Both the lightweight men’s four and men’s four advanced on Friday to highlight racing at the 2012 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. The lightweight four advanced to the semifinals with a victory in the repechage, while the open weight four moved on to the final with a third-place finish in the semifinals.
After finishing fourth in a heat that contained the three fastest times of the day on Thursday, the lightweight men’s four of Daniel Kirrane (Rockville Centre, N.Y.), Andy Weiland (Upper Arlington, Ohio), Tyler Nase (Phoenixville, Pa.) and Philip Oertle (Zurich, Switzerland) came back to make a statement in the repechage, winning the race by more than three seconds to advance to the semifinals.
“Yesterday, in the first 500, we got down a little early and ended up rowing the whole race from behind, which is not what you want to do. We tried to improve on that, especially in the first 1,000,” said lightweight men’s four coach Colin Farrell.
The crew executed its plan effectively as it got off the line in second position, less than a half-second behind Canada, before taking the lead going into the second 1,000 meters. The U.S. continued to pull away over the final half of the race, finishing with a time of 6:22.23. Germany finished second, followed by Canada.
“We felt we could get out with Germany and Canada. We knew they were going to be fast,” Farrell said. “We did that. We had the lead at the 1,000, which is what we wanted. We wanted to finish it strong and win the rep.”
The men’s four of Justin Jones (Bellmawr, N.J.), Will Gillis (Seattle, Wash.), Alex Karwoski (Hollis, N.H.) and Ted Baumgardner (Longport, N.J.) earned a spot in Saturday’s final with a third-place finish in its semi. While Germany established the top position early in the race, the U.S. followed closely behind in second. The two crews continued to lead through the 1,500-meter mark before the Germans put on a sprint and moved away from the rest of the field. Australia made a strong move over the final quarter of the race to overtake the U.S. for second, but the American boat maintained a comfortable margin on fourth-place Canada to nail down the last spot in the final. Germany won the race in a 6:07.72, followed by Australia in a 6:09.42. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:11.14.
“We had a pretty solid race today,” Jones said. “There were some challenging wind conditions out there, but I think we handled it pretty well through the bobbles and the tough cross-tailwind. We had a solid first 1,500 and just stayed composed as the Germans and the Australians really brought out a pretty fierce sprint. We saw we were in a solid qualifying position and made a conscious effort to just keep pressing along our base and just qualify through for the grand final.”
With only five entries in the women’s eight, the U.S. crew of Kendall Schmidt (Greenfield, Wis.), Kristine O’Brien (Massapequa Park, N.Y.), Madison Culp (Seattle, Wash.), Heidi Robbins (Hanover, N.H.), Chrissy Holm (North Oaks, Minn.), Gabbie Cole (Oak Park, Ill.), Taylor Goetzinger (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.), Amanda Elmore (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Emily Walsh (Pittsburgh, Pa.) raced for lanes on Friday and came home with the top seed for Sunday’s final. Great Britain established a slight advantage at the 500-meter mark and continued to lead by less than a half-second at the midway point. The U.S. then pulled ahead in the third quarter of the race and cruised to an easy victory. The boat finished with a time of 6:28.46, with Germany taking second and Great Britain third.
John Madura (West Milford, N.J.) and Matt Schanck (Brownstown, Mich.) missed a spot in the semifinals by less than one second, finishing fourth in the first of two repechages of the men’s double sculls. The duo was in second place 500 meters into the race and held the third spot through the 1,500-meter mark. However, Russia clocked the fastest final split to overtake the American crew in the final 100 meters, securing the last qualifying spot. Belgium won the race in a 6:44.59, followed by the Czech Republic. Madura and Schanck crossed in a 6:48.59 and will now race in the C final for places 13-18.
In the lightweight women’s double sculls, Kayla McNeill (Montclair, N.J.) and Solveig Imsdahl (Scheelholz, Germany) also finished fourth and will now race in the C final. With three to qualify for the semifinals, France, Spain and Japan took command of the race in the first 500 meters, with the U.S. trailing in fourth. The three crews extended their leads through the midway point before pulling away in the third 500. Spain won the race in a 7:35.14, followed by France and Japan less than one second behind. The U.S. finished with a time of 7:42.92.
Lightweight men’s single sculler Jonathan Furlong (Pittstown, N.J.) finished fifth in his repechage and will now race in the C final. Furlong finished with a time of 7:45.33. Italy’s Andrea Micheletti won the race in a 7:24.33.
Like the men’s four, the lightweight men’s pair also competed in a semifinal on Friday. Racing in the first of two semifinals, Chandler Mahaney (Greenwich, Conn.) and Jack Devlin (Arlington, Va.) finished sixth and will now race in the B final for places 7-12 on Saturday. Italy took the lead in the first 500 meters and maintained its advantage the entire length of the course, winning in a 6:57.34. Germany finished second, while Hong Kong finished third to earn a spot in the final. The U.S. finished in a 7:29.70.
The U.S. had three crews race in the C/D semifinals.
In the men’s quadruple sculls, Benjamin Dann (Pound Ridge, N.Y.), Chris Massey (Mills, Mass.), Carter Aronson (Rye, N.Y.) and Mike Donohue (Malvern, Pa.) came back from a fifth-place finish in the morning repechage to win their C/D semifinal. They will now race in the C final. The crew sat in fourth through the 1,000-meter mark before moving past the field. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:09.26.
In the C/D semifinals of the women’s single sculls, Maddie Lips (Parker, Colo.) clocked an 8:15.78 to win and advance to the C final. Lips started off in third before moving into first during the back half of the race. Lips just missed a spot in the semifinals during the morning repechage. A tough start left her nearly five seconds off the pace in the first 500 meters and, despite a strong remainder of the race, she was unable to make up the margin.
In the lightweight women’s single sculls, Alex Morss (Concord, Mass.) finished third in her C/D semifinal to advance to the C final. Morss came back from a fifth-place start to row through Estonia and Ukraine. Canada’s Katherine Enns won the race in an 8:25.65. Morss finished in a 8:33.50. In the morning repechage, Morss finished fourth.
Saturday’s racing features finals in the women’s four, men’s four with coxswain, lightweight women’s quad, lightweight men’s pair, women’s pair, lightweight men’s quad, women’s quad and men’s four. The remaining finals take place on Sunday.
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