Agosto 31, 2009
Mahe Drysdale: Semi-finals
The last three days all the kiwi crews have raced their respective repechages and semi finals and we are now down to the business end of the regatta.
Its been a bit of a mixed bag with some very promising results as well as a few disappointments.
The Lightweight Men’s Four is the first crew to finish at this regatta, they finished 4th in their repechage putting them through to the C final. They ended up finishing 4th in that today to give them a final position of 16th. This is a new crew this year and while they are in a tough event, they are a little disappointed with their efforts but will learn from the experience and hopefully now all understand the level that is required to compete on the world stage.
The Woman’s Quad also missed out on the A final in their repechage. They had probably their best start to a race this year, but were unable to maintain the momentum through the middle of the race and faded to 5th place meaning they go to the B final tomorrow where they will attempt to go for at best 7th in the world.
The Men’s Four faired better in the repechage winning it in a very tight race. This progressed them to the semi finals. They raced very well in the semi always being in touch with 3rd place and an A final qualifying spot, unfortunately in the last 500M they weren’t able to pass the Slovenians and finished a very close 4th to just miss out. Their semi was arguably the tougher of the two and they ended up with the 5th fastest time of the day which will hopefully give this crew a good boost in the coming years, they are very young and have a lot of potential so don’t think it will be long before you see them in an A final. They will contest the B final tomorrow to attempt to finish 7th in the world.
The Woman’s Double went straight through to their semi final. It was a tight race to start with then three crews started to establish themselves in qualifying positions, unfortunately the kiwis couldn’t stay with the pace and finished 4th to put them into the B final as one of the favourites.
The news then got a whole lot better for the kiwi team. Despite an uncharacteristically slow start by the Woman’s Pair they kept their composure and rowed through the whole field, to control the race and win their semi setting them up as one of the favourites for the final tomorrow (Saturday).
The Men’s Pair had a fairly straight forward time in semi final two of the pairs. They led from start to finish clocking the fastest time and showing they are still the favourites in the final. GB certainly look to have improved from Lucerne although I’m still picking our boys for the gold.
The Men’s Double had a great race, they battled it out all the way with Estonia and Germany, these three crews all finished in a photo finish in Lucerne with the Brits and our boys finished worst off with a 4th, this time they turned the tables and finished a very close 2nd to the Germans. They have certainly put themselves out there as capable of a medal tomorrow. This field is so tight that if things go there way gold is certainly not out of the question.
Emma Twigg raced just before me yesterday; she was in a good battle all the way with the two favourites for the title, Karsten and Knapkova. In the end she finished 3rd but will be pleased to be in the A final after last years B final at the Olympics. If Emma races well on Saturday anything could happen.
Men’s single is pretty much unchanged from last year. Semi final one contained Campbell, Synek and Tufte (5th, 2nd and 1st in Beijing respectively). Campbell led from start to finish, Synek just lurked in behind him while Tufte seemed to struggle ending up in a battle for a qualifying spot with the fast finishing Greek. Our semi looked weaker on paper (3rd, 4th and 6th from Beijing) but ended up being highly competitive. I got an early lead and once I got in front was able to control the race. The guys behind certainly never let me fully relax, first the Argentinean had a go, Tim Maeyens then took control of 2nd before attacks came from both Karonen and the German, Rocher, (he is an up and comer) and profited when a huge wash came across the course at around the 1400M mark. I was happy to have a lead and took it easy through the wash to make sure there were no mistakes, Maeyens got through OK but Karonen didn’t handle it well, giving Rocher an opportunity to open up a slight led that he continued to consolidate to the finish line. (the wash was caused by a boat that broke down in the middle of the course with all the available boats around rushing in to tow it off the course before we hit it).
So 5 of the 6 Olympic finalists are in the A final and I know all these guys very well. After watching Tufte this week a betting man would probably write him off, I wont be doing that unless I open up at least a 5 sec lead on him in the final (that is unlikely so watch him) he is an expert of getting it right on the big occasion. Campbell has proved he is still quick and is having a good year, he is likely to lead out and be in contention at the finish I will be watching closely. Synek is the unknown, he will either be a medallist or out the back door, he looked very dangerous for the first time this year in the semi. Again I will be watching closely and hopefully will be able to put him out of the picture early on. If he is lurking at 1500M he will be dangerous. You never write off anyone in the final, but I think Rocher raced his big race in the semi and unless he is hiding something won’t be in the medals in the final. Maeyens has improved a lot this year, while he isn’t the biggest threat, watch him he will be there; there abouts. Any sign of weakness from anyone toward the end, he will pounce and is more than capable of taking home a medal.
So we are in for a great battle Saturday 13:03 European time. I have been given a very favourable draw between Campbell and Synek so will be able to keep a close eye on both of them. I am feeling good and looking forward to it. This is the race that counts this year, we have all prepared for this one and I think its going to be a cracker.
To finish off the kiwi crews Duncan Grant raced his semi earlier today. He had a reasonable race finishing 3rd, I don’t think you have seen him at his best and he will certainly be a threat in the final.
The lightweight Men’s Double also raced today, they again weren’t quite as fast as normal out of the blocks but stayed in control, slowly coming through the pack and leading from the 1000M mark, they always looked comfortable and again will be looking to keep there unbeaten record intact come Sunday.
So all in all a good regatta for New Zealand so far. An exceptional (but possibly unrealistic) regatta would have been 12 from 12 crews in A finals, we have achieved 8 from 12 which is still a pretty good effort, especially considering only 4 of those crews have raced in these combinations internationally before this year. In Saturday’s program we have crews in 5 of the 7 races, that’s second only to GB with 6 from 7. Not bad for little old New Zealand. We will see how the next few days go, I am confident all the crews will step up and perform to their potential which should make for an exciting few days and hopefully a very success regatta for New Zealand.
Everyone can watch on either TV (Eurosport and Sky Sport) or live streaming on the web, go to www.worldrowing.com and look for the links to watch video streaming live.
Will be back after the finals for another update
Mahe
