The racing so far in Lucerne has been very fast, with perfect racing conditions on the Rotsee, save for the massive thunderstorm that that hit the city around 7:00 pm, right after the lightweight men’s eight final. That would have been the last race of the day except for a snapped buoy line during the first men’s quad semifinal that caused a 90 minute delay in racing. That pushed those races back to the end of the program, and must now be made up on Sunday morning. Details on when exactly those races were going to happen had not been finalized when everyone started running out of the media area. Update - These two races will be run at 8:33 and 8:39 on Sunday morning.
On the racing side of things, the US squad racing is large with 17 crews competing and multiple athletes doubling up. The highlight of the regatta so far has been the women’s four winning gold this evening just prior to the stoppage in racing. The crew of Jamie Redman, Sarah Zelenka, Laura Larsen-Strecker, and Mara Allen stormed out to a frantic first 500 and were level with Chinese. Once they settled into their rhythm, they moved on the field to win by open water.
The four has had been bounced around a bit in the last few days when teammate Erin Cafaro came down with a 24 hour illness, which pulled Larsen-Strecker out of the four to race in the eight. The crew even had to miss the race for lanes earlier in the day because of it. Word is Cafaro is feeling fine now, but row2k was unable to find out if she was planning on racing on Sunday. Sunday morning update - Cafaro was in the eight for this morning's row, and has been cleared by FISA to race in the eight in the final.
The race of the regatta so far has to be the second semifinal of the men's lightweight four. The race came down to four tenths of a second separating the top four places between ITA, SRB, NED, and GER. Of note was the furious sprint by the Dutch who trailed the reigning world champing German crew by over four seconds coming into the last 500.
Heading in to Sunday’s finals, the Americans have qualified 7 boats for A Finals and 5 boats for the B Finals, with the men’s quad still to be determined.
M4-
With two US fours in the same semifinal, the odds were with the Americans qualifying and USA1 (Lanzone, Newlin, Rummel, and Inman) took third in a tight race that saw the lead change hands multiple times between the top three crews with Australia taking the top spot, and New Zealand third. USA2 raced in sixth place for most of the race before catching Canada in sprint and finishing fifth. USA1 to the A Final and USA2 to B Final. USA1 is the same crew that finished second the Munich World Cup and won the Stewards Challenge Cup at Henley last week.
W2-
The women’s pair of Susan Francia and Meghan Musnicki won their repechage to advance to the A Final. The crew raced a controlled race and pulled away from the field in the second 500. The Germans finished a length back to grab the second qualifying spot. This sets the American pair up for two A finals as they are doubling into the eight as well. The two races are three and a half hours apart on Sunday.
W2x
The crew of USA1 (Stesha Carle and Kate Bertko) raced in first semifinal and finished second place behind the GBR double of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins. (Grainger finished second in the W1x in Poznan last summer) In the following semifinal, the USA2 entry of Megan Kalmoe and Margot Shumway raced to a third place finish behind Australia and Germany. Both US crews qualify for the finals and race against each other at 10:48, then with each other in quad at 1:31.
M8+
In a four boat rep with two to qualify for the final, Great Britain and USA grabbed the first two qualifying positions after the first 500 meters, taking a length lead on both Italy and Turkey. The crews traded seats the rest of the way down the course and both qualified.
Men’s 2x
USA1, Glenn Ochal and Warren Anderson finished in fourth place in their semifinal and missed the final A Final qualifying spot by two seconds. The crew finished in fourth at the Munich World Cup but was unable to find the speed today and will race in the B Final. In earlier action on Saturday, the USA2 entry of Joe Spencer and Stephen Whelpley led early and held off Denmark by a length to win the D Final.
M2-
Charlie Cole and Jake Cornelius drew a tough draw in their semifinal, getting the defending world champs, NZL, Greece, and Germany. The pair was unable to match the speed of the top three crews in the first thousand and was out of qualifying position. They finished in fourth and will race the B final.
W1x
Gevvie Stone had a barn burner of a semifinal today, spotting Lithuanian sculler Donata Vistartaite over a length lead for the third qualifying spot in the first 500. She nearly had her chased down, but ran out of water and missed qualifying for the A final by half a second. Had the race been the Henley distance and 112 meters longer, what would the outcome have been?
LM2x
Brian de Regt and Jonathan Winter of the lightweight double had a tough semifinal, with GBR, ITA, and GER setting the pace from the start breaking free for the three qualifying spots. The US finished in sixth place and will race in the B Final.
LW1x
Meghan Sarbanis rebounded from her close fourth place finish in yesterday’s quarterfinal to win the C Final. Sarbanis pulled away from the field in the final 1500 to win by eight seconds. Meghan has had some chronic forearm cramping recently, of which she fought through during the last 250 of Friday’s quarterfinal race.
LM4-
Following their fourth place finish in Friday night’s quarterfinal race, the light four won their C final on Saturday. The crew used a strong second 500 to pull away South Africa, Canada, and Spain.
Additional Notes-
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