GIFU, Japan - The lightweight women's double sculls advanced to Sunday's final to highlight the fifth day of competition at the 2005 FISA World Rowing Championships on the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course in Gifu, Japan.
The lightweight double of Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) and Renee Hykel (Haverford, Pa.) finished third in its semifinal. The duo battled Finland the entire way down the course, with Poland joining the mix in the second half of the race. Finland held a 0.37-second lead over a then second-place U.S. crew at the 1,000-meter mark before pushing its margin to 1.24 seconds over Poland with just 500 meters to go. At the finish line, Finland clocked a 7:09.27, followed by Poland in a 7:09.69 and the U.S. in a 7:11.49. Great Britain finished well back in fourth place. The top three crews joined Germany, Ireland and Australia, who advanced from the first semifinal, in Sunday's final.
In the first semifinal of the lightweight men's double sculls, Bjorn Larsen (Lake Stevens, Wash.) and Mike Altman (Marin County, Calif.) finished fifth and did not advance to the final. Larsen and Altman will race in a B final for places 7-12 on Sunday. Hungary won the race with a time of 6:22.82, leading from wire-to-wire. Italy finished second, followed by Poland, Australia, the U.S., and the Czech Republic. Larsen and Altman, who could never challenge for a top three position, clocked a 6:33.93.
In the men's quadruple sculls, Ken Jurkowski (New Fairfield, Conn.), Dan Walsh (Norwalk, Conn.), Shane O'Mara (Tampa, Fla.) and Jonathan Burns (Vancouver, Wash.) finished fifth in their semifinal and will now race in a B final on Sunday. The U.S. sat in fifth position the entire way down the course. The top four crews rowed away from the field in the second quarter of the race, and the U.S. boat was never able to for a spot in the final. Poland won the race with a time of 5:48.72, followed by Slovenia and Germany. Great Britain finished fourth. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:02.35.
The lightweight men's four of John Wachter (Mt. Laurel, N.J.), Tom Paradiso (Blue Bell, Pa.), Simon Carcagno (Pennington, N.J.) and Rich Montgomery (Batavia, Ill.) finished sixth in its semifinal and will now race in Sunday's B final. The crew sat in sixth position the entire way down the course. France, Italy and Poland took the top three positions, with France winning the race in a time of 6:06.41. The U.S. stroked a 6:14.40.
In other races involving U.S. crews, the men's four with coxswain of Marcus McElhenney (Lansdowne, Pa.), Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.), Pat Sullivan (St. Paul, Minn.), Troy Kepper (Tallahassee, Fla.) and Matt Hughes (Ludington, Mich.) finished second in its seeding heat. The finish puts them in the center lanes for Sunday's final. The U.S. led the race through the 1,500-meter mark before France passed them to win the race. France clocked a 6:14.29; the U.S. finished in a 6:15.77
The men's pair of Patrick O'Dunne (Nazareth, Pa.) and Matt Schnobrich (St. Paul, Minn.) won the C final to finish 13th overall. The duo battled the Netherlands for second place during the first half of the race before pulling away from the Dutch and blowing past the fast-starting Egyptian crew in the third 500 meters. The U.S. rowed on to an open-water victory over Egypt, clocking a 6:40.64.
Men's single sculler Wyatt Allen (Portland, Maine) finished second in the C final of the men's single sculls for a 14th-place overall finish. Kostiantyn Zaitsev of the Ukraine won the race with a time of 6:56.07, finishing 0.35 seconds ahead of the American. Allen finished in a 6:56.42. Allen sat in second position through the first half of the race before taking over the lead from Russia's Aleksandr Kornilov just after the 1,000-meter mark. However, the Ukranian sculler rowed through Allen in the final few strokes to win the race.
The two U.S. adaptive boats began their racing schedule with seeding heats on Friday. The trunk-arms double sculls tandem of Scott Brown and Angela Madsen, the two-time defending world champions in the event, easily won its seeding race by more than one minute and 30 seconds. Italy finished second, followed by France. The U.S. clocked a 4:59.15 over the 1,000-meter course and now will race from the center lane in Saturday's final.
Long Beach Rowing Association's Ron Harvey finished third in his seeding heat of the arms-only single sculls. Australia and Italy took the top two spots. Australia clocked a 7:09.72, while Harvey finished 1:08.50 back in third place. Harvey will race in the final on Saturday.
In total, the U.S. has 10 senior crews in the finals plus two adaptive crews in the finals, which take place on Saturday and Sunday.