World Championships 2000
Zagreb, Croatia, at Lake Jarun, Tuesday 1st August 2000
Men's Coxed Four, M4+
The first race has set the tone for the week: no real announcement of racing or commentary, the results scoreboard is not yet showing any splits, just the order at the markerpoints, and as the crews sprinted towards the line, the stands resounded to baboonish chants of "U S A". The echo factor up here near the roof was so effective that I'm sure there will be a cold war of such yelling from now until Sunday evening, as everyone tries to drown the Americans out. The Czech Republic led from the start, as far as we could see on the bare-bones scoreboard, but towards the finish USA and France, harrying them close, made it a swift 1-2-3 dash across the line. All three qualify straight to the semi-finals, leaving Denmark and Russia going to the repechage.
The amusing thing about that race had been the way the scoreboard, intent upon writing "Czech Republic" in full, by doing so pushed the time for the Czechs off the other end of the screen. Result: 6:1 minutes, apparently, so we will have to wait for the full sheet to find out what actually happened. You do get the distinct impression that Croatia hasn't worked out how to do this kind of event yet, and is making it up on the spot.
Second race, just four crews in it, so the first three to the semi's and the last to the repechage. Great Britain set the stall out early with a solid row, keeping their noses ahead of Germany right the way down the course, with Croatia well behind the leaders but securely ahead of Ukraine.
The final heat in this event saw Romania marking out a decent lead, with Italy and the Netherlands snipping at each other one length back for most of the race. Lithuania were never in with a chance here, and although qualification was assured, it was entertaining to see ITA and NED both trying to get the second rather than third place: setting up their mind-games for later in the week.
As we get the full results twenty minutes later, we see that the second heat was the fastest, both GBR and GER posting quicker times than the other two winners. Plenty of dross in this event, which will be found out in the repechages, but the semi-finals are now stacked with the competitive crews, and there should be some good racing later in the week.
Women's Coxless Four, W4-
Here the qualification rule is first to the A final, rest to repechage. Two heats, and heat 1 saw Belarus well in the lead at the first markerpoint, Denmark with steering hiccups nearly veering into their buoys as they battled with the Netherlands. Belarus duly won it and went to their A final place, NED beating DEN to second-place honours. Ukraine and China weren't in the same race, China bringing up the rear so many lengths behind the umpire's boat that they were past being washed down.
Heat 2 was a more interesting race: Romania led by the board, but as the crews neared the finish it became obvious that with them in lane one, Poland in lane five were making a very strong challenge, and it could be close. Romania just held on, in a 0.28 second verdict, with USA ten seconds back, leading Germany and Russia in.
Men's Coxed Pair, M2+
Two very full heats, with once again qualification being a single crew through to the A final, the rest stuffed into the repechage lottery to get their places the hard way. In the first heat, the USA led for most of the race, but France came steadily through from the middle of the pack, and by 1500 metres were within a snip of the leaders. The French pair then "did a Searle brothers" and clawed their way through USA, stroke by stroke, just before the finish. Great racing, with GBR following the USA in third, Russia fourth, Germany fifth and Croatia half a minute behind the field in sixth.
Heat 2 was a Greek party. Led off the start by UKR and CZE, Greece forged steadily through by 1000 metres, and from then on were not troubled, finishing five seconds clear of CZE, with ITA third, UKR fourth, ROM fifth and HUN sixth. The times were a little slower than the previous heat, but given the difference in the race shape, that's not too surprising. Greece, France and the USA should have quite a fight in the final.
Women's Lightweight Coxless Pair, LW2-<
The event for those who didn't qualify into the LW2x for the Olympics, in many cases, but not, today, marked by competitive racing for the top place. One to the A final, the rest to repechage, and in both heats it was a walk in the park for the fastest crew. In the first, the USA pair, looking extremely strong, led the field home by twenty seconds, Germany finishing second, Spain third, and Hungary fourth.
In the second heat, with the Ukraine pair scratched, Great Britain had a similarly easy ride, finishing well clear of Greece and Zimbabwe, who were sniping at each other right to the line, although GBR had a five-second slower time than USA's result in the previous race.
Men's Lightweight Coxless Pair, LM2-
In this event, with sixteen entries, the first in each heat goes to the A/B semifinals, all other crews to the repechages. Three heats, and the first kicked off with a close race between the Yugoslavians and the Dutch, won by the latter, who had broken free at 400 metres and then successfully kept a few seats ahead of their chasers, to the line. Poland came third, Germany fourth, Hungary fifth and Croatia thirty seconds back in sixth.
Heat number two saw rather a similar race, led by the Italians from the word "Go", but with Denmark never a full length down on them. Denmark couldn't quite close the gap sufficiently, though, and Italy took the semifinal spot, with DEN, GRE, SWE and USA in order behind them.
The final heat of this event was a closer one for much of the course, Canada keeping hard on the heels of leaders Great Britain, and both crews sprinting at 37-38 from before the 250 to go mark. But with less than 200 metres left, the Canadians clearly decided they couldn't make the semi's, and knocked it on the head, dropping to rate 26. GBR also eased off the pressure a little, and the two pairs finished in that order, followed by FRA, MEX and ESP. The latter two heats were the faster ones, so there is a good matched set of at least four competitive crews in the event.
