Eleven U.S. crews advanced Friday on the first day of competition at the 2010 Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. More than 900 athletes from 54 countries will race for medals over the three-day event.
The U.S. dominated the field in the women's double sculls event, advancing two crews to the semifinals. The U.S. duo of Kate Bertko (Oakland, Calif.) and Stesha Carle (Long Beach, Calif.) won the second of three heats in the double, crossing 4.8 seconds ahead of teammates Margot Shumway (Westlake, Ohio) and Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.). Bertko and Carle, bronze-medalists in the event at the 2010 Rowing World Cup in Munich, clocked a 6:54.52. Beijing Olympians Shumway and Kalmoe also advanced with a second-place time of 6:59.36. China crossed third in a 7:06.78, with Belarus and France in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Less than three hours later, Bertko, Carle, Kalmoe and Shumway came together to finish second and advance to the semifinals of the women's quadruple sculls. Racing in the second heat, the U.S. crew overtook China in the sprint, crossing in a 6:23.61. Germany won the race in a 6:21.46, with China third in a 6:25.45.
The U.S. men's four also took the top two spots in the third heat. Coming off a victory in the Stewards' Challenge Cup at the 2010 Henley Royal Regatta and a silver-medal finish at the Munich Rowing World Cup stop, the crew of Josh Inman (Hillsboro, Ore.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.), Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.) and Giuseppe Lanzone (Annandale, Va.) won in a 6:02.39 to advance to the semifinal. The second-place U.S. crew of Thomas Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.), Ross James (DeKalb, Ill.), Grant James (DeKalb, Ill.) and Justin Stangel (Madison, Wis.) posted a time of 6:04.86 in the heat, and came back to win its afternoon repechage by 3.8 seconds over Germany to earn a spot in the semifinals.
In the women's eight, the U.S. crew won its heat to advance directly to Sunday's final. Coxswain Katelin Snyder (Winter Park, Fla.), Esther Lofgren (Newport Beach, Calif.), Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.), Meghan Musnicki (Ithaca, N.Y.), Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Jamie Redman (Spokane, Wash.), Kady Glessner (Seattle, Wash.), Erin Cafaro (Modesto, Calif.) and Sarah Zelenka (Itasca, Ill.) led from wire-to-wire, crossing more than a boat length ahead of Germany in a 6:07.76. Germany finished in a 6:13.19 for second place, followed by China third in a 6:17.30. Four members of last year's world-champion crew return to the lineup, including 2008 Olympic gold-medalists Francia and Cafaro.
Francia and Musnicki doubled up to race in the women's pair event, finishing second in the morning heat with a time of 7:09.03. New Zealand's Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown won the race to advance to the final. Francia and Musnicki will now race in Saturday's repechages for a second chance at the medals race. The U.S. entry of Cafaro and Polk scratched from pairs competition.
Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.) and Jake Cornelius (Brooktondale, N.Y) advanced to the semifinals of the men's pair with a second-place finish in Friday's heat. The U.S. crew held the lead over Great Britain's Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge for the first 1,000 meters before slipping back into second. Great Britain won in a 6:31.09, with Cole and Cornelius second in a 6:40.34. Russia's Shaun Keeling and Ramon Di Clememte posted a time of 6:54.90 in third, followed by crews from Egypt in fourth and fifth.
In the women's single sculls, Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.) finished second in the fourth and final heat to secure a spot in the semifinals. Stone, who won the single sculls at the 2010 National Selection Regatta #1, clocked a 7:53.50. Beijing Olympian Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic won the race in a 7:47.39.
The U.S. men's double sculls duo of Warren Anderson (Paso Robles, Calif.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia, Pa.) finished second in both its heat and quarterfinal races to earn a spot in Saturday's semifinal. Coming off a fourth-place finish in Munich, Anderson and Ochal were 2.3 seconds behind Poland's Michal Sloma and Wiktor Chabel at the line, clocking a 6:27.95 in the second of five heats. In the afternoon quarterfinal, the U.S. crew came back from fifth place at the 500-meter mark to finish second and qualify. Norway's Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch won in a 6:25.55, with Anderson and Ochal in a 6:27.71. Slovenia's Jan and Luka Spik finished third in a 6:28.93 to advance. Joe Spencer and Stephen Whelpley (Moquon, Wis.), also competing for the U.S. in the 28-crew field, finished third in its heat of the men's double to qualify for the quarterfinal. In the afternoon race, Spencer and Whelpley held the fifth-place position the entire length of the course, crossing in a 6:39.79. They will now race in Saturday's D Final for places 19-24.
