Munich World Cup struck by early season injury and illness

This seems to be heightened in an Olympic year when athletes are pushed even harder in training and selection processes. For this morning of races athletes faced some head winds, especially in the first half of the Munich regatta courses, with clear skies and temperatures starting in the low teens then rising to about 23 in the afternoon.

Lightweight women’s single (LW1x) – Repechage

Leaving the lightweight double on the shelf for now (due to an injury with her partner), New Zealand’s Candice Hammond made the best of the single by overtaking Neylan Ozturk of Turkey and prying herself further into the lead. With the top three boats advancing to the semifinal, Hammond’s win was purely academic but it showed that any jetlag had been shaken off. Ozturk advances from second and Ibtissem Trimech of Tunisia stayed ahead of Portugal to take the third spot. Trimech has qualified for the Olympics through the African qualification regatta and will race there in the open women’s single as the lightweight single is not an Olympic event.

Lightweight men’s single (LM1x) – Repechage

Setting the pace in these head wind conditions was Barbaros Gozutok of Turkey. Gozutok had just a fraction of an advantage over Takahiro Suda of Japan. Suda has been in and out of his country’s top boat, the lightweight men’s double. At the moment he is out so the single has become his goal and with just 500m left to row Suda had the lead. But while Gozutok and Suda were focused on each other, Juliusz Madecki of Austria was sneaking up the side. Using a massive sprint Madecki gained the lead. Madecki has been plugging away at the international level for 10 years now. Perhaps this is his year. Madecki, Suda and Gozutok go on to the semifinal.

Lightweight men’s pair (LM2-) – Heats

This non-Olympic event is often used as a development boat for those on the edge of breaking into their country’s lightweight four. It is raced mainly by the big rowing nations and at Munich, the big rowing nations were out in force. In heat one of two heats only first position would advance to the final and it was Matt Beechey and Rob Williams of Great Britain that showed themselves at the start. Beechey raced to fifth in this event last year and he goes into a new season with a new partner. Challenging Beechey and Williams was the French duo of Jeremy Pouge (formerly from his country’s lightweight four) and partner Vincent Faucheux. Pouge and Faucheux continued to hunt down the Brits, but Beechey and Williams managed to just hold them off and will move on to the final.

The second heat featured the young but very accomplished duo, last year’s under-23 and World Champions, Andrea Caianiello and Armando Dell’Aquila of Italy. Could anyone beat this duo? The Italians jumped out to an early lead with the only real challenge coming from Kasper Winther and Morten Joergensen of Denmark. Keeping an overlap on the Italians into the last 500m, Denmark upped their rating and attacked Caianiello and Dell’Aquila. The Italians reacted to the 41 stroke rate pace. But Denmark had broken the World Champions who stopped just before the line. Joergensen and Winther go directly to the final.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Quarterfinals

Four quarterfinals with the top three places going through to the next round, the semifinals, was the formula here. World Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus opened the proceedings and it’s not often that you see Karsten spending eight and a half minutes to cover 2000m. Today that’s all she needed to cross the line in first. Italy’s Gabriella Bascelli of Italy spent eight minutes and forty seconds to also qualify with Sanne Beukers of the Netherlands coming through in third under no pressure for that final qualifying spot.

Right from the sound of “go” Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic had this race well under control. With just 500m rowed Knapkova was a complete boat length ahead of her nearest rival. That rival began as Julia Michalska of Poland and then was replaced by France’s Sophie Balmary. Rating in the high 20s Knapkova crossed the line under no pressure. A laboured and higher rating Balmary crossed in second and Michalska takes third.

She may be 2007 bronze medallist but in quarterfinal three Michelle Guerette of the United States found herself behind the less experienced Iva Obradovic of Serbia. Obradovic, though, has been building a rowing pedigree. She is a former under-23 champion and has spent some of her rowing career racing for a United States university. Today Obradovic led the race with Guerette back in second and China’s Olympic representative, Xiuyun Zhang looking content to sit in third. The pace was not hurried in the last 500m and Obradovic, Guerette and Zhang go to the semifinal.

Frida Svensson of Sweden, World Rowing’s athlete of the month for April, headed off at the front of quarterfinal four. But the Swede was soon reined back in by New Zealand’s Emma Twigg. Twigg, 21, is last year’s under-23 champion and with that result was given the ok to go to the senior World Championships. There she finished sixth, qualifying for Beijing. Today Twigg and Svensson battled it out until the finish, Twigg taking first, Svensson second. But the big surprise was number two in the world, Rumyana Neykova seemed to be content to finish third. Her time, a slow 8:43 for the race.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Repechages

The top boat of each of yesterday’s nine heats moved on to the semifinal and the rest returned for today’s repechage. This left 28 boats spread very thinly over 9 races. The top boat in each of these races then got to go on to the semifinal. In a number of the races the final result was determined within the first 500m. Repechage one definitely had this flavour. Anderson Nocetti of Brazil established himself in the lead. Nocetti qualified for the Olympics last year through the South American qualification regatta where he finished first and today he continues his build up to Beijing by securing a semifinal spot.

