Better water, fast heats at World Champs

Despite the races being heats, crews fought hard with some races not decided until the final stroke. Great Britain and Germany went right to the line in the women’s quad while the thousands of spectators loudly cheered their local crew, the New Zealand men’s four, when they beat arch-rivals, Australia to the line. Croatia’s men’s quad showed their ever-increasing talent as their finishing time got remarkably close to a World Best Time.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – heats

Two heats in the women’s quadruple sculls opened today’s racing with the top boat only from each heat advancing directly to the finals. And what a race it was in heat one. Germany and Great Britain took it right to the line and to a photo finish when they challenged each other for the full 2000m. Great Britain and Germany have been after each other throughout the season but this is the first time that Olympic silver medallists, Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton for Great Britain, have made it back in the boat.

Great Britain opened as leaders followed very closely by Germany and New Zealand. Then through the middle of the race there was nothing between the British and the Germans. It remained tight in the final sprint with the two crews level, Great Britain rating 35 and Germany on 34. It was decided in the last stroke with just 1/10 of a second separating them. Great Britain earns a spot in the final.

Ukraine are the reigning World Champions and this boat is the priority in the squad. Today they raced in heat two and they made very sure that this would be their race. Ukraine has two changes from their World Champion crew, Kozhenkova and Dementieva are joined by Tarasenko and Buryak. But Australia’s new line-up challenged hard and managed to get their nose in front of Ukraine coming into the last 500m of the race. This took Ukraine a bit by surprise, but they fought back. Ukraine earns a spot in the final.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – heats

Yesterday these athletes all got on the water before increasing wind caused their race to be cancelled. Today the three heats came back to the waters of Lake Karapiro to aim for a top two spot for a direct path to the semifinals. Heat one featured the return of Olympic Champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Great Britain. Purchase and Hunter got back together earlier this season recording mixed results. Today they stamped their mark by dominating their heat, so much so that the crew did not have to sprint at the end. Purchase’s girlfriend, Fliss Hill used Twitter to say how nervous she was watching the race.

The only crew that could get even slightly close to the British was France’s Jeremie Azou and Remi Di Girolamo who, surprisingly, was a good distance ahead of the talented Germans. Great Britain and France advance to the semifinals.

Current World Champions, Storm Uru and Peter Taylor of New Zealand earned the fastest qualifying time of the three heats when they raced out in front in heat two. Uru and Taylor have been together since 2008 when they raced at the Olympics, but a disappointing result inspired them to keep going through to London 2012. Today their greatest threat for the lead was Lorenzo Bertini and the very experienced Elia Luini of Italy. Both crews remained in the mid 30s stroke rate through the body of the race with Italy perhaps one pip higher. But it was all about New Zealand. At the finish Uru and Taylor had qualified with the fastest time, and just seven seconds outside of the World Best Time. Italy qualify from second.

We are going to be seeing a lot more of the signature bandanas worn by Douglas Vandor and Cameron Sylvester of Canada. Vandor and Sylvester led heat three from start to finish using a 35 stroke rate through the body of the race. Behind them sat Portugal’s Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes. Fraga and Mendes are the heroes of Portuguese rowing after medalling in September at the European Championships. They are hoping to be the first Olympic medal in rowing for Portugal in two years time. No one challenged these two leading boats and Canada and Portugal move on to the semifinals.

Men’s Four (M4-) – heats

Two heats in the men’s four meant that crews had to finish first if they wanted to go directly to the final.

Heat one, however, opened with France jumping out into the lead. The very strong British crew of Langridge, Gregory, Egington and Partridge stuck with the French and a piece at the 750m gave the British the leading edge. But the French, Macquet, Chardin, Despres and Mortelette were unrelenting. The two crews fought together through the middle of the race leaving the rest of the field behind. With Great Britain just in the lead as the closing buoys came into view, France charged. Mortelette took the stroke rate to 43 then 45. Great Britain held them off and take the only qualifying spot.

Australia’s new four took off in the lead of heat two and going through the middle of the race had retained a small margin over China with Greece, the United States and New Zealand practically on top of each other. But all was to change in the final sprint. As the large crowd on the banks of Karapiro let out a roar, New Zealand’s young crew charged. Uru, Watson, Burson and Eade of New Zealand soaked up that energy and this relatively unseeded crew took line honours at a 40 stroke rate pace with the United States also overtaking Australia. New Zealand books themselves a spot in the final. A problem in the German boat (a broken steering shoe) before the 500m mark left them at the back of the field.