Women's Lightweight Single Sculls, LW1x
Another stringent cut, just one sculler per race through to the semi-finals. The first heat was a walk in the park for the USA's Lisa Schlenker, always in command and by the end able to take her foot off the gas a little as CZE and SWE closed towards the line. POL, ZIM and POR finished in the final three places.
Heat two was also dominated, this time by Finland's Laila Finska-Bezerra, ahead of NED and ITA, a few seconds gap to each. Then a bigger gap to CRO, HKG and DEN respectively.
The final heat in this series must have been a lot of fun for Ireland's Sinead Jennings, who finished her row a full 24 seconds ahead of nearest rival Angelika Brand from Germany. By this time everyone sculling was paddling along, the finish order being LAT, GBR and VEN in the final three places.
Men's Lightweight Single Sculls, LM1x
This event has twenty-four entries, a full set of four heats, with the first sculler going to the semi-finals by right, the rest repechaging merrily on Thursday.
Heat number one, and a little bit of a pisstake by Czech Michal Vabrousek, who sculled the last few hundred metres in the lead rating 28, while the chasing pack were headed up by Swiss Nicolas Laett rating 34. Elegant stuff, with GER, YUG, RUS and VEN in the other placings.
The second heat followed a similar pattern, Filippo Mannucci of Italy doing a good demolition job on experienced Hungarian Gergely Kokas, with FIN, ESP, BEL and NZL following on. New Zealander Rob Hamill, bringing up the rear, is the same guy who won the Trans-Atlantic Challenge in 1997 with Phil Stubbs, the latter tragically dying in a plane crash a year later. Perhaps the course here is a tad short for Hamill, as he chonked along low-rating at the back of the pack, though by no means the slowest sculler in the event.
Heat three was led in by Sam Lynch from Ireland, looking particularly relaxed ahead of SVK and USA. The winners of these heats are displaying especial class, and clearly there's a lot more fire to come. Fourth to sixth places were filled by CHI, CRO and SLO in order.
Pole Pawel Randa had a harder job in the final heat, coming from third place at the first marker to draw steadily ahead of Frenchman Fabrice Moreau. Moreau, who had led the field early, clearly shot his bolt by the end, unable to respond to Brit Giles Monnickendam's late push to the finish. POL, GBR, FRA, BUL, POR, DEN the final order. The fastest qualifier was Mannucci out of these four heats.
Women's Lightweight Quad Sculls, LW4x
Practically a blanket finish in the first heat, won by Austria over USA and Denmark, all three of these qualifying to the semi-finals. Italy were snapping at their heels, unlucky to be sent to the repechage, and Russia were right out of the race, in fifth.
For the second and third heats, only four crews raced, so three went through, and one to the rep. In heat 2, Germany held off Japan to claim the first spot, with Ireland twelve seconds behind the two of them for the final qualifying place ahead of South Africa.
In the final heat of this event, Australia and China had a cracking race to the finish line, both quads clearly keen to stretch their muscles in a race with bite. Australia won the contest, China a good space ahead of the other two crews, while Great Britain, rowing rather short, managed to hold off the Netherlands enough to qualify through.
Men's Lightweight Quad Sculls, LM4x
Three to the semi's here, and while Italy were winning comfortably from Denmark, Hungary and Czech Republic, Canada had a nightmare during the last segment of the race. Originally fourth, they appeared to catch a disastrous crab with 200 metres to go, certainly came to a full stop, and only got going again, having great trouble steering, after quite a pause, finally coming in last and looking mightily hacked off.
Germany were comfortably in charge of the second race, Sweden a length behind them and Netherlands third by a couple of seats, but with Portugal chasing aggressively to the line to try and qualify. This was the final order, in a time several seconds slower than the earlier heat, with the USA, who had thrown most of their firepower into the second quarter of the race, disappointing to come in fifth.
In the final race, Japan did a great job and headed the places, with Austria and Spain behind them. Ireland's quad, promising much on personnel alone, did not manage to qualify, having a miserable race and trailing in well behind the leaders. It was the fastest heat, but the Irish time still put them next-to-last overall.
Men's Lightweight Eights, LM8+
Nine crews in the event, qualification for just one per heat to the A final. The first race was a classic, led off by NED, who started fast but were rapidly overhauled by USA and AUS who both put in excellent second quarters. This took the States into the lead, and though Australia dogged their footsteps and clawed back valiantly, the USA had it in the bag, crossing the line two and a half seconds clear of the Aussies. NED were third, GER fourth and ESP fifth.
The second heat featured only four crews, and was dominated by the British eight. They got an early lead, and kept it decisively, leading Japan, Denmark and Italy home by a couple of seconds in a very similar time to the other heat, and under-rating the other eights all the way.
Late British team news:
We gather that Tracey Langlands, the GBR lightweight women's single sculler, has something of a chest infection, so paddled very sedately today to keep her place while she finds out how bad the illness is. She took 20 strokes burst off the start and was leading by a length before she calmed down to a low-rate walk. Here's hoping that the infection is not serious and that tomorrow's day off can help her recover OK.
More tomorrow from the Rowing Service, as the junior events kick off with heats during the morning.