Unpredictable B-finals at rowing champs

This meant these B-finals, the places seventh to twelfth in the world, had a real mixture of unexpected results. Added to this unpredictability was the change in weather conditions. For the first time all week it was a tail wind and added to that was rather rough water.

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – B-final

You know that the tail wind is strong when times in the B-final of this event go well below eight minutes. You also know that racing is tough when Croatia’s Mirna Rajle Brodanac finishes at the back of the field. Today Spain’s Teresa Mas De Xaxars held the lead for most of the race, only losing out at the line to Triantafyllia Kalampoka of Greece.

Kalampoka, 19, is a 2009 under-23 World Champion in the lightweight double and has been racing internationally since a junior in 2006. The Greek must have handled the finishing water conditions the best and can now claim seventh overall at the senior level.

Results: GRE, ESP, SWE, GER, CZE, CRO

 

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – B-final

Jaap Schouten of the Netherlands has not had the best of seasons. Schouten has hit the ground running on the international scene with a silver and a bronze from the last two years. He started off this season in a double but moved back to the single after finishing sixth at the final Rowing World Cup. Today Schouten was the boat to beat. By the half way point Schouten, 24, had opened up over a boat length lead and he continued to move away from Adam Freeman-Pask of Great Britain in second. South Africa’s Lawrence Ndlovu tried to get up to Freeman-Pask in the final sprint, but ended up half a second off the Brit.

The wind must have gone out of Iran’s under-23 World Champion, Mohsen Shadi Naghadeh. The Iranian finished at the back of the field.

Results: NED, GBR, RSA, ITA, CHI, IRI

Lightweight Men’s Eight (LM8+) – B-final

Turkey can feel satisfied. Stroked by Ahmet Yumrukaya who is in his eighth year of international rowing, the Turkish crew got out to an early lead. Yumrukaya has spent his career in a mixture of boats and most recently, at last year’s World Rowing Championships, he raced to fifth in the lightweight quad. Turkey remained in front for the entire race finishing a handy three seconds ahead of Austria in second.

Results: TUR, AUT, HUN

Women’s Pair (W2-) – B-final

From early on this race turned into two races. Russia, France and China battled it out in the lead with Argentina, Belarus and Croatia having their own battle a couple of seconds back. The top three boats continued to pace each other at the head of the field with Alevtina Podvyazkina and Mayya Zhuchkova of Russia holding a slight advantage. Coming into the final 500m of the race France and Argentina stepped up the pace. Russia was struggling to hold on. Marie Le Nepvou and Stephanie Dechand of France earn seventh in the world.

Results: FRA, RUS, ARG, CRO, CHN, BLR

Men’s Pair (M2-) – B-final

After such a hot pace in the A-final of this event, there were big expectations on this race. Coming into the race Olympians Nikola Stojic and Goran Jagar of Serbia were the favourites along with Canada. But so far today, favourites from earlier in the week have not always prevailed. This race confirmed this when Nils Menke and Felix Drahotta of Germany decided that they would like to finish first. After an initial lead by Cuba, Serbia got the lead. But margins were close with the entire field remaining in an overlap coming into the final sprint. Coming to the line the Germans had handled the finish the best and the conditions well.

Results: GER, SRB, CUB, CZE, POL, CAN

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – B-final

Six crews left the starting blocks together. Five hundred metres later they were all still close. Then it turned into a very tight four-boat competition between former lightweight Olympic medallists, Finland, the New Zealand double of Anna Reymer and Paula Twining with Germany and Denmark right there. These crews took the race right through to a heady final sprint. Twining and Reymer had sprinted the best to pull off first by one thenth of a second. The huge number of supporters in the Poznan audience cheering for New Zealand made their approval heard.

Results: NZL, GER, FIN, DEN, UKR, BLR

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – B-final

This is single sculler, Andre Vonarburg of Switzerland’s first season in the double. He has decided that he’s gone far enough in the single and now wants to focus on this team boat. With partner, Florian Stofer, the Swiss took to the lead and remained there for the entire race. A crab for Olympic medallists Great Britain, put them at the back of the field and they never recovered. A very consistent race gave the Swiss the seventh place at the finish line.

Results: SUI, POL, UKR, BEL, CUB, GBR

Men’s Four (M4-) – B-final

This race closed in on the World Best Time when Germany and Spain conducted a full 2000m battle. This German crew plays second fiddle to their country’s eight but still want to show their worth at the international level and they raced with the heads and hearts. Spain still year for a World Champion title but continue to battle away on the edge of the best. New Zealand, who joined in the German-Spain challenge, are this year’s under-23 World Champions. At the line Germany held on to first with a very happy Spanish crew taking second.

