MUNICH, Germany - The U.S. women's double sculls tandem of Danika Holbrook and Michelle Guerette won its semifinal to highlight Friday's racing, the second day of competition at the 2004 BearingPoint Rowing World Cup Regatta in Munich, Germany. In total, the U.S. will have seven crews racing for medals in Saturday's finals of the second world cup stop of the season.
In the semifinals of the women's double sculls, both U.S. crews advanced to Saturday's finals. In the second semifinal, Holbrook (Durham, N.H.) and Guerette (Bristol, Conn.) earned the victory, clocking a 7:12.96 to defeat Great Britain by 1.69 seconds. The duo sat in third position at the 1,000-meter mark before taking control during the third quarter of the race. China finished third, followed by Hungary, China and the Czech Republic. In the first semifinal, Kelly Salchow (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Hilary Gehman (Wolfeboro, N.H.) finished third in a time of 7:09.17. New Zealand's Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell won the first semifinal, stroking a 7:02.88. Germany finished second in a 7:08.06. Italy, France, and the Ukraine finished in fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. The top three finishers from each semifinal advanced to the final, meaning that all four U.S. women will race twice on Saturday as they also reached the final of the women's quadruple sculls by winning their heat on Thursday.
Two of the three U.S. entries in the women's pair field advanced to Saturday's final. Racing in the second repechage, Lianne Nelson (Seattle, Wash.) and Caryn Davies (Ithaca, N.Y.) clocked a 7:29.27 to hold off France's Virginie Chauvel and Sophie Balmary by 0.40 seconds for the victory. The U.S. tandem jumped out to a quick start and led the race at each of the 500-meter splits. In the first repechage, Maite Urtasun (Riverside, N.J.) and Liane Malcos (Carlisle, Mass.) finished second, while Kate MacKenzie (Novi, Mich.) and Katie Hammes (La Crosse, Wis.) finished third. Urtasun and Malcos clocked a 7:29.76 to finish 1.4 seconds behind China's Huanling Cong and Cuiping Yang. MacKenzie and Hammes, who sat in second position for much of the race, finished in a 7:35.12. The top two finishers from each repechage will join Canada and Great Britain in Saturday's final. MacKenzie and Hammes now will race in Final B, which determines places 7-12.
By virtue of winning the event at USRowing's National Selection Regatta 2 in April, the lightweight women's double sculls duo of Stacey Borgman (Homer, Alaska) and Sarah Hirst (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) had the opportunity to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games by finishing in the top four in Munich. Unfortunately, the tandem finished fourth in its semifinal on Friday, failing to reach the final. The lightweight women's double sculls will now be opened up to the second set of Olympic Trials, which will be held June 26-July 1 in West Windsor. On Friday, Borgman and Hirst got off the line slowly in the first of two semifinals and sat in fifth position at the 1,000-meter mark. Although they were able to move up to fourth place, they could not catch Germany for the third and last qualifying spot for the final. Canada's Mara Jones and Fiona Milne won the race in a 6:59.41, followed by China and Germany. The U.S. duo clocked a 7:04.56, finishing 1.34 seconds behind Germany. Borgman and Hirst now will race in the B final, which determines places 7-12.
Like Borgman and Hirst, the men's double sculls tandem of Henry Nuzum (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Aquil Abdullah (Washington, D.C.) also had the opportunity to make the Olympic team by finishing in the top four in Munich. Once again, the duo finished fourth in their semifinal, knocking them out of the final and the chance to earn an automatic spot on the Olympic team. As with the lightweight women's double sculls, the men's double sculls will now be opened up to the second set of Olympic Trials scheduled for late June. Racing in the first of two semifinals, the U.S. tandem clocked a 6:30.56 to finish 6.28 seconds behind the winning crew from Slovenia and 1.55 seconds behind third-place Hungary. France finished second in a 6:25.06. Nuzum and Abdullah now will race in Final B for places 7-12.
The lightweight men's four of Mike Altman, Paul Teti (Upper Darby, Pa.), Matt Smith (Woodbridge, Va.), and Pat Todd (Cincinnati, Ohio) finished fourth in the second of two semifinals and now will race Saturday in the B final for places 7-12. The crew, which sat in sixth place at the 1,000-meter mark before working its way up to fourth in the second half of the race, clocked a 6:04.88 to finish 3.02 seconds behind the winners from Germany. The Netherlands finished second, followed by China.
In the women's single sculls, Dana Peirce (Richmond, Va.) finished fourth in the second of two repechages and now will race in Final B for places 7-12. Peirce sat in fourth position the whole way down the course, clocking an 8:14.51 to finish 9.58 seconds behind the Netherlands' Femke Dekker, who clocked an 8:04.93.
With only five entries, the women's eight will have its final on Saturday, but the crews hit the water on Friday in an exhibition race. The U.S. crew of Mary Whipple (Sacramento, Calif.), Nelson, Davies, Laurel Korholz (La Jolla, Calif.), Anna Mickelson (Bellevue, Wash.), Alison Cox (Turlock, Calif.), Kate Johnson (Portland, Ore.), Sam Magee (Simsbury, Conn.), and Megan Dirkmaat (San Jose, Calif.) won the exhibition, clocking a 6:12.44 to finish 1.29 seconds ahead of China. Germany finished third, followed by the Netherlands and Canada. The five crews will race for real on Saturday.
Steve Warner (Livonia, Mich.) and Simon Carcagno (Pennington, N.J.) easily won their heat of the lightweight men's pair on Thursday to advance directly to Saturday's final.
Racing concludes Saturday with finals.