Strength and spray at Rowing World Cup II

Overall these very accomplished rowers handled the conditions well with Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger of Great Britain again making it through to finals of two events. The men’s four saw the strength of Australia with two crews advancing and Poland coming back in the men’s quad.

WOMEN’S PAIR (W2-) – Heats

The 17 entries divided down into three heats with the top two from each heat earning a direct path to the semifinal.

Heat two recorded the fastest qualifying times when China, Germany and Romania went head to head for the majority of the race. Germany had the leading edge for the majority of the race bit, lost it in these conditions in the final sprint. This left Romania’s Adelina Cojocariu and Nicoleta Albu to fight it out with twin sisters Meng and Tong Li of China. The Lis rated an aggressive 37, with Romania at 33 strokes per minute. Romania crossed just ahead and both boats go to the semifinal.

China added a second boat to the semifinal when Zhengping and Meiling Sun finished first in heat one. The Suns led from start to finish over Romania’s Camelia Lupascu and Eniko Mironcic. Lupascu and Mironcic challenged hard to get ahead of the Chinese, but China remained in control in front.

Heat three saw the return of Olympian Juliette Haigh of New Zealand. Haigh took a post-2008 Olympic break and this is her first international race since Beijing. Teamed up with Rebecca Scown, Haigh and Scown led at the start and did enough to stay ahead of Sarah Tait and Sarah Cook of Australia who qualify for the semifinal from second. Tait also returns for the first time since Beijing and is also on the comeback, having had a baby 10 months ago.

MEN’S PAIR (M2-) – Heats

The three heats of the men’s pair required rowers to finish in the top three positions for a direct path to tomorrow’s semifinals and it opened with reigning World Champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (NZL) absolutely dominating heat one. The New Zealanders have come to Munich from their training camp in Bled where they remained after a win at the first stage of the Rowing World Cup. Murray and Bond, rating 32 at the finish, qualify for the semifinal with the fastest qualifying time. Also qualifying from heat one was Cameron Nichol and Tom Burton of Great Britain and Adrian Juhasz and Bela Simon of Hungary.

Second-place getters from Bled, Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge of Great Britain, raced in heat two. Rather than shooting off at the start in the lead, the Brits tried a different strategy. At the start Poland was in front before Hodge and Reed pulled through to take over at the front. Hodge and Reed did not sprint the finish, ending at a 25 stroke rate. Romania (Ionut Minea and Marius Luchian) finished second and Poland’s Maciej Mattik and Zbigniew Schodowski qualified in third.

The third and final heat saw a mad dash by Shaun Keeling and Ramon Di Clemente of South Africa. Keeling and Di Clemente were sitting in second and attacked the leaders Serbia (Nikola Stojic and Marko Marjanovic) with a stroke rate of 40. Serbia, at 37, held the lead to qualify from first. Germany’s Thomas Protze and Felix Drahotta made it through from third. 

WOMEN’S DOUBLE SCULLS (W2x) – Heats

With 12 boats entered, this event saw two heats of six boats each with the top boat from each heat going directly to Sunday’s final. Heat one saw the arrival of the German boat to international competition. Olympic medallist, Annekatrin Thiele has teamed up with Julia Richter and, after an opening lead by China, Thiele and Richter took over in front with the Czech Republic following them down the course. Thiele and Richter earn the fastest qualifying time, a day’s rest and a spot in the final.

Winner of the first Rowing World Cup in Bled, Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins of Great Britain led the entire heat two from start to finish. Grainger and Watkins took double gold at Bled when they raced the double and quad. They are aiming to do the same here in Munich. The British duo made easy work of heat two and looked like they were doing a training row, crossing the finish line at a 24 stroke rate. Great Britain go to the final.

MEN’S DOUBLE SCULLS (M2x) – Heats

This event had four heats with the winner of each heat going directly to tomorrow’s semifinal. Heat one recorded the fastest qualifying time when Andre Vonarburg and Florian Stofer of Switzerland rowed an aggressive, controlled race from the head of the field. Vonarburg joined Stofer in the double last year after spending the majority of his rowing career in the single. Today they held off a late sprint by Germany and the United States to qualify.

