Wednesday 22nd August 2001, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Some explanations from yesterday about missing crews - Laila Finska-Bezerra from Finland apparently withdrew from the LW1x reps for medical reasons, while the German 2+ who had breathing trouble on the line yesterday are out of competition with the same explanation, presumably preferring not to row the B final with a substitute on Saturday.
LM2-
First repechage rather spread out, NED leading from the start, and YUG moving quickly from fourth to the second qualifying position, which they hold to the line with ease. Second rep Chile start atrociously slowly, but with GER and AUS fading, CHI get past initial leaders ITA who are able to maintain enough speed to qualify in second. After the finish, GER show signs of breathing trouble, which gets the medics in a panicky twist.
LW4x
Germany kick off the race, but have increasing trouble keeping their speed up, so it is no surprise that two of the German lightweights collapse at the finish with heat fatigue and have to be hauled out of the boat after finishing third and out of qualification. This lets the USA through, and Greece follow after rowing through France and tiring Germany. The second rep is more of a walk in the park for Italy, leaders throughout, and they are content to let NED stay close to them, both well clear of non-qualifying DEN and AUT.
LM4x
This event's rep is a four-boat contest, three going through. First to show in front are Lithuania, then the Chinese take over, before a nice push from the USA at 1250 brings them back into contention from last place. At this point these three are nearly a length up on fading Mexico, and the qualification is not in doubt, so all three dawdle the final few hundred at a steady pace, letting the USA keep the lead, LTU and CHN following.
M4+
First rep, two through out of three, and SLO are never really in the race, letting ROM and CRO scrap for who will actually win. Croatia are quickest to the first marker, but ROM stick to them like glue, and push near the boating rafts to take over the lead. Being coxed fours, both crews are still sticking it in hard, but with SLO out of the picture, they don't need to blast for the finish. Second rep, ITA at 39 for much longer than GER who settle early to 36. GBR second, levelish with Germans as the Italians take a good length+ lead. Before halfway GBR, just slightly up on GER, push to close onto the Italians, but GER go with them. At the thousand ITA have nearly a length's advantage, and there's 0.29 seconds between GER and GBR, BRA well out of the back. Another big push from both crews, and that closes the Italians down a bit, second and third now rating 38 into the final 300 metres and nothing to choose between them. Massive GER effort on more time, but GBR qualifies second, leaving GER 0.18 seconds behind them.
LW2x
With the exception of Japan, dropping steadily out of the back, a very tight race. Three to go through out of five, and for much of the course there are bare seconds between the four leaders. Who goes first swaps between SUI and ESP with DEN breathing down both of their necks, while HUN are still only a couple of seats further back. As the finish line approaches, though, a big SUI push, egged on by the local cheerleaders, hoists them to the front again, and the race between DEN and ESP draws them slightly further off HUN, leaving the latter out of the A/B semi-finals.
LM2x
Rep one, POR and MLD are never likely to qualify, and with two out of four going through, that leaves SUI and ESP to do what they like. A steady row to the line, won by Spain. Second race, BEL and AUS trading pushes down the course, while CZE and CHN are clearly out of the running. AUS sculling longer in the water, make a push to the finish line which takes them through nearly a length up. Third race, Mexico's off at 51, after one false start, but this time they're all off again cleanly, and JPN get away quickest, with world champion Daisaku Takeda sculling strongly at stroke. GBR stalk closely behind them, the rest spreading out slowly behind, and the leaders JPN and GBR roll languidly across the line at 31, while the rest can't catch them. Fourth rep, the Danes lead from start to finish, while Russia start slowly but catch up from fourth to second, finishing well up on UKR and BRA.
LM4-
Three through from each race here, and it's clearly going to be CAN, SUI and GER in the first rep. CAN are quick and tidy out in front, while GER push through the Swiss, despite local hectoring, and are nearly a length to the good over the line. In the second repechage, we spend valuable commentary time hearing that all four coxless fours in the race have different rigs (work that one out), by which time the Aussies and Spanish are nicely up on NED, and both bollocking hard at 38-39 towards the line even though they'll both qualify. NED and JPN are neck and neck for the prized third place, while the Spanish four just sneaks through to beat Australia. The final semi's place goes to NED by half a length. Last rep, Portugal languish in fourth while Italy whizz out in fine style, USA and POL pacing along behind. It turns into quite a good fight between the USA and Poland, won by the former.
W4x
First rep a noisy affair between the USA and Australia. Once they're clear of Belarus there's no danger of either dropping out, but the US get pretty shouty on the line, clearly delighted. Second rep sees the Danes hauling along like brickies, but it's smoother Ukraine out in front, GBR several seats back, and it's two through from this heat. The position doesn't change for most of the course, Britain then edging up on Ukraine and taking over the lead for the end to finish two seconds quicker than the Americans.