After the race the Australian crew commented that they were happy to have another race as they were still getting used to the new line up which has only been together for four weeks.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – heats

In the absence of World Champions, Poland, so far this season the leading boat will have to be Croatia who raced in the second of two heats. This left heat one a reasonably open slate. Germany’s Gruhne, Grohmann, Schoof and Rocher made the best of it leaping out into the lead. Russia followed in second with the United States keeping their oar in. The upright style of the Germans kept them in the lead and coming through the second half of the race they had built a very handy lead. This left a huge battle between China and Russia. It is not often that Robert Treharne Jones gets excited during heats, but the closeness of Russia and China was hard to understate. It took Russia until the final stroke to confirm their position. Germany and Russia move on to the final.

Heat two, though, saw an expression of awesome talent. Croatia, who are the current under-23 champions, got out ahead at the start with Australia trying their best to hold on. Sain, Martin and the Sinkovic brothers from Croatia came together in 2009 and they have not looked back. Right from that time they knew there was something special. Australia’s Noonan, McRae, Crawshay and Forsterling gave it their best and pulled out a 39 stroke rate sprint at the end. But Croatia was ready, raising their rate to 40. Croatia and Australia are the two boats going directly to the final, Croatia with a time just five seconds outside of a World Best Time.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) – heats

A solid field of 18 countries was divided into three heats for this event with the top crews being seeded, and therefore evenly spread, amongst these three heats. Today’s job for these crews was to finish in the top two spots for a direct path to the semifinals.

China took everyone by surprise in heat one. As is common in the lightweight four, all six crews jumped out together and it took until the half way point for some sort of order to be sorted out. At this point Germany, Australia and China were neck-and-neck and had moved slightly ahead with Denmark trying to hold on. This remained the case coming into the final sprint as all crews charged. Usually this is where Denmark shines, but today it was China. Taking their stroke rate to 44 then 46, China crossed the line first. Germany managed to stay just ahead of Denmark to be the second qualifying boat. China’s race earn them the fastest qualifying time.

Great Britain has had a very positive season and today, in heat two, they showed that they were off to a good start at these World Rowing Championships. Bartley, Williams, Mattick and Chambers  of Great Britain led from start to finish with the main threats coming from France and the Netherlands. The Dutch and France came into the final sprint practically on top of each other, but a better sprint by the Netherlands got them into second to qualify with Great Britain also qualifying from first.

Switzerland has been the big surprise this season and this small rowing nation finally got an international medal in an Olympic event when this crew finished third at the European Championships. Schuerch, Tramer, Niepmann and Gyr are coached by Olympic Champion, Tim Foster (GBR), who brought his Swiss team to New Zealand three weeks before these World Champs to acclimatise at the small lakeside township of Mangakino. Today they raced at the head of the field in heat three with their biggest challenge coming from the unknown United States crew. The US showed what they had by overtaking Switzerland coming into the close of the race. The Swiss fought back and Switzerland and the United States finish in front qualifyinf themselves to the semifinal.

Men’s Pair (M2-) – heats

The three heats in the men’s pair saw crews aiming for a top three spot for a chance to go directly to the semifinals. This event has seen a battle going on since 2009 between Great Britain’s Andrew Triggs Hodge  and Pete Reed and New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. These two crews were seeded into heat one and two respectively. Reed and Hodge were first up in heat one and they stamped their powerful dominance by getting out into front and working up to a clear water lead of the rest of the field. Spain, South Africa, France and Germany looked totally outclassed. Reed and Hodge made it look easy, rating 35 through the body of the race and making no changes in the final sprint.  This left South Africa, France and Germany to fight for the remaining two spots. Andreas Kuffner and Eric Johannesen of Germany proved to be the best sprinters with France’s new duo of Sebastien Lente and Adrien Hardy getting the better of South Africa.

Murray and Bond lined up in heat two and followed a similar pattern to the British. The New Zealand duo got out in front and moved a huge distance ahead of the rest of the field. The British and New Zealanders are definitely in a class of their own. Serbia’s Marko Marjanovic and Nikola Stojic and Deaglan McEachern and Ryan Monaghan of the United States take out the remaining qualifying spots.
Italy’s Lorenzo Carboncini and Niccolo Mornati, in their first season together, look to be improving with every international race and today they led heat three with Greece’s Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou the closest challengers. At the European Championships in September, Greece and Italy finished first – second. Would the order reverse today? Coming into the final sprint Tziallas and Christou put their foot on the gas and took off. Carboncini and Mornati let them go. Greece qualify from first, Italy from second and Slovenia’s Rok Kolander and Tomaz Pirih come through in third.