ROWING SERVICE SPECIAL COVERAGE OF THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006 AT DORNEY, ETON Flat Friday and Cold Bubbles WorldsBlog 2006 chapter 7a: 25th August (Trevor reporting) 09:00 Racing is under way with the inaugural adaptive women's single sculls. This arms-only race over 1000m has more entries than some of the senior events like coxed pairs and lightweight 8s. In order to ensure that it is arms only, all the athletes were assessed earlier in the week, and are strapped to their chairs to prevent them from using their backs, and according to the commentator, the rules specify that this strap shall be at nipple level . Ouch! It's all quite organised in the media centre. The first international regatta I attended was the Worlds up north in Strathclyde a full 10 years ago, and my duties then ranged from putting results on the web race-by-race, to being a bit of a gopher looking up obscure drugs declared by Eastern European Athletes (which all turned out to be local brand names of contraceptives if I remember). It's much more organised here, with each accredited paper having a pre-booked desk with power and network connections, and a volunteer brings a steady stream of results (which yesterday Cracknell waved away with the nonchalence and distain for lesser species that only a heavweight world and Olympic champion would impart). Rachel has just prompted me indirectly to make a comment about the weather by wondering aloud why her laptop screen was darker today. I know she has an Apple Powerbook - it miaaows beside me from time to time - but I don't think it's got one of these dysfunctional Sony batteries making the news today...far more likely, I put it to her, that the contrast is low because it's actually quite sunny! The wind is hardly noticeable at all today, the flags are limp at the poles, and it's warmer. In our club we sometimes joke about the less serious members posting erg scores the faster members think they could do arms-only, but it really is noticeable that the athletes with the longer strokes are winning these heats. This is serious for these athletes though, and all of these races are keenly contested - and well supported from the grandstands. The legs-trunk- arms mixed 4s are both good races, and in the second the Dutch lead the Americans in by 0.6s. Meanwhile we hear that the Chinese men's AM1x (arms 1x) sculler Xiao Luo had an equipment breakage in his heat, and for safety reasons was towed in, but we've just heard that he will be allowed to contest the repechage tomorrow as long as he rows over at the end of today's racing. 11:00: right, the remaining senior semi-finals are about to kick off to decide the outstanding finalists for lighweight pairs, doubles and coxless fours, and the men's quads and eights. In the first lightweight pairs race Australia immediately go out to a clear-water lead in the first minute. The GB pair of Bartley and Chambers (no relation), fresh from the U23 worlds, are in turn a length up on Russia. Conditions are much better today and the water is flat, which should make for some good racing, even if the lack of a tailwind makes some of the times slower. Marle Drysdale was explaining earlier about how careful people had to be yesterday not to make mistakes in the tricky conditions, but there will be no such problems today. The British pair put in a push and get an overlap back on Australia, meanwhile Russia push on too, so the first three crews are now equally spaced and the rest look out of it with 500m left. It's the first three to go through, and Australia push on a bit to get their length lead back. "Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi, oi, oi!" is the shout from the finish grandstand as they win by a length, with Britain working hard to keep the Russians at bay and ensure a better lane draw in the final. The second semi is a cracker with the first three from Lucerne all in this race, and there are battles going on all over this race. Spain have just pushed through the Germans at the front, well clear, but the race for third is hot too, with Italy drawing away from the French with 500m left. The French put in a fast finish, but it's too late. There are definitely more spectators at the course today, most of them shunning the grandstands for the bank. It is quite warm and I'm wishing I had brought my sunglasses. In the lightweight women's doubles, the Greek girls are wearing black long sleeve shirts and black leggings under their one pieces...that's got to be hot, and the way the sun is glistening off them makes them look quite shiny. Seems to work for them though, they lead for the first 750m but the Chinese have now taken a good lead and show the others the way home, from Canada, and a resurgent Greek boat takes the third qualifying spot with a late effort. In the second heat the experienced British double of Helen Casey and Jane Hall go for GB, and are trying to establish themselves in the top 3 behind Finland who have led all the way and are a length up. Into the third quarter the British girls turn it on and get into second but here comes Australia. They pip the tiring Finns hold off Great Britain by 0.07, these three crews going to the A final on Sunday. 