Worlds 1999 Reports - Friday 27th August

Updates written during racing wherever possible, unless races were missed, in which case catch-up later.

Conditions: Calm, flat water: a light lane 1 cross-tail, sunny in patches.

Some B and C finals results

H4-: GER, ROM, EGY, POL, BLR qualified for the Olympics, NED left least. A tight race from start to finish, with good competitive racing.

H2x: Again five out of six to gain Sydney berths, and Croatia were the unlucky ones, well down throughout the race from the rest of the crews. Final order UKR-EST-USA-ITA-POL with the last three separated by just a seat.

F2x: Switzerland and Great Britain were the leading lights here, quite obviously on their way to the Olympic qualifying places seven and eight. The Swiss had it at first, but but gave in to a solid British push at 1200, while HUN-ROM-USA-DEN missed out.

H2-: Four to qualify for Sydney in the men's B final pairs, which left Romania and the fast-starting Greece out in the cold after the half-way point. Meanwhile South Africa did an excellent job fighting off the competition to win through to first, Canada's pair bandied insults with Poland and Slovenia, but finished second.

F2-: USA start to finish in this B final, with Ukraine solidly behind in the other Olympic qualifying spot. South Africa, Denmark, New Zealand and China missed out.

H1x: Five of the six scullers in the B final getting Olympic qualification, this was an extraordinary race. Juri Jaanson of Estonia came from the back of the field to take the lead from German Marcel Hacker, while Ali Ibrahim Aly of Egypt and Andris Reinholds fought behind. Jamie Koven from the States rowed well to get the last qualifying spot, but after Slovakia's Jan Ziska fell from third to last, he stopped with 20 metres to go. The other five, bashing away at each other, crossed the line, whereupon Hacker promptly fell in. In the C final, still a very serious matter in this high-class event, Nikola Stojic of YUG led from start to finish, GBR's Greg Searle stuck in some power to move from fourth to second, and ARG-AUS-RSA-BEL came in behind.

F1x: The B final was won by Georgina Douglas (AUS) from Gaelle Buniet (FRA), with Agnieszka Tomczak of Poland also gaining Olympic qualification, and the ROM-GBR-USA scullers following. The C final had Liqiu Zhou (CHN) from Kristine Bjerknes (NOR), and the back-injured Maria Brandin tackling a sprint finish to try and move from third to second.

Men's lightweight coxless pair, A/B semis

Three to A final, three to B final

Second race, pitting South Africa, Germany, Denmark and France against each other for the qualifying places, while the Netherlands and Japan were rather outclassed in the final two lanes. In the end Jean-Baptiste Dupy and Jean-Christophe Bette from France took the top spot, finishing strongly in the good conditions, and while South Africa put their big effort into the middle, temporarily second but then fading to fourth, Germany chased Denmark up into the other two places. Right in the last 50 metres, the Danish pair were making a foot a stroke on the French, ending just half a length down.

First semi, a lovely performance from the Irish pair of Neville Maxwell and Tony O'Connor, a length up with 400 metres gone and able to relax in the middle of the race before sprinting it up to the end. The Italians kept just a length behind them, and for a while it looked as if the Australians would be able to hold third place. But the Chinese pair had other plans, and they came cruising through in an excellent row, with GBR and USA some distance behind.

Men's quadruple sculls, A/B semis

Three to A final, three to B final

In the second of these semifinals, while China and Poland were left well behind, the crews from Italy, Germany, Ukraine and Australia harried each other up the course, ending in a cracking blanket finish which was too close to call without a TV replay. Germany had the lead for much of the race, with Italy behind by a foot or two, but Ukraine, at first well down, surged steadily forward, demolishing quads at the rate of one every few hundred metres as they went from fifth to first. At the end, they only just overtook the Germans, with the Australians and Italians in hot pursuit. Beepity-beep at the finish line, the crowd held their breath, and it was adjudged UKR-GER-AUS-ITA, in times spanning just half a second overall.

First semi: Austria looking tasty in first place, with the Netherlands making a remarkable comeback from the end of the field to take second by 1250 out, and hold it well against the Swiss in third. The USA had the real shocker, starting fine but losing third place to the Swiss right at the end, and dropping into the B final with Cuba and Belgium, by half a second.

Women's quadruple scull, A/B semis

Three to A final, three to B final

A very classy race from the German quad here in the second semi, stamping clear authority on the field and taking clear water early. Behind them the Ukrainians were equally unpressed, keeping their rate low and clearly saving the heavy guns for the final on Sunday. Denmark had a length over Romania for third place, with Italy and Australia in the final two.

