Race reports
Day III: Sunday 22 June
Day 3 (Finals)
World Cup points in all four races
2 bronze and 4th and 7th
On arrival for training rows the Lake Malta course was looking a picture compared to the previous two days but a nice holding cross head meant that plenty of hard work was ahead.
Four Australian crews raced and the first away was the men’s lightweight double in the B Final. After 7 weeks in Europe the Boatman and Team Manager were working quietly behind the scenes for the quick afternoon get away to meet the Frankfurt flight with excess luggage early tomorrow morning while the crews were in full flight.
Men’s Lightweight Double: (Sam Beltz / Tom Gibson)
After trailing the Germans for half the race the Australians put their foot down in the second half to record a one-length win in 6:44.47. It was pleasing to see a more consistent race and they can go back to Perth with the knowledge of being in the top seven crews in the world while they hunt for the medals.
Men’s Coxless Pair: (Karsten Forsterling / Terrence Alfred)
With an enthusiastic expectation of taking on the “big boys” the Australian pair laid down a solid start with no fear and took an early top-two position. Realising that the medal chances came against the crews alongside they worked hard to hold a 3rd position but in the end could not hold out the South Africans over the last 750m of the race. A good 4th place was earnt in 6:50.79 and they can go to the Beijing spares race with confidence of continuing a fantastic team role as heavyweight reserves.
Women’s Lightweight Double Scull: (Amber Halliday / Marguerite Houston)
Moving from 4th in Lucerne to being on the podium in Poznan means our defending World Champions are gradually making their mark. They were steady throughout and when they start some speed training they will be nearer the lead and in the better end of the medals. Canada led from start to end with the Aussies in third place, 2.57 sec behind the winning time of 7:27.23
Men’s Lightweight Coxless Four: (Rod Chisholm / Anthony Edwards / Ben Cureton / Todd Skipworth)
They seem to mirror the lightweight girls performance by being steady throughout and at one stage in the 3rd 500m the boys took the lead. France moved ahead again and held on to the Italian charge as the Aussies worked side by side with the Italians with only 0.02 sec separating them in the end. France won in 6:08.76 with the Australians 1.24 behind in 3rd place to earn a bronze medal.
It is now time to pack up and return to Australia to commence the final stages of what will be an exciting campaign. We certainly left our mark in Europe as a forerunner to Beijing.
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Day II: Saturday 21 June
Day 2 (afternoon)
1 to Final A; 1 to Final B
The strong tailwinds on the Lake Malta course remained for the afternoon racing. For all crews it was certainly challenging in the 2nd 1000 metres.
Australia was only represented by the men’s pair (repechage) and the men’s lightweight double scull (semi final) today with the other crews having gone directly to Sunday’s final.
M2- Karsten Forsterling / Terrence Alfred
The pair needing a top-two finish started well but trailed the very-fast starting Poles who threw out the challenge to the more-favoured crews from France (1), Denmark and Australia. Both the FRA and DEN crews are their Olympic boats having qualified in 2007. Only 1.66 sec separated the three top crews at any stage during the race with the positions changing throughout before the Australians surged to the lead with 400m to go. Withstanding the challenges of only two crews qualifying for the final and staying afloat in the rough conditions kept the Australian concentration to earn a well-fought win in 6:26.67 by 0.8 sec from France (1) with Denmark in 3rd place.
ML2x Sam Beltz / Tom Gibson
Both semi finals in the lightweight double were full of top class crews. The Australians facing two Italian crews, the World Champion Danes and World Cup medalists France. Sitting in a handy 3rd place at the half way mark looked like the final was a good chance but a bow side crab took all the speed out of the boat and they sat back in 4th position and did not recover any momentum. The winning Italians (1) rowed within 1.07 sec of the world-best time (6:11.09) and Australia were 4th in 6:19.28. They move to the Final B on Sunday.
Finals day (Sunday) will see three crews (M2-, WL2x, ML4-) in the A Final and the ML2x in the B Final. Almost immediately the regatta is over the Australian contingent will head to Berlin by bus en route to Australia on Monday from Frankfurt. On return they will take a well-earned short break before taking up the final camp options leading up to Beijing.
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Day I: Friday 22 June
Day 1 (morning)
2 wins; 2 thirds in the heats
A real change in atmosphere was evident as the qualification crews rolled out and the crews to race the 3rd World Cup set up for their final major international regatta before the Beijing Olympic Games. This regatta is much smaller than the fields seen earlier at Munich and Lucerne.
The four-boat Australian contingent arrived for the heats on day one of competition with a strong cross tailwind blowing. Also interspersed were periods of rain and at times some sunshine to make it an environmental challenge.
The first crew to race was the men’s coxless pair of Karsten Forsterling and Terrence Alfred. These two athletes will be a part of the Beijing Team as official alternate rowers, reserves in other language for the men’s heavyweight crews. They have performed admirably in a number of boats in training and competition during this overseas tour and both have recorded significant wins along the way. Karsten in the winning men’s eight in Munich covering an ill James Chapman and Terrence in the coxless four that qualified that boat for Beijing covering for an ill Matt Ryan. They finish this tour with an opportunity to focus on their pair and in today’s heat were 3rd (6:33.79) behind New Zealand and France 2, and ahead of Germany 1. A good start was followed by a moderate transition and over the final 500m they held off Germany while the leading crews went hard for the win — they will move to the repechage on Saturday afternoon where a top 2 finish will put them in the final. The top-ranked crews in the repechage draw are separated in heat times by a second so a great race awaits.
World Champions in the women’s lightweight double scull Amber Halliday and Marguerite Houston were next to race and with a little more European conditioning they comfortably won their heat by 3.08 sec from Germany in 6:57.12. Giving Germany a 1.23 sec advantage through 500m the Australians then produced the fastest splits for the remaining 500m of the 200m course. With only first to the final the Germans certainly pressed all the way. With Canada winning the second heat in 7:00.72 the Australians certainly have a chance to regain some world ascendancy against the crews at this regatta before returning home for a final preparation camp on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
Sam Beltz and Tom Gibson drew the hardest heat in the lightweight men’s double scull. With the returning Italian crew and the Australians results in Lucerne not earning them a seeding in this race the random draw saw no less than 4 of the 6 crews with excellent pedigrees. The Greek double rowed within 2 sec of the world-best time in winning this heat, then followed Italy and Australia in third, 7.87 sec behind Greece. The Australians were in 3rd after 600m and remained there for the rest of the race. With only two crews advancing to the semi finals the Australians go to the afternoon repechage for their chance at reaching the semis.
The en’s lightweight four followed a similar path to the winning women’s lightweights by leading for a high percentage of the race and earning a direct progression to the final on Sunday afternoon. This is excellent progress for this crew that is now in its second season together under the coaching of Antonio Maurogiovanni and Andrew Randell. The second-placed Italians put some pressure on the Australians in the second half of the race but they could not make up the gap that ended up being 1.77 sec. In third were the Danes with a change in their Lucerne 2nd placed boat due to a training accident on Lake Bargsvaard last week. In heat two France rowed away from Great Britain in a time a little slower than the winning Aussies which gives the Australians a great chance to acquit themselves well in the final.
Day 1 (afternoon)
1 win
The lightweight men’s double scull raced to an all the way win in their repechage over the Germans with both crews well clear of Hong Kong 2 in third position. The rough and very strong tail winds saw them get to the half way mark in 3:04.85 and the rough-water second 1000m was completed in 3:17.49 to indicate the difficulty in the conditions. They advance to the Saturday afternoon semi final.
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