Another beautiful morning on Lac d'Aiguebelette; one veteran coach, who has attended every World Championships since 1977 as an athlete or coach, called it the best venue he has ever seen. Save for the first day, when an inversion brought hind winds sweeping down on the course from the cliffs, racing conditions have been perfect. Typically, a slight cross-headwind from lane 6 prevails.
Gossip pages: (overheard at the Skiff) predictions for today's racing by some gathered coaches include many surprise choices, including the USA in the HPL8+, which has not occured for almost 20 years. On the Men's straight four, the comment was as follows: "Of course, we are talking about only the silver and bronze." Of course, 2000m meters on the lake will determine all.
Racing begins at 10:45 local time with the A final of the Lightweight women's 1x. The races proceed in two groups; all of the A finals are to be run from 10:45 to 1:35. After a break, the B finals follow from 2:30 until 3:45. (My hypothesis for racing in reverse order of "importance" is that it appeases the great single eye of the television camera.)
I will be covering the A finals in real time at the end of each race, and will more likely post coverage of the B finals in a single upload at the end of racing, albeit with the same race-by-race coverage. (Just need to get out of the press tent for a spell.)
I missed a few races while tending to the messaging service and moving to the finish line; several B finals are reported at the bottom of this page.
H1x men's single (CZE, GBR, USA, SLO, GER, EGY)
The Egyptian Ibrahim Aly, the first African single sculler to make the A final, improbably led this race into the third 500, followd by the Czech Vaclav Chalupa, and then James Koven of the USA.
Again the Egyptian had considerable steering problems, even while leading. At some point in the third 500, the US sculler began to show immense confidence, and rowed down the Egyptian, who subsequently faded precipitously, falling back into sixth place at the finish.
Going into the final 500, the US sculler was open water out on the field, rowing calmly, almost not sweating. The German Andre Willms narrowly beat GBR's Greg Searle for the silver, with Searle winning the bronze, Chalupa in fourth, Slovenia's Iztok Cop coming fifth and Aly in sixth.
F1x women's single (BUL, GBR, BLR, GER, SWE, DEN)
In the aftermath of this race, i can hardly believe what i saw. Ekaterina Khodoovich of BLR led the entire race, with subtle, consistent pressure from the Bulgarian Roumania Neykova well into the last 500. Unable to catch Khodotovich, the Bulgarian collapsed in the final 500, yielding an almost certain silver medal to the Dane Trine Hansen, and the brozne as well, to Swiss Maria Brandin. In winning the gold, Khodotovich was pressed, but never threatened.
H4- Men's straight four (SLO, ITA, GBR, FRA, ROM, GER)
Cracknell, Redgrave, Foster and Pinsent, as if there was ever any doubt. Believe the hype, this is an impressive crew. In the semi, they gave just enough to stay out front, showing spooky restraint; here, they opened up: open water finish margins are remarkably rare in the faster boats.
Hometown France won the silver with a performance that would have been remarkable had not GBR been so superior, and Romania rowed through the Italian crew for the bronze.
H2x Men's double (BEL, ITA, NOR, GER, AUS, POL)
The German double, an immense, imposing pair, was essentially even with both the Italians and the Austrailians at the 500, with only .58 seconds separating them. The Germans, who row somewhat upright with a pwerful, galloping rhythm, established a commanding lead through the second 500 as ITA trailed, and Norway pushed past AUS into third, and then second position by the 1500m mark, with ITA mere tenths of a second behind. Italy faltered in the final 500, however, and AUS took advantage to win the ronze medal.
F2x Women's double (AUS, SUI, GER, GBR, ROM, NED
The German crew took this race from start to finish, rowing longer and lower than most of the field, with an seemingly slow, lumbering stroke that moved their boat quite fast. The GBR crew, after rowing in fourth for the first 1/3 of the race, pressed the pace of the leaders German and Romania, and the three crews extended away from the rest of the field.
The GBR pressure, after seeming to falter early in the final 500 meters, finally overwhelmed the Romanian crew in the last five strokes, and GBR took the silver, followed by Romania for the bronze.
