The semis are always loaded and dangerous races, with the crews on each respective advancement bubble risking everything in hopes of advancing to the highest final possible; others are sometimes caught offguard by the instant intensity after four days of feeling out the field.
A cold headwind and chop on the water didn't help anyone not ready to do their best or face the worst today, either; today was the first day that there was any significant chop on the water, and the headwind favored the powerful without question.
And that's not even considering the fact that, save for the women's eight, a berth in this year's A final is a lock for qualification for the Olympics next year (see the Olympic qualification chart below). As a result, Thursday and Friday at Worlds are rife with torching racing, photo finishes, and upsets, as some crews overperform, others underperform, and others drop the kitchen sink.
Once again the singles lead the way for the United States in this first day of semifinals; the three singles were the only events for which the USA will place entries in the A finals in the Saturday final round.
There wasn't much any underdogs could do about Jen Goldsack today, tho; much like she did at trials a few weeks back, she got ahead of the field and kept going today; Goldsack had a bunch of clear water by the 1000 meter mark, and this over the defending world champion; her first three splits were the fastest of the semi as well. In the offing Goldsack posted the fastest time of the two semis, and a medal, even the shiniest yellow one, is a very strong prospect if she stays true to form thus far.
In the women's 1x, Michelle Guerette slipped out of the gates a bit tentatively in headwind-churned rough waters at the starting line, but powered confidently into a solid qualifying spot with a very strong middle 1000.
And in the light 1x, Ivan Baldychev saved his best for the second 1000; after arriving at the 1500 to go in last place, and the halfway point in fifth, he posted the fastest third 500 of the race to pull into second, which he maintained all the way to the finish.
It was a bit of a Schwarzer Donnerstag for US team boats; in particular the men's four fell on the wrong side of a photo finish to fail to advance to the A final. The men's double had what one observer called "somewhat of a wretched row," struggling into sixth place in their semi; it's really the first serious stumble they've taken this summer, but the timing was definitely inopportune. They'll be in the petite final looking to nab one of the 11 Olympic qualifying spots on Saturday. The women's double didn't have quite enough juice to advance today and finished fourth, one spot out of the A final advancement.
The US women's pair also fell victim to the finish line camera today after a just slightly off-pace third 500 eventually cost them a qualifying position by about 8/10 of a second. It's a tough way to go for a crew that has been rowing together only since this weekend; with each row they looked a little better, but it wasn't quite enough to make the A final today.
The US men's four was doing everything right in their semi, rowing in second place the whole way right about a second off the British crew, which would be a very reasonable tactic in this semi, to understate the point a bit. However, in the final strokes of the race (sequence starts here)the French and Italian crew (the former of which was in fifth at 500 to go, and the latter of which raced in sixth place into the third 500) went into desperation sprint and snuck through to nip the US at the line; the total margin from GB in first to the US fourth was 0.67 seconds. A crew is two-thirds of a second behind the defending World Champs and still two crews cram in between you? That's a tough one to figure or anticipate - but only three advance, and Great Britain, France, and Italy took the honors, with the US now relegated to the B final. They'll also be in the petite final looking to nab one of the 11 Olympic qualifying spots on Saturday.
The men's pair of Larson and Read drew a truly nasty semi, and despite shoring up their first 1000, could not quite keep pace with the field coming into the last 500, and finished fifth. They'll battle it our for Olympic qualifier spots on Saturday.
Guerette wasn't the only person who wanted to get out of the gates carefully; defending World Champ M1x Mahe Drysdale very nearly ended up in the drink about five strokes into his semi next to Marcel Hacker; I would estimate Drysdale's hand levels differed by about two feet on the stroke in question; any single sculler knows that is not really a great thing. This early bobble didn't seem to hurt Drysdale much, however, as he went on to win his semi fairly handily over local favorite Hacker.
Another North American stunner: the defending World Champ Canadian women's pair failed to advance today; their draw wasn't a casual one, with the Romanians and Germans in particular, but it's a pretty steep drop for the crew, who seemed on track this summer.
