WRC Day 1- Five out of six win Heats

by Rob Bristow on 21 Aug 2006 The first day of racing at the 2006 World Rowing Championships produced some surprises but not in the New Zealand camp.

Conditions were ideal with a cross tail wind helping the crews to some good times. For the New Zealanders only the women's pair of Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh will go through the repechages which start on Tuesday.

Duncan Grant opened the New Zealand account with a win in his heat of the men's lightweight single scull. In the early stages only Pappas (GRE) was able to stay with him. A couple of confident pieces between 500 and 1000 gave him the breathing space he needed and while the Greek came back in the final 500 Duncan maintained control and progresses directly to the A/B semifinals. With the GBR winner from Lucerne, and one of the pre-race favourites in the first heat I believe Duncan will avoid him in the semis. Other Heat winners were Spain and Slovenia.

In the men's single Mahe Drysdale progressed directly to the semis with a good win. He had the measure of Karonen throughout the race moving away at each split. The other heats were won in ominous style by Hacker (GER), Tufte (NOR)
and Synek (CZE). Hacker was extremely quick through the first 1000 and Synek was the quickest to 1500. In the semis Mahe should be up against Synek.

Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh in the women's pair just missed the cut with a second placing behind the German combination of Zimmerman and Hipler. They fought off a fast finishing USA combination with their usual grit and determination to ensure that they are the leading crew going into their repechage.

In the men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle had a difficult start. The starter called the 'Attention' and then there was no hooter. After what seemed an eternity the Georgian crew broke and the rest of the field followed. There was a recall and the Georgians were given 'a yellow
Card' - football terms get into everything eventually - I would have to say that the wait was so long and a garbled comment by the starter indicated that there had been a system malfunction as no hooted sounded, only the general
recall siren.

Once the drama was over, 'take 2' went without a hitch and the New Zealander shot out of the blocks. The Canadians, in the lane along side them, went as well, as did the Germans who led the field at the 500. NZL overhauled GER by the 1000 and CAN come though by the 1500 to take second spot and also qualify directly to the A/B semifinals. The other hot favourites Ginn/Free (AUS) and Cech/Di Clemente (RSA) also qualified comfortably.

In the Women's Double scull the usual group of countries are snapping at the heals of Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell. While the twins were unchallenged in their heat and qualify directly to the A/B Semi, the much fancied and promoted GBR combination of Bebington and Vernon were out gunned from start to finish by the Chinese crew. Australia and the USA are also in the semis mix with qualification from their heat.

The final race of the day was a humdinger with the New Zealand four (Eric Murray, Selwyn Cleland, Carl Meyer and Hamish Bond), Canada and Germany fighting it out for the semifinal qualification. But two into three don't go, and someone was always going to miss out. In the end it was the Canadians who missed out. They had led the race to the 1500 with NZL second and GER third. With the 150+NZL supporters on their feet and the thunderous call for the Kiwis, Eric upped the rate and pushed through CAN and GER were pulled through with them.