Results: GER, ESP, NZL, GRE, POL, CRO

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – B-final

Two of these athletes raced at the Beijing Olympics; Frida Svensson of Sweden and Iva Obradovic of Serbia. Today Obradovic showed her ability to handle these rough conditions with a convincing win to put her seventh in the world. Obradovic’s rowing has taken her through the under-23s as well as a stint at an American university. Svensson had to be satisfied with third after Juliane Domscheit of Germany pulled out a huge second 1000m helped on by her coach, Buschbacher following the race on his bike and yelling encouragement. Domscheit finished second.

Results: SRB, GER, SWE, POL, EST (BEL did not start for medical reasons)

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – B-final

Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez was very disappointed not to make the A-final and he vowed to win today’s B-final. With that Fournier got out in front at the start and aimed to hold off any challenges. Fournier was still in the lead coming into the final sprint but he had been unable to break away from four other boats. The only boat out of the picture was the United States who never really recovered from a crab at the half way point. In the final sprint, Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania was able to draw away and sprint across the line in first.

Results: LTU, GRE, SWE, CUB, ARG, USA

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – B-final

Three boats still had a chance of taking first with half of the race gone. Who had the energy in store to do it in the second half? Vlastimil Cabla and Vojtech Bejblik of the Czech Republic had it. Cabla and Bejblik gained nearly a boat length lead through the third-500 and this was enough of a margin for them to hold off all challenges with a 37 stroke rate sprint. They finish seventh overall.

Results: CZE, GER, SUI, JPN, USA

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – B-final

The one leading at the start is very often not the one winning at the other end. Hungary nearly pulled off a race from behind. But the Hungarian duo ran out of water when the leading Cubans (Yoslaine Domingues Cedeno and Yaima Velazquez Falcon) were able to hold them off.  Hungary finishes second.

Results: CUB, HUN, NED, DEN, USA (SWE did not start)

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – B-final

Greece may not have had the best semifinal race, but they made up for it today by leading from start to finish in fine form. Georgios Konsolas comes to these World Rowing Championships after finishing fourth in the double at the under-23 championships Konsolas has teamed up with stroke Dimitrios Mougios and together they finish seventh overall at the senior level. Behind them a very slow starting Denmark managed to pull their socks up through the race and come from last to second.

Results: GRE, DEN, SRB, POR, CUB, RSA

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – B-final

After the semifinals in this event there was little doubt that the B-final would be a hotly contested race. Japan has been racing well all week. Switzerland has been recording some good results. The Czechs and Spain are both formidable crews. Today Spain grabbed the bull by the horns and jumped into the lead. Stroked by Marc Franquet Montfort, Spain found themselves on the defensive when the Czech Republic did a big piece through the second 500. Where was Japan and the United States? The best that these two crews had must have been lost in earlier races. They looked exhausted. Spain, meanwhile, charged on through to take first and finish seventh overall.

Results: ESP, CZE, SUI, JPN, CAN, USA

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – B-final

Despite this being a two boat race, the two crews found plenty to keep them motivated. Belarus had the lead at the start, but New Zealand did not agree with this position. Going through the middle of the race, New Zealand, stroked by Harriet Austin managed to squeeze past. Now in the lead the Kiwis came into their own and took off. A 36 stroke rate at the finish gave New Zealand an open water lead, with Belarus, on 33 looking disheartened.

Results: NZL, BLR

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – B-final

Through this week Ukraine have been showing much potential and today they led the B-final. Behind Ukraine was Olympic Champion Iztok Cop in the Slovenian boat and also Olympic Champion Sergey Fedorovtsev in the Russian boat. But, despite this talent Ukraine remained in the lead. This event has proved to be tight all week and coming into the final 500m the B-final was no exception. Ukraine found themselves under increasing pressure from Slovenia. Cop had taken his boat’s rating to 42 and with 20m of water remaining, Slovenia got the lead.

Results: SLO, UKR, RUS, EST, CZE, USA

Women’s Eight (W8+) – B-final

A head-to-head two boat race is some of the toughest racing psychologically. If one boat gets behind it takes a lot of will-power to get back up. Belarus was behind Poland but they never gave up. For 2000m Belarus tried to close the gap. Poland, however, with the support of the crowd, managed to just hold off Belarus. Poland had to use a 40 stroke rate at the end to manage this feat.

Results: POL, BLR

Men’s Eight (M8+) – B-final

Australia did not come to the other side of the world to do badly. But racing in the B-final indicated the depth of talent in the men’s eight event.  This new Australian crew got out of the start just behind Ukraine and were soon able to pull into first, driven on by coxswain Toby Lister. By the half way point Australia had earned a slight margin leaving Ukraine to fight with the United States. As the end of the race came into sight both the United States and Ukraine upped their stroke rate to 39. This forced Australia to do the same. The Australians remained in front.

Results: AUS, UKR, USA, RUS