Monday September 7th 1998

Lightweight 4 light touch paper

The men's eight finished second to the Lucerne winners Germany in their heat on Monday, an excellent performance showing the benefits of a good camp and a new order of Thatcher, Trapmore, Coode, Lindsay, Dennis, Hunt-Davis, Hamilton and stroke Attrill. The Germans, with the Cambridge Blues Stefan Forster and Marc Weber at 7 and stroke, had to work hard. The eight ranks as the second boat after the flagship four of Cracknell, Redgrave, Foster and Pinsent who qualified for a semifinal on the opening day. They are among the leaders if not looking at gold, others in the medal frame being the Americans, Russians, Canadians and Romanians. The repechage for the Brits is on Wednesday.

The men's lightweight four who have struggled all season exploded on Monday and forced the Olympic and world champions, Denmark, to work very hard to secure their undefeated record - undefeated, that is, with the exception of the final of the Stewards' at Henley. Second place means that the Brits must proceed by way of repechage, but their combination of experience and commitment has given them the confidence to be alongside the Danes in the final. The key to the lightweight four's spirit is commitment to the boat, which is one of only two lightweight men's events in the Olympic programme. James Brown, Jim McNiven, Dave Lemon and John Warnock may close the Olympic door to contenders for their seats by the end of the week.

Ten British crews started on Monday and only two avoided the repechages. These are Nick Strange and Adam Grey who qualified for the semifinals of the lightweight pairs by coming third in their heat, and Tracy Langlands and Jane Hall who were third in the lightweight double sculls, also reaching the semifinal round.

The rest rowed into repechages, disappointing for the men's coxed four who, despite the recent substitution of Dan Johnson for Toby Garbett, were expected to be with the pack. They finished fifth. The women's open and light quads both did poorly, finishing fifth and fourth respectively, but both have had injury problems. The women's eight, having lost the pair of Dot Blackie and Cath Bishop who are being left to concentrate on their own event, need to find something more to improve on fourth place. The men's lightweight quadruple and double respectively came second in their heats.

Tuesday sees repechages for crews who started out on Sunday. The single scullers Guin Batten, Greg Searle and lightweight Peter Haining all have good draws and are unlikely to be baulked in their passages to semifinals. There is no reason why the lightweight eight, Blackie and Bishop and the men's pair and double scullers should not survive another day also.

Link to summarised results.
Link to tomorrow's racing draws.
Worlds 1998 website.
FISA website.

© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1998.