In repechage two the word was that Ireland’s Sean Jacob was not 100 per cent. This left little competition for Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania who crossed the line far ahead of the rest of the field. Repechage three presented slightly more competitive interest with Arnold Sobczak of Poland taking an early lead. But rather than some hefty racing, it seemed like Sobczak did not have much of a second 1000 in him. This gave the steady Damir Martin of Croatia the chance to take the lead and take the qualifying spot.

Only two boats lined up in repechage four. Olympian Santiago Fernandez of Argentina pulled out this morning due to illness. There was no competition between the remaining two boats – Slovenia and Greece. Slovenia’s Andraz Krek totally outclassed Greece and was able to cruise through to the finish.

Repechage five featured Ralph Kreibich of Austria. He faced off against Patrick Loliger, Mexico’s Olympic representative in this event. Kreibich has been Austria’s top single sculler for the last seven years and his international rowing career goes back 16 years, but the Austrian is yet to make an Olympic Games. Loliger kept Kreibich honest, keeping the pressure on until the end. Kreibich, however, did just enough to hold Loliger off and goes to the semifinal.

There was not a lot Liang Zhang of China had to do to earn the semifinal spot from repechage six. The recent Olympic qualifier (from the Asian Olympic Qualification Regatta), Zhang got out in front and stretched out to an open water lead over France in second. Zhang will be in the semifinal.

Monaco and Cyprus were right on the coat tails of Michal Sloma of Poland for the opening 500m in repechage seven. But while Sloma retained his pace Mathias Raymond of Monaco began to slip back, and although giving it a good shot, Sloma will be the boat in the semifinal.

Last year’s junior champion, Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Bulgaria took off at a huge opening pace in yesterday’s heat. It didn’t pay off. So today, in repechage eight, Aleksandrov chose to start more conservatively and let Chile take the early lead. In the second half of the race Aleksandrov began to pull Chile in. With 500m left to row Aleksandrov was in the semifinal qualifying spot.

Does Great Britain have another top single sculler in the making? In repechage nine, Charles Cousins of Great Britain went head to head with Aliaksandr Novikau of Belarus and came out the better. Cousins will join fellow countryman, Alan Campbell in the semifinal.

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Repechages

This race was all about earning a spot in the semifinal. There were three chances and five boats. Zsuzsana Francia and Anna Goodale of the United States got away the fastest earning a solid lead over Germany and Denmark. Francia and Goodale are the second boat for the US and with Olympic selection still going on they may end up in their country’s eight or pair for the Olympic Games. Today they took a positive step forwards by winning the repechage despite a good push coming from Lea Jakobsen and Fie Graugaard of Denmark. Denmark go to the semifinal from second and Italy also make the semifinal after moving up from the back of the field to take third.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – Repechages

The repechage of the men’s pair saw 20 crews racing in four races with the top two from each race earning a spot in the semifinal. Three German crews featured in these repechages with this regatta being used as part of the German national team selection process. Illness, however, had kept Germany Two from racing leaving just four boats in repechage one. This left Germany One of Felix Drahotta and Tom Lehmann to lead the way. After shaking off the fast starting Poles, Drahott and Lehmann took to the lead keeping a wary eye out for China Two, two lanes over. As Poland saw their qualifying chances slip away, Germany held on to take first with China’s Lin Wu and Shunyin Zhang finishing second.

In Great Britain the men’s four rules supreme. This means that if there is an illness (as is the case at this regatta) a rower is pulled either from the pair or the eight. In Great Britain’s number two boat Tom Parker and Thomas Burton have not been together long. But they gave it their best in repechage two despite a tough challenge from Bryan Volpenhein and Jason Reid of the United States. Both Reid and Volpenhein are Olympic Champions after being part of the 2004 Olympic men’s eight, Volpenhein in stroke, and Reid in bow. Both have taken bits of time off from rowing since then, but they are back and checking out their boat speed. The new South African combination of rowing stalwart Ramon Di Clemente and newcomer Shaun Keeling were also hard in on the chase, but a slow start lost them the potential semifinal opportunity. Great Britain in first and the United States in second qualify.

Never underestimate the power of experience. The Czech Republic’s Vaclav Chalupa proved this in repechage three. Chalupa, 41, has teamed up with Jakub Makovicka and they have Olympic qualifying on their mind. The Czech’s got ahead of Yongqiang Zhang and Xiangdang Wang of China to finish first and with the fastest qualifying time of these four races. The Czechs and China are in the semifinal.

A withdrawal for illness by Australia meant that repechage four had just four boats lining up. Germany took off in the lead before the more experienced Italians, Raffaello Leonardo and Giuseppe De Vita made it to the front. Serbia’s Olympic qualified boat of Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic challenged Italy through the middle of the race but could only get into second. Fifty metres before the line the Serbians felt comfortable enough to take the pressure down. Italy and Serbia will go to the semifinal.