The last day in Lucerne and, as per the usual World Cup format, the day started with the B finals of the Olympic class boats. The rain started about eight o’clock this morning, but nonetheless there are a lot more spectators at the course today despite the weather -- the FISA friends and family marquee at the finish looks busy for the first time. Curiously the organisers are encouraging betting on the races and Sporttip have a booth set up for people to place bets on the number of gold medals that certain nations win, though I can't say I've seen many people having a flutter so far...
As the rain began falling, with it came another flood of medical substitutions and withdrawals, including Guiseppe Lanzone, who was replaced in the men's eight by William Daly of the light men's four. If you recall, Guiseppe himself had replaced Jake Cornelius in the men's four on Friday. We had heard that Guiseppe was feeling ill as well, and it's not yet clear who will be in the US four in the final this afternoon (Lanzone may appear, having opted to race once, but not to double up into two A finals on the same day). All told, the US have four crews in B finals and eight in the A finals today (assuming the women’s eight and quad are well enough to race).
On to the B finals, of which there were fourteen.
China won the W2- B final, Greece the M2- and GBR the W2x. The M2x B final, with USA in lane one (Michael Sivigny & Stephen Whelpley), was the first of the finals to be televised on the big screens at the course. The Swiss double containing Swiss Olympian Andre Vonarburg soon moved into the lead to the sound of the Swiss supporters’ cowbells, leaving Belarus, USA , Poland and Germany in a neck and neck race about two lengths behind. The race for second stayed tight all the way to the line, where there was just over half a second between the 2nd (Poland), 3rd (Belarus) and 4th (USA) placed crews.
Tale Gjoertz won the W1x B final for Norway while, Lassi Karonen, the Swedish Olympic Sculler, won the M1x B final despite not having the best of starts. US sculler Warren Anderson put in a good performance in the first half of the race but moved from third back to fifth place, finally finishing 4th behind Norway 2 and Ireland.
There were only three crews in the M4- B final - the Czech crew another victim of "Lucerne Lurgi." Poland won after leading from the start, France 2 were second and Italy third.
The 3rd US crew in a B final was the LW2x of Kristin Hedstrom and Michelle Trannel. They looked smooth and relaxed as they powered their boat from 2nd place into the lead around the halfway point. In the remaining lightweight B finals, China won LM2x and the Netherlands the LM4-, after stealing the lead from Japan in the last 500m.
China, France and Estonia took part in the M4x B final, the French crew’s win never looking in doubt and the last of the B finals was a two boat race in the M8 between the US and China. The US guys looked gutted yesterday after missing out on an A final place by 100th of a second, and made sure they won the B final, although China pushed them hard the whole way. The crew hasn’t been together long, and the final World Championships lineup has not been named, so improvements may be expected over the next six weeks in the run up to the World Championships.
On to the A Finals!
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