Meanwhile, the German men's pair could blame their problems on the equipment; on the third or fourth stroke of the race, the German stroke's wooden oarhandle snapped clean off, forcing the race to be rescheduled at the end of the program. Didn't regattas used to keep piles of spare oars at the starting line for just such an occasion?
Launching dock gaffe of the day: in the first semi of the men's four, two crews were launched with bow number 4; the French crew had to pull out of their lane, turn around, have their bow marker replaced, and get back in the gates.
The adaptive semis also took place today; after a couple days racing, the results seem less like major upsets than a couple days ago. The Australian Moneypenny seemed to find some of his speed again today; he wasn't holding anything back in a 2nd place effort in the heat, tho, and the final could be a gut check for everyone in the race. US sculler Ron Harvey took second in the same semi with a fairly comfortable row.
"I wasn't feeling that great this morning - maybe it was just nerves - so I'm happy with the race," Harvey said on his way to lunch after a long side trek to doping control right after his race. "My goal in each race was just to advance; today I wanted to make sure I got ahead of Canada and China, and with about 250 to go I felt in was in good position, so just held that position to the line." Harvey hasn't yet been forced to do a full pull. " It looks like it could be a tight final, so Saturday looks like it might be a good time to do that," he said with a laugh.
As we head into the second day of semis with one day of finals now set, here is the Olympic qualification tally for each race here at the World Championships; for the complete chart, including the qualification count for the African, Asian, and Latin American, and final Lucerne qualification regattas, see this pdf chart.
Finally, today FISA offered more details on the Russian intravenous infusion case: the day after the Lucerne regatta this year, a bag filled with intravenous bags, needles, and other items used for intravenous infusions was turned in to FISA (FISA president Denis Oswald was not at liberty to say who turned in the materials). The bag was found outside the hotel in which the Russian federation was staying during the regatta, and was marked with characters from the Russian alphabet, including the shorthand for LM2x. FISA sent the bag directly to a lab in Lausanne, where the substances were tested, and DNA samples were taken from blood samples found on the materials. No prohibited substances whatsoever were found, and the DNA samples were compared to blood taken from past tests in order to determine the identity of those who had used the method. FISA then did surprise testing on the entire Russian federation at their training camp in Trakai (no positive tests occurred), and contacted the three implicated athletes immediately upon discovering the identities of the three athletes. The athletes admitted to using the method before FISA revealed that they had DNA evidence.
The athletes are still able to appeal the decision, and the investigation will continue to determine the extent of the practice and whether any sanctions will extend beyond the three athletes involved to the larger Russian federation. The rule is that any federation found to have four such violations in one calendar year could be subject to sanctions against the entire federation; since the tests on the Russian women's quad took place on July 23, 2006, and the bags turned in on July 15, 2007, the one-year rule would apply here; a decision whether federation-wide punishment is forthcoming will be part of the next phase of the investigation.
One more day of semis tomorrow, along with reps in the W4x and LM2-; typically these reps would have been held on Wednesday, and I inquired why these reps were not held on Wednesday; the answer was that there were originally going to be semis in these events, so the reps were just left on Friday - who knows. Additionally, there is a full slate of B, C, D, and E finals; we look forward to seeing you again Friday.
Olympic Qualification Chart | |
---|---|
See the complete chart here | |
Men | |
Single Sculls (1x) | 11 |
Pairs (2-) | 11 |
Double Sculls (2x) | 11 |
Fours (4-) | 11 |
Quadruple Sculls (4x) | 11 |
Eights (8+) | 7 |
Men Lightweight | |
Double Sculls (2x) | 11 |
Fours (4-) | 11 |
Women | |
Single Sculls (1x) | 9 |
Pairs (2-) | 8 |
Double Sculls (2x) | 8 |
Quadruple Sculls (4x) | 7 |
Eights (8+) | 5 |
Women Lightweight | |
Double Sculls (2x) | 8 |
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