GIFU, Japan - Four U.S. crews will race for spots in the finals on Friday at the 2005 FISA World Rowing Championships on the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course in Gifu, Japan. In addition, the U.S. will have five other boast in action as well.
The lightweight women's double sculls tandem of Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) and Renee Hykel (Haverford, Pa.) finished second in their heat to advance to Friday's semifinals. Racing in the second of two semis, the duo will take on crews from Poland, Finland, Russia, Japan and Great Britain.
In the lightweight men's double sculls, Bjorn Larsen (Lake Stevens, Wash.) and Mike Altman (Marin County, Calif.) advanced to the semifinals by finishing second in their repechage, or second-chance race, on Wednesday. The duo will take on Italy, Hungary, Australia, Poland and the Czech Republic in the first of two semifinals.
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 third in its heat to automatically qualify for the semifinals. The quartet will take on crews from France, Italy, Spain, Poland and South Africa in the second of two semifinals.
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.) won the repechage to advance to the semifinals. On Friday, the U.S. will take on crews from Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Great Britain and the Ukraine in the second of two semifinals.
In other races involving U.S. crews, the men's four with coxswain will get its first race action of the championships in a seeding final. The crew of coxswain Marcus McElhenney (Lansdowne, Pa.), Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.), Pat Sullivan (St. Paul, Minn.), Troy Kepper (Tallahassee, Fla.) and Matt Hughes (Ludington, Mich.) will take on Italy, France, Germany, Canada and Japan in a race for lane assignments. The final is scheduled for Sunday morning.
Men's single sculler Wyatt Allen (Portland, Maine) won his C/D semifinal on Thursday and will now race in the C final for places 13-18. Allen will take on scullers from the Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, France and Russia.
The men's pair of Patrick O'Dunne (Nazareth, Pa.) and Matt Schnobrich (St. Paul, Minn.) easily won its C/D semifinal on Thursday to advance to the C final. O'Dunne and Schnobrich will take on boats from the Netherlands, Egypt, Lithuania and the Philippines on Friday.
The two U.S. adaptive boats also will race in seeding finals on Friday, which will determine lane assignments for Saturday's finals. The trunk-arms double sculls tandem of Scott Brown and Angela Madsen returns to defend its world championship. Brown, from the Philadelphia Rowing Program for the Disabled, and Madsen, from Long Beach Rowing Association, won the event at both the 2003 and 2004 world championships. Both rowers have been on the adaptive team since 2002. The duo will take on France and Italy in the seeding race.
Long Beach Rowing Association's Ron Harvey will race in the men's arms-only single sculls. Harvey won a bronze medal in the event at last year's world championships. He will take on scullers from Greece, Italy, Australia, Great Britain and the Czech Republic.
In total, the U.S. has 21 crews competing at the world championships. Finals will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
For full results, please visit http://www.fisa.org/results/default.sps.