heat three. Karsten took off at the head of the field opening up a handy gap with just 500m rowed. She then sat on the field but still kept up a solid pressure to hold Duan back. Karsten qualifies with the fastest time. Duan is also in the semifinal from finishing second.

Back from illness, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic raced against a gutsy Donata Vistartaite of Lithuania in heat four. This is Knapkova’s first international race of the season and she found herself behind Vistartaite for the body of the race. Knapkova did just enough to finish first at the end, but never really had to sprint. Knapkova and Vistartaite are in the semifinal.

MEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (M1x) – Heats

The biggest field at this regatta, the men’s single featured 29 entries but was missing reigning World Champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, who is in Munich training but decided to step back from racing as he continues to heal a back injury. The entrants were divided into six heats with the top three or four in each heat moving on to the quarterfinals this afternoon.

Last month’s silver medallist, Alan Campbell of Great Britain, got the proceedings going by racing in heat one and managing a very solid 6:56 to finish first. Campbell never had a clear and comfortable lead with challenges coming from Georgi Bozhilov of Bulgaria, Falko Nolte of Germany and China’s Liang Zhang. Today Zhang handled the rough conditions admirably and finished second behind Campbell. Nolte and Bozhilov also qualify for the quarterfinals.

Marcel Hacker of Germany had some very vocal supporters encouraging him in heat two on his home waters. Hacker gave them a race to enjoy by leading from start to finish and comfortably gliding through the closing metres of the race. Former Bulgarian rower, Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan pulled ahead of Peter Lambert (RSA) to finish second. Lambert, 23, qualifies for the quarterfinal from third and Ralph Kreibich (AUT) qualifies from fourth.

Heat three had Lithuania Two, Mindaugas Griskonis, proving himself to his selectors by beating Lithuania One, Mykolas Masilionis, to the finish line. Griskonis led for the entire race with Croatia’s Mario Vekic, rating 36, pushing ahead of Roel Braasof the Netherlands, rating 32, to take second. Braas finished third and will qualify for the quarterfinal. So will Masilionis from fourth.

It looked like a weekend stroll for Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic as he cruised through to the finish line in heat four. Synek did his hard work early on in the race to build up enough of a lead over Oscar Vasquez Ochoa of Chile in second that he didn’t have to race the finish. Vasquez crossed the line rating 32 with Switzerland’s Fabrizio Guettinger following in third. Dusan Bogicevic of Serbia took out the final qualifying spot by finishing fourth.

Last month reigning Olympic Champion, Olaf Tufte of Norway, raced in the double with his good friend from Slovenia, Iztok Cop. Today he was back in the single in heat five and making easy work of it. Coming into the line rating 29, Tufte was clearly getting much more boat run than anyone else in the field. Patrick Loliger Salas of Mexico put in a fine effort to finish second ahead of the son of Finland’s rowing great, Juho Karppinen.

Karppinen was recently interviewed on Finnish TV and asked if he felt the pressure of following such a great father. Karppinen said he didn’t, otherwise he would have quit long ago. But Karppinen said the 2012 Olympics were on his mind. The final qualifier from heat five was Bram Dubois of Belgium.

Lassi Karonen of Sweden scored the fastest qualifying time when he raced in heat six. Karonen was presented with strong competition from Germany’s Karl Schulze, but the Swede managed to shake off Schulze and finish comfortably in front. Canada’s Malcolm Howard and Brendan Crean of Great Britain qualify for the quarterfinal from third and fourth respectively.

WOMEN’S EIGHT (W8+)

Only Germany, China and Poland showed up at the start, with winners from Bled Great Britain along with Romania choosing not to race the Race for Lanes. This is allowed according to Rowing World Cup regulations. Germany finished the race in first, followed closely by China and Poland finishing far behind in third. They will meet up on Sunday with Great Britain and Romania for the final.

MEN’S EIGHT (M8+) – Heats

This event was divided into two heats with the first boat in each heat advancing to the final. In heat one Russia led at the start. But there was very little in it between Russia, Poland and Great Britain. By the half-way point, Great Britain, with Phelan Hill in the coxswain seat, was in the lead, with Poland and Russia not far behind. Then the British showed their skill and moved cleanly away from the field to a full boat length lead.

Coming into the finish, Great Britain rated 36 and looked very together, Poland and Russia tried to come back, but the British had it in the bag and will go directly to the final.

This is the first international race for 2010 for the reigning World Champions, Germany. They look to have retained all of their boat speed through the off-season as they powered down the course in the lead of heat two. A very synchronised Chinese crew made a fine effort and almost caught the Germans by rating 39 stroke per minute towards the end. The Germans, however, handled the conditions well and will be the sole qualifying boat from this heat.