Semi-finals Saturday at Lucerne (with a few reps and assorted finals thrown in), was a quieter day for the USA squad as seven crews took to the water (in LM2x; LW2x; W2-; M2-; M1x and M8+). Conditions on the Rotsee were cool and calm again, the temperatures more spring-like than mid-summer and definitely more conducive to racing than spectating.
Another two US crews made it through to A finals today (the men's and women's pairs), to go with the three that made it through on Friday , while the Canadians added both lightweight doubles to go along with their eight. In addition to the pairs, The U.S. also will have crews racing in tomorrow's finals in the women's double sculls, men's four, men's quadruple sculls, women's quadruple sculls and women's eight, and also the women's pair of Allen and Cafaro that qualified yesterday.
Illness and injury seem to be becoming a bit of a theme this weekend. While not quite dropping like flies, there were yet more medical substitutions and withdrawals today, though as you can no doubt imagine, the news that the D final of LM2x and C final of M2x would no longer take place due to the respective Greek and Belgian doubles pulling out, wasn't exactly greeted with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. I really have to give credit to the FISA commentators who always manage to find something to say, even in a two-boat C final, though thankfully the morning's semi-finals did produce some interesting racing as well.
The Canadians had three of their four crews on show today -- yes, guilty as charged -- I managed to miss their M1x out in my report yesterday. The man in question, Fraser Berkhout, was up first today, winning the M1x C final. Berkhout, who was a Canadian U23 in 2007, had moved into second place by the 1000m point and into the lead with 500m to go. Martin Gulyas, the 2nd ranked German sculler challenged hard as they approached the line, but was unable to catch him.
Shortly afterwards both US lightweight men's doubles lined up for the LM2x C final. Hong Kong 1 took an early lead, with USA 2 level with Denmark (who were 2008 world U23 medalists in the lwt men's quad) in second place and USA 1 a fraction of a second behind in fourth. The Danes took the lead as the crews moved into the second half of the course, taking USA1 (Quinn & Madden) who finished in second place, with them - Winter & Tyron coming fourth.
Afternoon racing started with the W2- repechage; Lindsay Shoop and Caroline Lind put in a impressive burst in the last 500m winning comfortably ahead of second placed Germany and securing their place in the A final, alongside via the 1st ranked US pair who qualified yesterday.
David Banks and Charles Cole won the M2- rep convincingly, leading from the start and finishing four seconds ahead of the Czech Republic who will join them in the A final tomorrow.
Getting through to the A final in the M1x was never going to be easy and Warren Anderson was hard pushed to keep on the pace in a semi-final which contained the Olympic champion Olaf Tufte and Belgian Tim Maeyens. In the end he finished 5th several lengths behind the first four scullers who were separated by just over 4 seconds, 4th placed Argentinean Ariel Suarez just missing out on a place in the A final to Mindaguas Griskonis of Lithuania.
The Canadian lightweight women's double fared better than their American counterparts, as Lindsay Jennerich and Sheryl Preston picked up the third available A final slot in their semi-final behind Greece and Germany. The US double of Kristin Hedstrom and Michelle Trannel finished 5th, ahead of the Hungarian double and will race in the B final tomorrow.
The Canadian lwt men's double (Douglas Vander & Cameron Sylvestor) have also made it through to their A final, after coming second to the New Zealand double of Peter Taylor and Storm Uru who won in Munich.
The men's 8 rep saw the last US crew race today. At 500m gone there was nothing between the six crews, but the Chinese eight dropped back soon after, leaving the others in a closely fought race for the four available A final places. In the end, the USA eight just failed to make it, placing fifth when edged out by 100th of a second by the Italians on the line.
Most of the A and B finals take place tomorrow (there are a few later this afternoon) and with any luck the W8+ and W4x will be back in action.
Non-Olympic A Finals
The sun finally came out for the the non-Olmypic events finals, which started at 4pm with the LW1x. Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece, who came 6th in Beijing, added another World Cup gold to the one she picked up in Banyoles after a strong performance where she led from the start. The silver and bronze medals went to the two Italians, Laura Milani and Erika Bello.
There was little surprise in the LM1x where Duncan Grant, the New Zealand sculler also collected a second Gold medal to go with his Munich one. The Danish sculler Mads Rasmussen closed the gap in the last 500m but had to be content with silver, Italy taking bronze.
Italy further demonstrated that they're really quite good at lightweight rowing, when they picked up another two medals (gold and bronze) in the LM2-. Silver went to the French pair.
Only four crews raced in the W4- final, though that didn't stop them from false starting. After a clean go on take two, the Dutch crew who are doubling up in the W8+ soon pushed out to a comfortable lead, several lengths ahead of the Chinese, who are also doubling up in their W8+. While the Germans took bronze, leaving the 4th placed Italians medal free.
We've been spending the day playing "spot the Henley Stewards" - I've counted seven of them so far wandering around in various guises, including HRR Chairman Mike Sweeney and newly appointed Steward Katherine Grainger, who's been racing as the GB W1x entry.
Only four crews raced in the W4- final, though that didn't stop them from false starting. After a clean go on take two, the Dutch crew who are doubling up in the W8+ soon pushed out to a comfortable lead, several lengths ahead of the Chinese, who are also doubling up in their W8+. While the Germans took bronze, leaving the 4th placed Italians medal free. At the medals ceremony, the Dutch supporters' lengthy and slightly tuneless singing to mark the birthday of one of the winning crew, was eventually met with cries of "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" from the commentator, who was keen to get on to the Chinese medals, no sign of any swimming yet though.
The Stewards count is now up to eight - Greg Searle has appeared...
Lots of folks almost missed the final of the M2+ as there were only 2 crews entered (another nail in the coffin for this event?). The Italians won and the Poles came second.
The remaining three A finals are all four boat races. In LW4x, the Polish crew has a fast start but Germany had reeled them in by the 1000m mark and slowly edged ahead. The German quad had clear water at one point but a strong push by the Poles in the last 200m almost put them back ahead closing the Germans' lead down to a canvas, while Italy scored another bronze.
In a repeat of their race for lanes yesterday, the LM4x final was won by those speedy little Italians again, with the French coming second and the German quad third, well ahead of the Polish crew.
The final race of the day was the LM8+ A final. The Netherlands won comfortably much to the delight of the large contingent of Dutch Supporters. Italy collected yet another lightweight medal, silver this time, and , silver this time, and Germany the bronze.
Catch you tomorrow for the final World Cup finals!
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