Agosto 26, 2009
Rowing World Champs- Heats
Em Lucerna © Zofka
Yesterday and today we had all the crews race their respective heats to try and advance directly to A finals or Semi finals. If there are less than 12 entries in an event and you win your heat, you go straight to A final. If there are more than 12 entries, there will be a round of semi finals. To make it directly to Semi you will have to finish between 1st and 3rd (again depending on number of entries in your event).
So far everyone seems to be fairly well on track with only three crews not making it directly through and having to go through repechages in the next two days.
Results were.
- Duncan Grant LM1X, comfortable win, straight to semi (only heat winner went through)
- Woman’s Pair W2-, comfortable win, straight to semi (top 3 in each heat through)
- Men’s Pair M2-, comfortable win, straight to semi (top 2 in each heat through)
- Woman’s Double W2X, 3rd straight to Semi (top 3 in each heat through)
- Men’s Double M2X, 2nd straight to Semi (top 2 in each heat through)
- Men’s Four M4-, great race to finish 3rd behind two of the favourites Australia and Germany, a young crew and were third fastest time of all crews on the day, so will get a lot of confidence from that. Unfortunately only top 2 went to semi so they will have to come back tomorrow for the repechage but should get through from that to semi no problems.
- Emma Twigg W1X, 2nd behind the Chinese Sculler safely through to the semi (top 2 in each through)
- Me M1X, I didn’t have my best race, the Cuban sculler led me for the first 900M. I cruised in the 2nd half opening up a comfortable margin. I am directly through to semi final, was a bit of a rusty race but have a few days off to think about semi final and know what I need to correct to be back at my best on Thursday. (only heat winner went directly to Semi) I have been joined by Tufte, Campbell and Maeyens in the semis with the other scullers coming back tomorrow for repechages to make the semis.
- Lightweight Men’s Double LM2X, comfortable win, straight to semi (top 2 in each heat through)
- Robin Tinga, adaptive single, comfortable win, securing an A finals spot
- Lightweight Men’s Four LM4-, 4th in heat, only top 2 through to semi, they will have to come back for the repechage, tough event and will be a good race just to make the semis.
- Woman’s Quad W4X, 4th in their heat (1st in heat went to A final) they will have a repechage and need to finish in top four to make the A four.
The heats of the single were pretty interesting, being heats its always hard to tell exactly who is doing what, as most people do just enough to get through to the next round. Tufte was pushed quite hard in the last 500M by the Lithuanian (Griskonis) which was a little unexpected. Campbell showed he hasn’t slowed down and was always in control of his race and Synek ended up giving up in the second half to go through the repechage, (this isn’t that much of a surprise as Synek is quite often happy to go through the reps if he is pushed in the heats). The Cuban in my heat was a bit of a surprise, although I don’t expect him to make it past the semis unless he is hiding something more. In the final heat Maeyens showed he is still going well dispatching Karonen fairly easily. After the heats I would still expect the medals in the single to be shared between Tufte, Campbell, Synek and myself. Maeyens seems to have stepped up another level this year and is definitely capable of medalling. Depending on the semi draw I would expect Karonen or Griskonis to be the 6th A finalist. Obviously the semis should give me a further indication of who is doing what and who will be the big threats in the final.
Overall it has been a very successful start with 9 of the 12 NZ crews directly through to the semis or finals. The other 3 crews will be racing in the next two days and I’m confident they will all join us in the next round. The rest of us are training and preparing for the Semi finals that start on Thursday. Most of the team are starting to bounce off the walls as we cut down the training and start to peak for the finals on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a strange time of year and one of the few times you will see the rowers with excess energy and not absolutely stuffed from training.
I will be back later in the week to give you some more updates of progress and hopefully be able to report that 12 from 12 crews are in A finals.
Mahe