M4x
UKR win the first rep, pushing past fast-starting DEN as the lactic acid takes its toll round about 750 metres. The other qualifiers, also rowing down DEN, are AUS and RUS, and all three crews wallop dramatically towards the finish because DEN don't fade very far and are never more than a third-length away from the coveted qualifying spot. That blitz is impressive and requires a photo-finish, but doesn't result in very fast times, to be honest. In the second, nobody's completely out of the pictures, the USA leading in splashy but immensely strong fashion. They only have a couple of seats on the Estonians, Sweden also close, and only Norway beginning to drop back. With three qualifying, it's last place they all want to avoid. USA and EST relax and coast over, SWE easily holding on to third despite a desperate rate-38 dash from the lagging Norwegians. Last rep BRA drop back a length every couple of minutes in last place, and while SLO initially impress, the first pushes from BLR and CZE in third and second take them clearly into the safety zone. Meanwhile Germany are clearly in control, with the cleanest start of all the repechage quads, and effortlessly recording the fastest overall time despite a lack of competition for much of the race.
W8+
The Romanians may be Olympic champions, but that hasn't stopped them needing to race the repechage. Belarus whizz off, but there is overlap between each lane, and they take the first marker with the USA nudging up behind them. Romania push hard at 750 gone, moving into second place and then taking half a length's lead at halfway, with the Germans and USA behind them. Two crews to drop out of this repechage, and ROM are up at 39.5 now, determined to regain their authority in the event, and finishing first, with GER, USA, BLR also qualifying. CAN and NED are rather out of the picture and will race each other in the B final.
M8+
An equally close field in the men's eights, and again the Olympic champions having to race the repechage after losing their form in the post-Sydney reshuffle. The Brits go in the first rep of two, each seeing two crews qualifying to the A final. Straight off first time, and a mountain of spray flying off the Canadian blades as the five eights battle their way down the first hundred metres. GBR at 39, moving up, RUS a slight lead as the Dutch drop back with 400 metres gone. EGY also dropping behind, but not much to choose between them all. GBR take a smidge of a lead at 1000 gone, CAN and RUS hard on their tails, GBR starting to increase their lead slowly as CAN move into second. Less than a length separate these two from Russia, the British lead just a few seats, 38.5, CAN pushing hard, GBR at 43, CAN at 41, RUS too far back to do anything. Second rep has even more pedigree, with Australia and Croatia defending the silver and bronze medals respectively. Italy out quickly, but Croatia quicker, AUS and USA more or less in line behind them. POL trail the leaders by a length after a couple of hundred metres, and are probably already out of the frame. USA in second after 1000, ITA third another bit of a length back, and the Aussies seeming to slide back a bit. Croatian stroke Branimir Vujevic is really going for it, stretching like an orang-utan for each catch, and their stern is almost clearing the USA's bow-blade as they pass 500 to go. Italy's blown, right back, POL also way behind, and now the Aussies are charging, 41 in the final hundred metres, moving a seat a stroke on the Americans but it won't be enough to grab them that A-final place.
So what do we have in store now? The weather has been kind and predictions remain largely fair, so semi-finals day for Group A could see some rapid splits in close races. Even the repechages were often no more than 12 seconds off world best times, which isn't much when the second-string crews are in action and not many were pushed to qualify. The temperature is heating up which will improve matters, although it makes it even tougher for the racing oarsmen and women. The only cloud on the horizon is the low entry numbers - tomorrow just six of twelve events have semi-finals, and it's even worse on Friday, only five sets of crews racing. Three events stand out with big entry numbers: M1x, M2- and LM2x, although the interesting question in heavyweight coxless pairs is probably who will get third place in each A/B semi.
That is not to say the standard is low - it is especially pleasing to see Egypt and Japan racing in large numbers, and hosts Switzerland have a decent number of crews through to finals or semi's, even if their medal chances are not much higher than usual. The reason for the high standard but low crew numbers is the doubling up, this season's top rowing fashion. Australia's LM8+ probably takes the biscuit, seven of their oarsmen rowing in other events, and France's lightweight men's four are up to the same trick. The heavyweight eights also see a useful number of doublers, personnel from ROM W8+, BLR W8+, GBR W8+, CAN W8+, NED W8+, ROM M8+ together with Russia's men's cox in action twice. The impressive one is the small-boats trick, exemplified by NZL's Evers-Swindell twins (W2x and W4x) and GBR's Pinsent and Cracknell (M2+ and M2-, bad luck guys, it's not as impressive as two Olympic events...). However, all four are utterly upstaged by Ekaterina Karsten, odds-on favourite to defend her Olympic singles title and then scarily whizzing up to the start of the women's doubles final just sixty minutes later. If NZL don't stop her in that one, I reckon it will be the most worthy double-up of all time.
Current qualifications to A finals or A/B semi's (not including LW2-):
17 USA 16 Germany 14 Italy 13 Great Britain 11 Australia 10 France 9 Netherlands 7 Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland 6 Belarus 5 Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark 4 Argentina, Ireland, Lithuania, Ukraine 3 Croatia, Cuba, Greece, New Zealand, Slovenia 2 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Chile, Hungary, Estonia, Japan, Slovakia, Sweden, Yugoslavia 1 Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Norway.