World Rowing Cup, Day 2 - Repechages and Semis

by Melissa Bray, FISA and Rowing-World on 17 Jun 2006 Current World Champions, Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh were surprisingly unable to make the A Final for the Womens Pair in Round 2 of the Rowing World Cup at Poznan, Poland overnight. The Womens Eight were also relegated to the B Final. the other four New Zealand crews progressed to the A finals of their events, which will race tonight (NZT).

Ideal conditions prevailed with barely a whisper of a crosswind opened the afternoon of semifinal racing at the second Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland. The jump in standard from yesterday’s heats meant that some of the finishing sprints saw above 40 stroke rates being hit and the loss of dominance by some world champions.

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – Semifinals
It takes a certain personality to put in the long miles alone in a single. It absolutely suits some. In semifinal one current World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand came to this event after racing at the Olympics in the four and had instant success. Sitting in the next lane, Alan Campbell of Great Britain moved from last year’s seventh placed quad and this year had instant success in the single winning the first Rowing World Cup of the season last month in Munich, Germany. Today Campbell met Drysdale for the first time since training together last year.

In a battle of the minds, Campbell got an early lead only to have Drysdale push past and setting into the lead. Campbell, however, kept close tabs on Drysdale and using the same sprint that gave him the gold at Munich, Campbell got his rating up to 41 then 43. Drysdale looked calm, responding with a 39. At the line Drysdale had the edge – finishing just four seconds outside the World Best Time. Campbell goes through to the final from second and Argentina’s Ariel Suarez, 26, moves to his first ever senior A Final.

The second semifinal began with Cuba’s Yoennis Hernandez off the line first, before the seasoned German Marcel Hacker moved into the lead. Hacker has raced inconsistently over the last couple of years, but this year he seems to have found a new calm. This left Olaf Tufte of Norway and Sweden’s Lassi Karonen to battle it out for second. Tufte and Karonen are frequent training partners and the more seasoned Tufte popped his rating up to 41 for about 10 strokes just before the line to take second with Karonen qualifying in third.

Women’s Pair (W2-) – Semifinals
The new German mix looks to be working. Coach Ralf Holtmeyer swapped Munich Rowing World Cup line-ups and here at Poznan boated Nicole Zimmermann with Elke Hipler. He then put Maren Derlien and Christina Gerking together. Today the Germans took off at the head of semifinal one and stayed there for the majority of the race. But coming into the final sprint 2005 World Champions Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh broke into the German party followed closely by Annemarieke van Rumpt and Annemiek de Haan of the Netherlands.

Coming into the final sprint Zimmermann and Hipler had the edge with New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany’s second crew going for the photo finish. New Zealand missed out. Both German crews and the sole Dutch entry at this Rowing World Cup advance to the final.

They came all of the way to Europe and ended racing each other. A fleet of four pairs from Australia made up semifinal two. Made up of the Australian eight that will race later in the year at the World Rowing Championships, the Australians finished in the order of their ranking. First across the line, Emily Martin and Sarah Heard, followed in second by Amber Bradley and Kate Hornsey, then in third Kim Crow and Sarah Cook. Denmark and China, also racing, were boxed out by the gold and green.

Men’s pair (M2-) – Semifinals
Yongquiang Zhang and Xiangdang Wang of China continue to surprise. They showed their finishing sprint ability at Munich and today they demonstrated that they have been working on their starts. Getting out to a lead over World Champions Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater of New Zealand, Zhang and Wang tried to hold on, but were soon swallowed up by the New Zealanders followed by Jochen Urban and Adreas Penkner of Germany who come to the pair after racing to gold at Munich in the eight. China held on and it wasn’t until the final sprint that New Zealand (rating 39) and Germany (getting up to 43 strokes per minute), holding their own personal battle, managed to shake the Chinese.
New Zealand, Germany and China go through to the final.

The late arrival to Europe of family man Drew Ginn of Australia and partner Duncan Free hasn’t seem to have done them any harm. They took the lead in semifinal two and kept ahead of Munich winners, Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic of Serbia & Montenegro. Free comes to the pair after an entire international career as a sculler including three Olympic Games in the quad. But rowing with Ginn gives the look of the Tomkins and Ginn combination. Long, rhythmic, flowing strokes meant that the Australian duo looked effortless at 33.
Jagar and Stojic held on to second and Germany’s second boat of Jan-Martin Broer and Matthias Flach take the third and final qualifying spot.

Women’s double (W2x) – Semifinals
Current World and Olympic Champions, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand, like to be in the lead, especially when racing Australians. Today they got handed a double dose as Australia broke their quad down into doubles and presented the biggest threat to the New Zealanders.

Catriona Sens and Sonia Mills are teamed up for first time this year with Sens coming back after a post-Athens break where she raced in the ill-fated women’s eight. Mills just started rowing five years ago and has been working her way up the team ranks. Today, behind the Evers-Swindell twins, they battled with the other half of their quad, Dana Faletic and Sally Kehoe. None of the three crews seemed very prepared to sprint, being under no threat from Germany in fourth. An Australasian sweep goes through to the final.

In semifinal two, three boats got off the line at a solid pace together. Munich winners Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington of Great Britain had the edge. Qin Li and Liang Tian of China held on closely in second. Yana Dementieva and Natalia Ryzhkova of Ukraine, who did very well yesterday in their heat against New Zealand, followed in third. The order remained the same through the body of the race, but the margin between the three crews was so small none could be complacent. Coming into the final sprint a large group of British supporters rose in excitement. Vernon and Bebington had won and move onto the final with China and Ukraine.

Men’s Four (M4-) – Repechages
Two repechages with the top two boats advancing to the final meant that two boats would miss out in each race. Ireland led repechage one with the Czech Republic very much within striking distance. The Irish, coached by former Australian coach Harald Jahrling, finished ninth at Munich and look to be taking a step up as they led the field. But the Czech Republic, stroked by 21-year-old Olympian Karel Neffe were keeping the Irish very much in check. Coming into the final sprint World Best Time holders Germany tried to get into qualifying position. Their sprint came too late. Ireland and the Czech Republic advance.

Repechage two was not so close. Slovenia, in the lead, consistently make the A Finals but rarely seem to be able to get a medal. Will their fortune change in Poznan? With enough of a lead to feel comfortable, Slovenia was able to watch Poland battle with Ireland’s second crew. At the line the Polish had the edge over Ireland. Slovenia and Poland move on to the final.

Women’s Eight (W8+) – Repechages
A large field of women’s eights introduced a number of younger crews to senior competition, but mixed into Great Britain’s boat, in stroke seat was Olympic medallist and two-time Olympian, Elise Laverick. The experience of Laverick must have helped as the British crew worked their way up from the back of the