Regatta Online - World Championships

World Championships 1999

25th August 1999

FISA World Championships 22-30 August 1999

Eight qualify for Olympics; three more boats to semi-finals

Christopher Dodd reports from St. Catharines, Canada

Olympic boats

The men's eights were the highlight of the second repechage day, with the British crew being the first to qualify for an Olympic place next year by winning in 5:24.73 to secure a place in Sunday's world championship final. Seven boats qualify for the Olympics from these world championships. Italy qualified behind them, and Netherlands and Romania succeeded in a great tussle to qualify against Canada in the other rep. The Netherlands' time was 5:22.80 and Romania' 5:23.06 (both breaking the previous senior world record). Australia and Germany missed the cut, despite their star oarsmen - Michael McKay of the Oarsome Foursome stroking the Aussies and the Cambridge Blues Marc Weber and Stefan Forster in the stern of the German boat.
Finalists: Russia, US, Netherlands, Romania, GB, Italy.
Men's eight, repechage 2: 1 GB 5:24.73; 2 Italy 5:25.03; 3 Canada 5:26.51; 4 Croatia 5:29.90; 5 France 5:30.40.

Tim Male and Tom Kay won their repechage of the lightweight doubles in the fastest time of the day, romping down the course ahead of the Swedes Anders Batemyr and Anders Christensson who also qualified.
Semi-finalists: Russia (Ovetchko/Dimitriatchev), Italy (Crispi/Pettinari), Germany (Euler/Ruehling), France (Touron/Chapelle), Australia (Hick/Karrash), Switzerland (Gier bros), Greece (Polymeros/Miliotis), Denmark (Bech Jensen), Netherlands (van der Linden/Aardewijn), Japan (Hase/Takeda), Slovakia (Podstupka/Mlynarik), Ireland (O'Toole/Holland), Portugal (Teixera/Prata), US (Groom/Tucker), Finland (Haltsonen/Haavikko), GB (Male/Kay), Sweden (Batemyr/Christensson).
Men's lightweight double sculls, repechage 6: 1 GB (Tim Male, Tom Kay) 6:30.34, 2 Sweden 6:24.26, 3 Indonesia 6:43.06, 4 Peru 7:02.44.

The men's lightweight coxless four (James Brown, Jim McNiven, Dave Lemon, John Warnock) were second to the superb Australian crew for three-quarters of their lightweight fours repechage, after which Canada pipped them for second place. But the British are through to Friday's semi-finals.
Semi-finalists: Denmark, Austria, France, Australia, Canada, GB, Netherlands, US, S Africa, Italy, Germany, Russia.
Men's lightweight coxless fours, repechage 1: 1 Australia 5:47.76; 2 Canada 5:52.01; 3 GB 5:53.47; 4 Japan 5:55.47; 5 Greece 6:00.55.

Tracy Langlands and Jane Hall head for the C/D semi-finals after just failing to qualify for the semi-finals in their repechage. From third place at 500 they pulled dipped to fourth for the middle part of the race in a desperate struggle with the Spanish crew, while the Australians Virginia Lee and Sally Newmarch led. In the last 500 metres the Spanish were done for and the race for the second qualifying place was with the Bulgarians Viktoria Dimitrova and Margarita Petrova. Langlands and Hall put in a good sprint but failed to catch the Bulgarians by 32 hundredths of a second.
Semi-finalists: US (Collins/Garner), Romania (Burcica/Macovicuc), Germany (Stephan/Blasberg), France (Luzuy/Fernandez), Netherlands (Poot/Vermulst), Italy (Barelli/Skerlava), Hungary (Remsei/Alliquander), Switzerland (Weisshaupt/Pluegge), Poland (Kuncewicz/Mokronowska), Canada (Meredith/Milne), Australia (Lee/Newmarch), Bulgaria (Dimitova/Petrova).
Women's lightweight double sculls, repechage 4: 1 Australia 7:01.90; 2 Bulgaria 7:06.10, 3 GB (Tracy Langlands, Jane Hall) 7:06.42; 4 Spain 7:10.39; Austria 7:12.52.

The quadruple scullers Peter Gardner, Garry McAdams, Michael Webb and Tom Gale were third in their repechage and move on to the semi-finals C and D, having failed to get either of the two qualifying places for the semi-finals. They were beaten by the Netherlands and Poland.
Semi-finalists: Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Belgium, Cuba, China, Australia, US, Netherlands, Poland.
Men's quadruple sculls, repechage 4: 1 Netherlands 5:44.64; 2 Poland 5:48.67; 3 GB 5:51.50.

Non Olympic boats

Mark Partridge and Tom Middleton finished third in their rep to qualify for a semi-final of the lightweight pairs. They dipped to fourth at halfway, but the Russians who had led the race faded and the British ran in behind South Africa and the Netherlands.
Semi-finalists: Ireland, Germany, US, Italy, Denmark, Australia, France, China, Japan, S Africa, Netherlands, GB.
Men's lightweight coxless pairs, repechage 1: 1 S Africa (Justin Hagermann, Ross Hawkins) 6:33.93; 2 Netherlands (Bastiaan Sorgdrager, Sjoerd Verhallen) 6:33.94, 3 GB (Mark Partridge, Thomas Middleton) 6:34.09; 5 Russia 6:37.31; 5 Hungary 6:45.10.

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