HPL2X / Men's Lightweight Double Sculls, Repechages
Italians Power Their Way to Semifinals: The Italian men's lightweight double sculls crew made a powerful move in the final 500 meters of their repechage to finish first with a time of 6:19.95 and advance to the semifinals on Friday. Italians Marco AUDISIO and Michelangelo CRISPI finished first at Lucerne in June and have experience on their side as CRISPI has nine world titles to his name, including the World Championship title he earned with Francesco ESPOSITO in the lightweight event in 1994. In one of the more exciting races of the day, Sweden qualified for the semifinals with a .27 win over Germany, who will also advance to Friday's competition. Other crews to qualify were Austria, Poland, Greece, United States and Great Britain. They will join the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Australia, all of which gained entry into the semifinals in the preliminary races.
"We had a great race. The conditions were fast, we had a slight tail wind, and the water was flat," said the United States' Tom AUTH. "But we were prepared for everything, everyone is at this level."
Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands Survive Repechage to Advance: With wins in their respective women's lightweight double sculls repechages, the crews from Denmark, Italy and The Netherlands headline those advancing to Friday's semifinals. The Danes were second at the World Championships and currently hold the world's best time in the event, 6:50.63, set at Copenhagen in 1995. The Italian women come to the Olympic games under scrutiny from their homeland, where women's rowing is not well received, but are trying to make a name for themselves by taking one step closer to the finals. Also ready for semifinal action are favorites Colleen MILLER and Wendy WIEBE of Canada, who finished second to Italy in their race, almost 3.5 seconds off the pace. MILLER and WIEBE are defending World Champions and most recently placed third at Lucerne. Qualifiers: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
"I feel a lot of freedom going into the next race. It's going to get better," said Colleen MILLER of Canada. "We're too tough to let them get to us. We've put in too many miles. I just have so much confidence in myself and Wendy (WIEBE). We're not going to go down without putting up a real good fight."
Expected Finishes Highlight Men's Coxless Four:
The German and Irish crews escaped elimination in the men's coxless four event as the two boats won their repechages, sending them to the semifinals set for Friday. The Germans, Martin WEIS, Michael BUCHHEIT, Bernard STOMPOROWSKI and new crewmember Tobias ROSE, were second at last month's Lucerne Regatta and third at the World Championships. The Irish team of Derek HOLLAND, Samuel LYNCH, Neville MAXWELL and Anthony O'CONNOR qualified for the Olympic Games at Lucerne with the fastest Olympic qualifying time. Countries sending boats to the semifinals include the preliminary winners: Denmark, Canada and South Africa, and other repechage top finishers on Wednesday: United States, Australia, Switzerland, Great Britain, Austria, Italy and France.
"We kept the same momentum and flow as we did in the preliminaries," said Ireland's Neville MAXWELL. "But we put a bit more nerve into the finish."
Danes Slip by Repechage to Advance to Semis:
With the slightest of margins, Denmark and the Netherlands found the extra push they needed, finishing in the top two of the women's quadruple sculls repechage and earning a trip to the semifinals on Friday. With less than a second between the two boats, the Danes edged the Dutch crew for the top finish in the heat, while Austria was denied advancement, finishing third, just 1.40 behind the two. Denmark finished second at Lucerne and missed medal honors at the World Championships placing fourth. Ukraine and China also advanced in Wednesday's repechage.
Exciting Races Test Teams for Semifinals:
In one of the closest repechages of the day, the crew from Poland, with a time of 5:51.15, slighted the Ukrainians by just .36 for first place in the men's quadruples sculls to take the next step forward to the semifinals. The Polish crew of Jaroslaw NOWICKI, Przemyslaw LEWANDOWSKI, Marek KOLBOWICZ and Piotr BUJNAROWSKI landed fifth at Lucerne in June. With the top three crews in the repechage advancing, Poland, Ukraine, and France, will meet up with Australia, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy, United States, Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden in the semifinals.
Favored U.S. Women's Eight Pull it Out for Trip to Semis:
The U.S. women's eight, pre-Olympic favorites, rallied after a disappointing preliminary race to win the repechage and advance to the finals on Sunday, 28 July. With a time of 6:06.17, the Americans escaped the Canadian eight by a mere .32, a fate all too familiar to the Canadians as they were defeated by the 1995 World Champions at the Lucerne Regatta last month. The Canadian crew is looking for their second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women's eight. Rounding out the top four qualifiers in the repechage was the Netherlands and Australia.
"We have been trying to discover the will to win and where do we dig down to find that," said Catriona FALLON of the United States. "That came out today."
World Champions Keep Crowd on its Feet in Final Race:
Exciting races were the order of the day as the Germans kept the trend alive by winning the final men's eight repechage by less than one second, sending the World Championship German crew to the finals on Sunday, the last day of Olympic rowing competition. The Germans have dominated the eight event with world titles in 1989, '90, '91, '93 and '95, and current eight oarsman Roland BAAR has been a member of each crew. The Australian crew finished .72 behind the Polish team to advance to the finals, as did Canada and Russia.
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