Finally… the world champs begin

The World Rowing Championships were last raced in New Zealand 32 years ago and the late 31 October start is to make the most of warmer southern hemisphere weather. But, after a week of flat, calm water, today was not so favourable.

The strong tail wind conditions meant for relatively fast times, but tough technical rowing, for the five races that got out of the starting blocks. The heats of the lightweight men’s pair and lightweight women’s double sculls managed to be completed.

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – heats

It was up to crews to finish first if they wanted a direct path to the final in these two heats of the lightweight men’s pair and heat one featured a new New Zealand pairing of Graham Oberlin-Brown and James Lassche. The New Zealanders made the most of local training knowledge by handling the lumpy conditions the best. Oberlin-Brown, an under-23 World Champion who trains on Lake Karapiro and grew up locally. He is the more experienced member of the duo with Lassche first racing internationally as a junior in 2007.

After New Zealand pushed past current World Champions, Fabien Tilliet and Jean-Christophe Bette of France, they left nothing to chance and moved away from Tilliet and Bette.

Oberlin-Brown and Lassche earn a spot in Friday’s final as the favourites to win this event with a very quick time of 6:33  – the fastest qualifying time.

A fast start by Great Britain in heat two gave them the lead but it didn’t last long with Daniel Wisgott and Lars Wichert of Germany pushing through to the front. Wisgott and Wichert are a last minute pairing but both have been racing a good chunk of time in different boats internationally both coming through from their country's under-23 ranks. Italy (last year’s silver medallists) fought back hard, but the German’s remained in control to their cross the line a good boat length ahead of Italy. Wisgott and Wichert move directly to the finals. All other crews will return for repechages on Tuesday.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Heats

This season has seen three international races in the Rowing World Cup series and three different winners of this event. The Americans came out burning in World Cup I to win. Then they retreated to continue training in the United States. Great Britain’s Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking then won World Cup II with Australia’s Alice McNamara and Hannah Every-Hall winning World Cup III. Today 16 countries lined up divided into three heats with the top two from each heat earning a spot in the semifinal.

Heat one had the British, Hosking and Goodsell, handling the conditions admirably with McNamara and Every-Hall suffering at the back of the field. New Zealand and Austria followed closely behind Hosking and Goodsell who rated a very steady 30 strokes per minute through the body of the race. Austria’s boat of Michaela Taupe-Traer and Manuela Laimboek blend a mixture of rowing longevity and young talent in their boat. They held on to the British and in the process managed to shake off the New Zealanders. Great Britain and Austria advance to the semifinal.

Lindsay Jennerich and Tracy Cameron of Canada are a new combination this season with Cameron coming back to international rowing after a post-Olympic break. Cameron won bronze in this event at the 2008 Olympics and then teamed up with Jennerich this year. They raced in Heat two against last year’s World Champions, Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece. The Greeks had the upper hand at the start but could not manage to shake Canada. Going through the half way point there was nothing between these two leading crews. Jennerich and Cameron then managed to pull away to finish first. Both Canada and Greece advance to the semifinals with the two fastest qualifying times.

At the first Rowing World Cup this season Ursula Grobler and Abelyn Broughton of the United States burst onto the international scene together winning comfortably. Today they lined up in Heat three against Daniela Reimer and Anja Noske of Germany. Germany has a strong tradition in this event with a boat nearly always making the final at big regattas. Today Reimer and Noske sat just behind the Americans for the entire 2000m race.

Grobler and Broughton, rating 31 through the body of the race, looked like their superior strength in the second half of the stroke was holding them in their place. The United States and Germany take out the two semifinal qualifying spots.

After the race the German double, Reimer and Noske, commented that they had never done so much talking during a race as the challenging conditions meant that the racing became very technical. They also commented that they could hear all other crews talking much more than in other races.