After placing second in its morning heat, the lightweight men's double sculls duo of Brian de Regt (Rowayton, Conn.) and Jonathan Winter (New Haven, Conn.) crossed 0.7 seconds ahead of Austria to win its repechage and advance to the semifinals. The U.S. crew was in third place crossing over the 1,000-meter mark, and continued to pick up the pace over the final stretch, clocking a 6:26.23 at the line. De Regt and Winter finished seventh in the event at the Rowing World Cup in Bled and fourth in Munich.
Coming off a seventh-place finish at the 2010 Rowing World Cup stop in Munich, the men's quadruple sculls crew of Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.), Will Miller (Duxbury, Mass.), Wes Piermarini (West Brookfield, Mass.) and Elliot Hovey (Manchester-By-The-Sea, Mass.) finished third to advance to the semifinals. Australia was first off the line, but it was Germany that took the lead before the halfway mark and held on to win in a 5:46.58. Australia crossed second in a 5:48.10, with the U.S. crew third in a 5:53.50. Gault finished fifth in the event at the 2008 Olympic Games, while Piermarini and Hovey competed in the men's double sculls in Beijing. Miller, as well as Hovey, placed 12th in the quadruple sculls at last year's world championships.
The U.S. men's eight finished third in its heat and will have another shot at the medals race with a top-two finish in its repechage Saturday. The crew of Ned DelGuercio (Media, Pa.), Silas Stafford (Santa Rosa, Calif.), Sam Stitt (McLean, Va.), Alex Osborne (Sherman Oaks, Calif.), Steve Coppola (Buffalo, N.Y.), David Banks (Potomac, Md.), Michael Holbrook (Madison, Wis.), Mark Murphy (Madison, Wis.) and Jason Read (Ringoes, N.J.) moved up from fifth place at the 500-meter mark, but the momentum wasn't enough to catch Germany and Australia. Germany won the heat in a 5:36.01, with Australia in second with a time of 5:37.91. The U.S. crew clocked a 5:41.07. Stitt, Coppola and Banks were members of the 2008 Olympic team, while Read won gold in the men's eight at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and served as an alternate on the 2008 squad.
In the lightweight women's single sculls, Meghan Sarbanis (Hampstead, N.H.) finished fourth in the afternoon quarterfinal, missing a spot in semifinals by just 0.7 seconds. The U.S. sculler will now race for places 13-18 in Saturday's C Final. Sarbanis took second in her morning heat to advance to the afternoon quarterfinal. In the heat, Sarbanis, who finished second at the 2010 National Selection Regatta #1 and fourth in the event at the 2009 World Rowing Championships, held on to the second-place position over the entire length of the course, crossing 1.3 seconds behind Great Britain's Andrea Dennis in a 7:54.39.
In the lightweight men's four, Will Daly (Vail, Colo.), Nick LaCava (Weston, Conn.), Anthony Fahden (Lafayette, Calif.) and Jimmy Sopko (Mathews, Va.) finished fourth in the both the heat and quarterfinal, and will now race in the C Final for places 13-18. In the afternoon quarterfinal, the U.S. stroked even with The Netherlands, Denmark and Australia, fighting for position the entire length of the course. The Dutch crew pulled out in front at the line to win by 0.3 seconds in a 6:02.33. Denmark crossed second in a 6:02.65, followed by Australia in a 6:04.46. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:06.75.
From the women's eight lineup, Redman and Zelenka join teammates Mara Allen (San Francisco, Calif.) and Laura Larsen-Strecker (Brookline, Mass.) to take on three crews in Saturday's final-only women's four event. Allen and Larsen-Strecker were members of the women's eight that won gold at last year's world championships, while Redman won silver in the women's four in Poznan. In domestic competition this year, Redman finished second in the women's pair at both the first and second 2010 National Selection Regattas.
Racing continues with repechages, semifinals and finals in the international events Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. local time. Finals in the 14 world cup events will take place Sunday beginning at 9:30 a.m. local time.
Check for the latest schedule and follow racing live on www.worldrowing.com. Event finals will be video streamed live on Sunday, July 11 and can be accessed through the www.worldrowing.com website. Highlights from the 2010 Rowing World Cup in Lucerne will air on Universal Sports television in two parts the weekend after the regatta. Tune in Saturday, July 17 from 6-7 p.m. EDT and Sunday, July 18 from 6-7 p.m. EDT. For more information, visit www.universalsports.com.
Check out Esther Lofgren's daily Lucerne World Cup blog -- updated daily with comments, photos and video interviews. Click on http://usrowinglucerne.blogspot.com/.
The Rowing World Cup series was launched in 1997 and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The overall Rowing World Cup champions will be determined after a series of three regattas. The first two regattas were held May 28-30 in Bled, Slovenia, and June 18-20 in Munich, Germany.