First of two races, Russia's quad taking charge and powering to the front. At first Byelorussia looked threatening, but America took a steady second place early, and then China started working confidently and edged through into third. Not a hotly pursued semifinal, with Poland way out behind and GBR unable in their final sprint to push past BLR from fifth into fourth place.

Lightweight men's coxless four A/B semis

Three to A final, three to B final

Second up in this extremely competitive event came the Australians, hotly pursued by Italy and France. First off the stake were the Russians, but they were unable to maintain their pace, and were soon in a 4th/5th battle with Great Britain. Up ahead, Italy kept tabs on the Aussies, with France not far behind. At 950 metres out both these European crews stuck in a solid push, rating 39, but although it encouraged the Australians to remain pacy, they held a minimum half-length lead. With 200 metres to go Italy launched another assault, not that it impressed Australia much, and the three crews crossed the line well clear of fourth place.

The first semifinal featured the reigning World Champion Danish four, who recently pressed Redgrave and co. closely at Henley Royal Regatta. Three of this four won gold in Atlanta '96, in the first ever Olympic HPL4- final, and after Thomas Ebert joined the crew in 1997, they continued to win, naturally carrying off the World Cup this year in maximum points. The Dutch four have been gunning for them, though, and the Danes will have been unpleasantly surprised to find the boys in orange riding alongside for the whole of the first 500 metres. With the Danes rowing hard but confidently, Austria put on some tremendous pace, moving up from fifth to second over the second quarter. They closed to the Danes at 1400 metres, but the maestros tickled the rate up and dropped their oppo convincingly. Elating the crowd were the Canadians, though, who managed to keep in contact with Holland in third place through the bulk of the race, and hearing the grandstand give its fully belly-roar for the first time this championships, powered past the Dutch to snatch the last A final spot with two seats to spare. South Africa and Germany followed fifth and sixth.

Lightweight men's double scull A/B/C semis

Two to A final, two to B final, two to C final

The third race in this batch saw a real race for the B final places. It was no surprise that the famous Gier brothers, Michel and Markus, from Switzerland, hit their rhythm early and were leading by 900 metres. Bruce Hick and Haimish Karrash of Australia hounded them close, but neither double really had to fight hard to stay ahead of Japan, Netherlands and Finland, who were scrapping for third and fourth. In the end the Dutch broke the Finns within the first thousand metres, and from then on the qualifying results were assured, with Japan maintaining their third place to take them to the B final. Portugal received a huge cheer when they finally crossed the line, a minute behind the Finns.

The second semi had Germans Ingo Euler and Bernhard Ruehling dashing into the lead, and while still pressed, never very much in danger from the French, Greece and British behind them. The Greeks looked extremely good for much of the race, but were ambushed expertly by Pascal Touron and Thibault Chapelle of France, who did the damage at 250 to go and were able to take the second A final place in style. Britain's double fell in behind the third-place Greeks, and were never troubled by the Austrians and Slovakians in the C-final places.

The coaches' rate-watches will have been out at the start for the first of these three semis, since the classy Italian double, Michelangelo Crispi and Leonardo Pettinari, were able to sit comfortably two lengths up on the field, and hence did not show much of their true speed. Crew of the race was the Americans, Conal Groom and Robert Tucker, who lagged a little off the start, but came piling through the pack between 750 and 1250, cutting up first the Danes, then Ireland, and next demoralising the Russian double. Both qualifications were reasonably close, Ireland walking through Russia and snapping at the USA's heels for position 2 and Sweden only half a length off the Russian double but left in fifth..

Lightweight women's double scull A/B semis

Three to A final, three to B final

The second semifinal started with the strong crew of Sarah Garner and Christine Collins from the States taking a commanding lead. At first it was the Dutch and Bulgarian doubles keeping up with them, but the Bulgarians rapidly lost speed as they passed the 500 marker, and were unable to keep up with the field from then on. Meanwhile Hedi Poot and Laurien Vermuelst of the Netherlands seemed to be strong in second place, but as they neared the final stretch, Benedicte Luzuy and Christelle Fernandez of France, who had been steadily creeping up the field from a troubled start, accelerated hard and sneaked through into second place, leaving the Dutch unable to respond. They qualified, however, while the Canadian double, who had always been in contention for that third place, was overtaken in the final sprint, and go to the B final.

First semifinal of the day, and not one in which the qualifiers were ever in doubt. With Poland, Switzerland and Italy dropping out of the back of the race, Romania, Australia and Germany were left to row the course steadily, the only question being whether they would race for the lanes. In the end the answer was no, although once Constanta Burcica and Camelia Macoviciuc of Romania had established their lead at the half-way mark, they did just what was necessary, without breaking into top gear, to stay at the front.

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