TRAKAI, Lithuania - The men's eight, women's eight, lightweight men's double sculls and men's pair will race for medals on Sunday, the final day of competition at the 2012 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
The U.S. began defense of its U-23 men's eight title with a victory in the second of two heats on Thursday. The crew of Sam Ojserkis (Linwood, N.J.), Ian Silveira (West Bloomfield, Mich.), Tom Dethlefs (Lawrenceville, N.J.), Alex Bunkers (Maitland, Fla.), Ryan Schroeder (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), Ambrose Puttmann (Cincinnati, Ohio), Gardner Yost (Chicago, Ill.), Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.) and Jim Voter (Ithaca, N.Y.) won in wire-to-wire fashion, defeating Australia by more than two seconds. The U.S. will face the other heat winner Germany, as well as Australia, Poland, Great Britain and Spain in the final.
The lightweight men's double sculls boat of Nick Trojan (Los Alamitos, Calif.) and Austin Meyer (Cohoes, N.Y.) finished second in its semifinal to earn a spot in the final. The crew traded top two places with Poland in Saturday's race before finishing second. The U.S. and Poland will face the other heat winner from Germany, along with Austria, Greece and Spain, in the final.
The men's pair of Austin Hack (Old Lyme, Conn.) and Dariush Aghai (Skokie, Ill.) rowed into Sunday's final with a third-place finish in its semifinal. South Africa and Great Britain won the two semis and will head into tomorrow's race as the favorites. France, Germany and Greece complete the field.
With only five entries in the event, the women's eight 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.) won the race for lanes on Friday, pulling away from the field during the back half of the race. The eight will once again face Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Belarus - this time with medals on the line.
The U.S. will also have two crews racing in B finals for places 7-12 on Sunday.
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) just missed a spot in the final, finishing fourth in its semifinal. The crew will look to win the B final for a seventh-place finish overall when they face Canada, Denmark, Hungary, New Zealand and Japan.
Carli Goldberg (Sarasota, Fla.) and Cara Linnenkohl (Redmond, Wash.) finished fifth in their semifinal of the women's double sculls to move to the B final. The duo will take on crews from Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Romania.