Heat two opened with Ukraine in the lead, but this was soon lost to last year’s silver medallists, Cedric Berrest and Julien Bahain of France who had the Czech Republic right on their tails. Perhaps the French were caught a little off guard by Petr Vitasek and David Jirka of the Czech Republic as in the final sprint the Czechs, rating 46, overhauled the French to steal the only qualifying spot. Vitasek and Jirka go directly to tomorrow’s semifinal. Berrest and Bahain will race in a repechage this afternoon.

Last year New Zealander Nathan Cohen raced with Matthew Trott. This year he has teamed with under-23 champion Joseph Sullivan and together they led the third heat for the entire race. It looked like Cohen and Sullivan were just pleased to be racing and the duo kept the rate high, crossing the finish line to qualify for the semifinal rating 35 strokes per minute.

Winners of the first Rowing World Cup, Matthew Wells and Marcus Bateman of Great Britain, showed that last month was no fluke. Wells and Bateman absolutely dominated heat four moving to a huge open water lead by the second quarter of the race. No one attempted to catch Great Britain who crossed the line to qualify for the semifinal with nearly a 10 second lead over second place.

MEN’S FOUR (M4-) – Heats

The men’s four attracted 18 crews – a larger than normal entry into this event – and reigning World Champions, Great Britain, opened the racing in heat one of three heats with the top two boats in each heat qualifying. Partridge, Egington, Gergory and Langridge (GBR) have become the crew to beat and Germany Three as well as Germany One gave it a shot in this heat.

Right through to the middle of the race the two German crews hung on to the British. Coming into the final sprint Great Britain kept the pressure on. Germany One, from second, dropped their power and Germany Three took the pressure right off. The British and Germany One qualify for the semifinal.

This is the first international race since 2009 for both Australia and the United States and they went head-to-head in heat two. Australia finished with silver last year and have retained the same line-up, while the United States have changed two members of the crew that finished 13th last year. The Australians had an early lead, but there was very little in it. The USA then pushed into a slight margin. Both boats sprinted for the line, USA stroking 38 and Australia hitting 40. Both boats go to the semifinal with the United States having a slight psychological advantage after beating the 2009 world silver medallists.

But the big surprise came in heat three when a very tidy Australia Two not only led from start to finish but also recorded the fastest qualifying time. Lockwood, Loch, Purnell and Dunkley-Smith of Australia must have been feeling great during the race and when they crossed the line even though Serbia was right with them. Australia rated a clean 37 stroke rate with Serbia at 42. Australia and Serbia move on to the semifinal. 

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN’S DOUBLE SCULLS (LW2x) – Heats

This event has attracted less crews than normal and also a number of new line-ups. Divided into two heats Germany’s Daniela Reimer and Anja Noske led the way in heat one. Reimer has spent most of her rowing career in the single, so working into the Olympic boat class, the double, is a great achievement. The younger Noske has mainly raced in team boats. With just one boat able to go directly to the final, Reimer and Noske were it.

Last month at the first Rowing World Cup, Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking of Great Britain finished with silver. They come to Munich as the highest ranked crew and they lived up to their ranking by winning heat two and qualifying with the fastest time. Goodsell and Hosking were led by China at the start but pushed through to the lead by the middle of the race. China put in a full-on final sprint, but could not catch the leading Brits.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S DOUBLE SCULLS (LM2x) – Heats

The three heats to be raced required crews to finish in the top two spots if they wanted a direct path to the semifinals tomorrow. Heat one had the new German dynamos. Linus Lichschlag and Lars Hartig may have only just come out of uner-23 rowing, but they have been impressing with every race they’ve done. Lichtschlag and Hartig led from start to finish leaving Mexico and the United States to sort out who would take second. A stronger second half by Jonathan Winter and Brian De Regt of the United States gave them the second qualifying spot.

Current World Champions Storm Uru and Peter Taylor of New Zealand opened their 2010 season by racing in heat two at the head of the field. Hungary’s Robert Racz and Tamas Varga tried to challenge through the middle of the race, but Uru and Taylor sprinted away. New Zealand qualifies for the semifinal with the fastest qualifying time and Hungary goes through too.

