Nine United States boats will be in action on Tuesday at the 2007 FISA World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany.
In the women's single sculls, Michelle Guerette (Bristol, Conn.) had no trouble winning her heat to advance to the quarterfinals. On Tuesday, she will take on scullers from France, Ukraine, Italy, Switzerland and Kazakhstan, with the top three finishers moving on to Thursday's semifinals. Guerette's toughest challenge in the quarterfinal should come from France's Sophie Balmary, who has finished fourth at the world championships the past two years. No strangers to each other, Guerette bested Balmary for the bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships, while the Frenchwoman finished one spot ahead of the American in 2006.
The men's double sculls duo of Matt Hughes (Ludington, Mich.) and Sam Stitt (McLean, Va.) finished third in its heat to advance to Tuesday's quarterfinals. Hughes and Stitt will take on boats from Croatia, China, Greece, Bulgaria and Belarus in the second of four quarterfinals. China enters the race as the top seed, having won its heat in the fastest time of the day. Croatia and Greece finished second in their heats, although the U.S. recorded a faster time than both of those crews in Sunday's racing. The top three finishers in each quarterfinal will advance to the semifinals.
The men's pair of Kyle Larson (Seattle, Wash.) and Jason Read (Ringoes, N.J.) finished second in its heat, necessitating a row in the repechages, or second-chance races. The duo will race the Czech Republic, Poland, China and Argentina in the first of four repechages. Poland, which finished third in its heat, should provide the toughest competition. The top two finishers in each race will move on to the semifinals.
Jen Kaido (West Leyden, N.Y.) and Ala Piotrowski (Manchester, N.H.) finished third in their heat of the women's double sculls. They will take on Australia, Belarus, Korea and Estonia in the second of two repechages, with the top three finishers advancing to the semifinals.
The men's four of Beau Hoopman (Plymouth, Wis.), Bryan Volpenhein (Cincinnati, Ohio), Giuseppe Lanzone (Annandale, Va.) and Matt Schnobrich (St. Paul, Minn.) finished third in its heat. The crew will take on Ireland, Croatia, Poland and Romania in the fourth of four repechages. Ireland enters the race off of a second-place finish behind Great Britain in its heat. The top two finishers advance to the semifinals.
The men's pair with coxswain of Dave Florio (Marlton, N.J.), Steve Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.) and Patrick Godfrey (Gorham, Maine) finished fourth in its heat and will now race in the second of two repechages. With the top two finishers advancing to Saturday's final, the crew will take on Canada, Germany and Ukraine.
In the adaptive women's single sculls, Laura Schwanger (Harrisburg, Pa.) finished fourth in her heat and will now race in the second of two repechages against scullers from Ukraine, Canada, China and France.
The U.S. women's four and lightweight men's eight will see action in seeding races. With only six entries in each event, the two crews will get to race for lane assignments for Saturday's finals.
The women's four of Megan Dirkmaat (San Jose, Calif.), Rachel Jeffers (Los Gatos, Calif.), Erin Cafaro (Modesto, Calif.) and Portia McGee (Seattle, Wash.) will race against China, Australia, Great Britain, Germany and Italy. The boat includes three members of last year's bronze-medal winning crew plus Dirkmaat, an Olympic silver medalist in the eight, who returns to action after taking a year off.
The lightweight men's eight of coxswain Leigh Heyman (Newton, Mass.), Will Daly (Vail, Colo.), John Nichols (Palo Alto, Calif.), Andrew Diebold (North Wales, Pa.), Jeff Forrester (Mathews, Va.), Greg Ruckman (Cincinnati, Ohio), Tyler Resch (Weyauwega, Wis.), Gavin Frase (Orinda, Calif.) and Tim Larson (North Augusta, S.C.) has a mix of five senior national team veterans and four rookies. The crew will take on boats from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland and The Netherlands. The U.S. finished fifth at last year's world championships.
The eight-day regatta, which serves as the primary country qualifier for the 2008 Olympic Games, features 1,285 athletes racing in 474 crews from 68 nations.