row2k news Fletcher and Chambers safely through to semis
July 11, 2015
Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers made smooth progress to the lightweight men's double sculls semi-finals ls ls with two comfortable wins at World Cup III in Lucerne today.
After winning their heat by five seconds this morning, Fletcher and Chambers made light of the increased afternoon heat to quickly open up a healthy lead in their quarter-final.
They stretched their advantage to six seconds by the 1500m stage before, with the race won, easing off to conserve energy for tomorrow's semi-finals, crossing the line in in in 6:16.23.
Britain will have two crews in both the women's and men's pair s pair semi-finals on Saturday ay after a couple of gritty performances in the repechage.
Karen Bennett and Rebecca Chin got off to a strong start in their race and kept pace with the Australian pair of Molly Goodman and Genevieve Horton for the first half of the race.
The Aussies pulled away to record the win but Bennett and Chin dug deep to hold off a German crew and the fast-finishing Croatian Milosevic sisters to finish a fine second in 7:12.40.
Their reward is a place in the same semi-final as fellow Brits Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, the Olympic, World and European Champions.
There were only two semi-final places available in the men's pair repechage and Oliver Cook and nd nd Stewart Innes showed tremendous determination to ensure they got one, fighting off a late charge by Turkey to secure runners-up spot to France by two-tenths of a second.
Cook and Innes go into the first semi-final, meaning they will face World Champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond of New Zealand for the second time at this World Cup. James Foad and Matt Langridge will race in the second semi-final.
Beth Rodford was in contention in her repechage of the single scull this afternoon as the race moved the first timing point at 500m. By halfway, however, she had dropped into their place behind Ireland's ¢s Sanita Purspure and nd Serbia's Ivana na Filipovic.
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With only two qualifying Rodford, who has so far this season raced only in the quadruple scull, made a big effort to make up the gap but fell just short to take third place in 7:46.95.
Callum McBrierty and Mat Tarrant - who turns 25 on Saturday - warmed up for the two-boat men's â„¢s ccoxed pair final by comfortably winning a a preliminary meeting with their German opponents.
Coxed by Henry Fieldman, McBrierty and Tarrant clocked 7:10.50 to finish 13 seconds clear of Paul Schroeter, Bjoern Birkner and cox Jonas Wiesen.
Saturday's semi-finals start at at at 12.30pm BST.
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