The return of Olympic Champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Great Britain happened in heat three. Both athletes took a break after the Beijing Olympics and last month Purchase won the first stage of the Rowing World Cup in the lightweight single after Hunter couldn’t compete due to injury. Purchase and Hunter led from start to finish with only China (Tiexin Wang and Jie Sun) daring to challenge. The Chinese nearly got a break when the British caught a small crab at the 1700m mark. Purchase and Hunter recovered, took their stroke rate to 31 and crossed the line in first. Great Britain and China move on to the semifinal.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S FOUR (LM4-) – Heats

This event was made up of three heats with the top three boats in each heat going to the semifinals. After a sub-average 2009 season, the British opened 2010 by taking silver last month. Today they stepped up again by leading heat one from start to finish. But it was a close race with four boats going through the middle of the race practically on top of each other. Then China started to drop off the pace leaving Germany Two and Serbia to chase Great Britain. Coming to the line the British were in control at a 32 stroke rate, Serbia rated 35 and Germany hit 38. These three boats qualify for the semifinal with the three fastest qualifying times.

Heat two featured last month’s winners, Denmark. The Danes feel an ownership over this event and even in lesser races they always aim to win. Handling the conditions sufficiently, Pedersen, Vilhelmsen, Winther and Joergensen crossed the line in first rating 34. A solid-looking South Africa came through to qualify in second while Japan, using clean, clear strokes in these difficult conditions, came through to qualify in third.

Australia and the Czech Republic went head-to-head in heat three with Australia, featuring the return of 2008 Olympians, Anthony Edwards and Todd Skipworth, holding the advantage at the start. A big piece by the Czechs in the third 500m propelled them into the lead with Australia trying with all of their might to hold on. These two boats charged for the finish, Australia at 42, the Czech Republic at 37. The Czechs prevailed, Australia finish second and Austria also qualify by finishing, back a bit, in third.

WOMEN’S QUADRUPLE SCULLS (W4x) – Heats

This event had two heats with the top boat only advancing directly to the finals. The reigning World Champions, Ukraine, raced in heat one. They finished second to Great Britain last month at Bled and they must have gone away to prepare themselves to face the British at this regatta. After an initial opening dash by Austria, Ukraine took the lead and held it to the finish. Ukraine qualifies for Sunday’s final.

Coming out of the heats of the double earlier today and jumping into the quad were Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins for Great Britain. They raced, along with Annie Vernon and Beth Rodford, in heat two and had the lead right from the start. Germany tried desperately to hold on to the British lead but couldn’t match the skill and strength of the British and instead had to contend with holding off China. Great Britain qualify directly for Sunday’s final where they, again, will take on Ukraine.

MEN’S QUADRUPLE SCULLS (M4x) – Heats

The three heats had been arranged so that the top three boats from each heat would move on to tomorrow’s semifinal and World and Olympic Champions Poland made sure of advancement in heat one.

Poland was beaten into third last month at Bled, one of only a couple of losses that they have ever suffered since the current crew came together in 2005, and today they got out in front and remained there for the entire race. Great Britain’s new quad line-up with double sculler Stephen Rowbotham sitting in bow, gave the Poles a solid challenge from second with Switzerland up with the leaders through most of the race. Poland kept the pressure on to the end, rating 38 coming into the line. Great Britain slowed about 20m before the finish after struggling in the rough water and Switzerland held on to third. Poland, Great Britain and Switzerland go to tomorrow’s semifinal.

Last month’s winners, Croatia, had a reasonably easy time in heat two. They were challenged for most of the race by Germany, but Stephen Krueger then caught a boat-stopping crab that prevented him from rowing the last 200m of the race. Krueger comes into the quad after his doubles teammate withdrew due to injury. The Germans will get a second chance to advance through the repechage. Belgium finishes second and New Zealand was able to take advantage of Germany’s misfortune and qualify from third.

Heat three was very close across the entire four-boat field right through to the middle of the race. Then Australia pushed through to get a slight lead over the United States with Russia still very much on the pace. Australia, featuring Olympic Champion from the double, David Crawshay, held on until the end to cross the line in first. Australia, USA and Russia go to the semifinals.