12:20: right, I've been following all three lightweight men's 2x semi's on Rachel's bike. The first two races are both very close affairs...in the first the final 500m decides the placings and Italy and France emerge from the pack in the final reckoning. The second semi is an absolute cracker, half a second separating the top 4 at half way. I almost fell off laughing at the radio commentator saying that Greece were comfortable in third, as there was a length separating the top 5 boats at the time... it was impossible to call until the last 250m where Australia just held off the Germans for the two places in the final. The third semi has the British double, so special interest in this. Over the middle half it spreads out a bit and is the most spread out of the lot, with Denmark leading Britain by nearly a length, in turn leading Poland about the same distance. Coming down the track in the final 250 everyone winds it up, and the Polish charge puts pressure on James and Mark who respond but can't hold off the fast-finishing Poles who steal it on the line. A great disappointment for the British crew. Their coaches in the peleton which followed the race exchange a few words with each other and team manager David Tanner turns round to pedal back to the start with a philosophical "well, that's the way it is". This is an Olympic event, so this half-way point in the Olympiad is an important checkpoint, which is reflected in the British crew being followed by both the chief lightweight coach Robin Williams and also by Jurgen Grobler, as well as team manager Tanner. The very next race is the lightweight men's fours, the other Olympic event remember, with more British interest. The US crew crack at half way and drop from second to fifth, and the Brits step it up to come in just under half a second behind France and ahead of a fast finishing Irish crew being pushed by the even faster finishing Germans, who have left themselves too much to do too late. Smiles, back-slapping and hand-shakes amongst the British coaches now - what a fickle thing fate can be sometimes! 12:55: Ok it's the big boy's eights semis now. The defending Americans are leading all the way in the first semi, half a length to the good from Italy and Germany, who push very hard in the last 500m and show their bow-ball in front briefly until the Americans respond and..gosh..that was very close on the line. From the TV monitor it looks like the Germans just got it, but the official result gives it to the Americans by a mere hundreth of a second, with Italy joining them in the final. America eventually won the re-row of the coxless fours semi yesterday, so seem to be involved in the thick of all the really close races this week. In the second semi Britain have a poor start and are out of the back a bit, about three quarters of a length behind the leaders Australia. At halfway Britain pick up speed and smoothly take China and start setting about Poland. They're having a very good third 500m, and end it in third place behind Canada. They've taken Poland with them, only about a foot behind. The noise from the stands, as befits a good race with a home crew to encourage, is the loudest so far this week, and is rewarded with Britain finishing second, joining the winners Australia and Poland in the final. The results show that GBR had the fastest second half of this race, but to give themselves a chance on Sunday they'll want a much better start than that. They'll definitely need it need it too - their time was a full 8.5s slower than the Americans who won the first heat. 13:25: Rachel was following the eights by bike, and has arrived back in the stand just in time to go and do some crew interviews. Meanwhile I'm trying to fix her ear-piece radio - they're useful for first-half commentary and general waffle and the odd interview, albeit a pinch of salt is sometimes required to believe what's said - as the clip to go over the ear has popped out. I need a persuader to ease it back in, but probably not the persuader (or "rigger bending tool" as they are listed in some rigger parts lists) spotted yesterday being used in relation to some rigging adjustments on a Hudson, which needed one person to lean on the rigger and one on the lever..don't try this at home folks! A stapler provides us with the necessary leverage and RQ can receive radio again. 13:50: the last race of the day, bar the Chinese adaptive sculler's row-over, is the men's eights C final between Ukraine, Netherlands, Belarus and Croatia. A couple of these crews will be disappointed and surprised to find themselves in the C final, having done quite a lot better at Lucerne, the Dutch and Belorussians amongst them, but they make a race of it, with Belarus holding off the Dutch for about a length in the final verdict. Remember the comment I thought was amusing yesterday about FISA admonishing crews whose boats weighed in dead on the minimum limit? Well, in the E final of lightweight men's 2x, the Egyptian boat fell foul of this rule and was relegated to last (from third), and then again 3 races later the Chinese light coxless 4 were relegated from third in the D final to last. Oops. Grabbing a cup of tea now that racing has finished, I bump into someone in the media centre who is the spitting image of the Portugese football coach Luis- Felippe Scolari. Well, if Clive Woodward can go from rugby to football, what chance a man-manager like Big Phil going from football to rowing? That's it for today. The final preparations and practice for the medal ceremonies at the weekend are going on, with the result being that David Beckham won gold, from Zinadine Zidane in Silver and Jose Mourinho in Bronze! Meanwhile behind them crews still in these championships go out for their afternoon paddle, largely ignored except when the volunteer workers see the GB 4- cruise past on their second lap. They've just taken the champagne into the big fridge in the media centre with a comment of "ooh, it's cold champagne... really, is there any other sort?

Copyright the Rowing Service 2006. Special Worlds 2006 coverage courtesy of Rachel Quarrell, Paul Azzopardi and Trevor Chambers. Additional contributions and heckling from Hammer Smith Esq.