H2- men's straight pair (GBR, USA, FRA, CAN, ITA, NOR)
The French pair may have had the most impressive, exciting finish I've seen all week; they let the Canadian pair seem to have it completely wrapped up, waiting for their moment to attack. When it came, the crew made their hull virtually leap out of the water, tearing through the Canadian crew in the space of a few strokes. The Italian crew, which had rowed in third for most of the race, and the US in fourth, went right with the French, if not as dramatically, and both the Italians and the USA crews got by the Canadians for second and third place respectively.
The French home crowd was ecstatic at the win, but it doesn't take a Frenchman to appreciate that performance.
F2- Women's straight pair (USA, DEN, AUS, ROM, CAN, RUS)
After Australian and Romania went out to a very early lead, Canada absolutely dominated this race, leading by 1.5 lengths of open by the 1500 meter mark, and just taking it home for the win. The Australian crew, which seemed most likely to go with the Canadians by the 500, were eventually reeled in by the second place Romanians, and, just in the last 300 meters, by the Russian crew, which finished third, followed by Australia, Denmark, and the USA.
HPL8+
lightweight mens 8+ (ITA, GBR, USA, CAN, AUS, GER)
All crews go out of the gates together, with only .78 seconds separating the top four crews at the 500 meter mark. Australia posted a phenomenal second 500, and only the Canadian crew, in the adjacent lane, seemed prepared to go with them. The Great Britain crew, however, had a blazing finishing sprint, rowing through the Canadians just barely, and giving the Australians a good scare, although they could not get past them. The US crew, which had won its heat, seemed to go with the field early, but did not attack the second 500 with the same speed that others did, and fell back to sixxth, fighting up into fifth several times. Unofficially: AUS, GBR, CAN, ITA, GER, USA.
F4- women's straight four (this is a final-only race: USA, UKR, GER, ROM, BLR, GBR)
Roumania set a torrid pace, getting out to a 3/4 length lead by the 1000m mark. After a fouth place start, the GBR proved to be the only crew that could go with the Romanians, leaving the UKR, USA and BLR crews to fight tooth and nail for the bronze. Looking immensely confident all the way down the course, the GBR crew steamrolled through the Romanians to win, with the Germans nipping the USA for the bronze.
H2+ men's coxed pair: the floating leg press
Tremendous race, with the Roumanians leading at the 500, and less than 3/4 length back to the USA in sixth place. At the 1000m mark, the race was even closer, but the positions had changed dramtically: the USA was now in first place, a position they would relinquish only once, mere feet from the finish line, before surging ahead to win by one-hald a bow-number card over Australia by 0.06, with Greece in third 1.32 seconds behind. I believe that the Ukraine crew placed fourth, followed by Italy and Romania.
HPL1x lightweight men's 1x (USA, NED, SUI, DEN, AUT, CZE)
An extremely clean, composed Dane led this race from start to finish, with sometimes only a half length lead still no challenge to his confidence. The Swiss sculler rowed slightly behind him afer trailing the Austrian for the first 500m or so, but soon was in a position of strength to hold off the field for the second, if not to challenge the Dane. Third place went to the Austrian, despite a late charge from US Robert Tucker, who came from sixth place and open water behind, upping the cadence to 2 beats over the field to row through two, but not three, scullers into the fourth place position, finishing fourth, just behind the Austrian.
FPL1x lightweight women's 1x (by lane: GBR, SWE, USA, GER, FRA, ARG)
The German sculler went out hard, taking several seats in the first 15 strokes. By 500, the US sculler and the SWE sculler had drawn almost even with the German, and from there Sarah Garner of the US took over the race powerfully. By the 1000m mark, she had 1 seat of open water, by the 1500 one length, and finished with a 4 second lead. Ther German faded dramatically, and after starting in fifth position, the French sculler came through the field to finish an astonishing second, four seconds ahead of the Swedish sculler, who had expended considerable energy rowing slightly higher than the field in the first 1000m.
On the medals stand, Garner had tears in her eyes and a smile on her face as the national anthem was played.
H8+ men's 8+ (LR, CAN, NED, UKR)
UKR took an early lead to 500, but that had been reduced sinificantly by the 1000, when NED had gained a slight lead. CAN followed NED past the UKR, but not far enough to beat NED, which won by a foot. UKR was broken, and even the BLR was able to sneak past at the finish.
F8+ women's 8+ (two boat race: NED, RUS)
An extremely close race for a two-boat race: one might have thought that one crew would open it up, and it would be over. RUS took a 1/3 length lead early, and it stayed that way for another 1000 meters at least, with the NED taking back perhaps a seat in the 100 meters to put their stroke on the RUS coxswain. They got a little more over the next 500, and just enough: they won by only 0.36 seconds.
H4x men's quadruple sculls (BLR, RUS, USA, NED, AUS, POL)
This was a near superhuman effort by the USA crew; their start was marred very soon after the start by what was described as "a problem" by the announcer; I couldn't see exactly what happened. The first 5 places were closely contested early on, and the US drew back into the race quite a bit, after being at least 2 lengths out before the 500, they were 3 seconds off the lead at the 1000, and up into 4th place by the 1500m mark. The US continued to charge as the announcer exorted that "you never give up," but could not overcome the deficit, finishing fourth behind NED, RUS, BLR, and followed by POL and AUS.
F4x women's quadruple sculls (POL, USA, NED, ROM, CUB)
The USA crew appeared to get off to a bad start, with the Nederlands, Romania and Cuba jumping out on the field. Poland quickly recovered and gained the lead before the 500, followed extremely closely by the NED crew, with the USA another 1.8 seconds behind, but charging. The Netherlands responded, moving deeply into the POL lead, and pulling away from the USA, and finally taking the lead with 250 to go, gollowed by POL, then the USA, ROM, and CUB.
HPL4- men's lightweight straight four
With GBR in the lead, four crews were one second behind the next: GBR, CAN, ESP, and JPN. The order remianed at the 1500, with GBR and CAN extending somewhat from the other two. Almost immediately after beginning their sprint, CAN squirted their bowdeck ahead of GBR, and just kept going, as Spain chased the GBR right to the finish, edging ahead on the last stroke to no avail. Order of finish, CAN, ESP, GBR, JPN, POL , and CHN well back, some 38 seconds behind the leader
FPL2x
report not available
HPL4x
report not available
HPL2- lightweight men's pair
Australia and Austria distanced themselves from the pack immediately, but Australia kept going, putting a length between themselves and the Austrians in the second 500 as the Yugoslavians challenged Austria, finally getting by for the second position,along with most of the other crews. GBR followed closely, followed bby GER, USA and Austria.
H1x
Although Italy had established a lead by the t1000, the race for second was extremely tight, with three crew within just over one second. At the 1500 the New Zalnder Robert Waddell had wrested the lead from the Italian Alessio Sartori, with the Latvian sculler Andris Reinholds merely .32 behind the Italian. The Latvian's patience paid off, and he was able to sprint through to win the B final by a bowball (0.08), followed by NZL, ITA, Norway's Frederik Bekken, Netherlands Merlin Vervoorn, and Canada's Derek Porter.
F1x
Women's single (NOR, NZL, FRA, USA, LAT, RUS)
At 500 gone, Monica Tranel-Michini of the USA lept out to an early lead, followed by Russian, Latvia and France. The US sculler was never really challenged after that, opening water on everyone by the 1000, and an astounding 9-second lead at the 1500, finally winning by about four lengths over Russia, France, New Zealand, Norway, and Latvia.
H4- Men's straight four
After trailing slightly, the United States took the lead at the 500 meter mark, followed by .19 seconds by Poland, and 1.3 seconds to RUS, 1.5 to ESP. Brazil and Lithuania had fallen off the pace slightly, open water behind the leaders. From that point on, the US crew continued to extend their lead, up by over 2 seconds at the 1000, almost three at the 1500, and a full length at the finish. followed by Polamnd, Russia, Spain, Lithuania, and Brazil.
H2x Men's double (SVK, UKR, YUG, DEN,FRA, RUS)
Leading to the 500, then led to the 1000 by UKR, the Danish crew stepped on the pedal in the third 500, opening up water on the field going into the last 500. The race for second and third was really anyone's to take coming into the last 100 meters save for the RUS crewn in lane 6, which was slightly off the pace. Otherwise, the crews were within seats of one another. Order of finish: DEN, FRA, UKR, YUG, SLO, RUS.
F2x women's double
This race was dominated by the Lithuanian crew, with a two boat length lead into the finish line.
After that, it was almost a dead heat for second for the entire last 500 meters between Latvia and Hungary, with Latvia prevailing, followed by Hungary, Austria and the United States.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by:
row2k's Worlds coverage is brought to you in part by: