World Under-23 Regatta 2004

The Rowing Service

6th-8th August 2004, Poznan, Poland

The following unashamed British-interest reports come from Chris Tipney and Jennifer George, out to support the GBR team. For links to the results and reports from FISA, see the RS news page. There is also more material on RowTalk.

Friday 6th August - initial heats for all classes

Takes a while to find the lake, so the first couple of events were missed by our gallant commentary team (details from the official results).

Lightweight women's double scull, LW2x

Heat 1 won by Germany in 8:08.94.
Heat 2 won by Canada in 8:10.22, Britain fourth in 8:22.65.

Women's single scull, W1x

Heat 1 won by Serbia & Montenegro in 8:45.50, Britain third in 8:51.23
Heat 2 won by Australia in 8:57.99
Heat 3 won by Germany in 8:58.10.

Women's coxless pair, W2-

Heat 1 won by Romania in 8:32.92
Heat 2 the commentary team come to the rescue and zip into action. GBR in lane 4. Race led from start to finish by GER who crossed line in time of 8.21.23 2 1/2 lengths over AUS in 2nd who were 1 1/2 lengths ahead of ITA in third. GBR in 4th.

Women's coxless four, W4-

Heat 1 GBR lane 6. AUT off to a good start leading GBR and BLR at 500m. AUT maintained this lead to cross the line in 7.39.83 - GBR had a good fight with BLR coming in third in a time of 7.50.44. FRA did well moving up from last to finish 4th challenging GBR in last 500.

Lightweight men's single scull, LM1x

British interest = Dave Currie, only first to qualify for final rest to rep.
Heat 1 ITA set pace and in lead from start, MIANI was winner at Banyoles ë04 (quad?), at 500m GBR in 2nd but ARG fighting all the way to take second at 1500 and RUS in hot pursuit. Final result GBR just slipped to 4th behind ITA 8.23.72, ARG RUS GBR EST.
Second heat won by CZE in much slower time of 8.41.90.
Third heat won by BEL (head wind increasing according to commentary from tower) but good scrap for lead in last 100m, winning time 8.31.46.
Last (4th) heat neck and neck between GER and SLO at 1000m and still absolutely locked together at 500 - GER just pulling out to cross the line first time = 8.15.81 1 sec ahead - the fastest heat so far! Next heats for BLM2x to follow....

Lightweight men's double scull, LM2x

Heat 1: Early leader = FRA but soon challenged by POR with HUN last. At 750 to go the first four crews FRA POR HUN and POL miles ahead of the rest. With 500 to go HUN chasing POR for 2nd and pulling through to challenge FRA by 250. With a final push HUN beat FRA in a thrilling last 100m to win in a time of 7.38. LORINCZY and SZABO the HUN double are the winners of Double Sculls Challenge Cup at this years Henley Royal Regatta.
Heat 2: CAN took early lead with GBR second these positions remained the same over the line in a time of 7.48.29 (margin 2 1/2) whilst HKG and AUT jostled for position with HKG eventually crossing the line third a length behind GBR.
Third heat was an interesting race lead at 500 by ITA over GRE and SLO however ITA shipwrecked at 1500 to leave GRE to win in a time of 7.45.25.

Men's single scull, M1x

Heat 1: Lead from start to finish by last year's Junior World Champ KORNILOV 1 1/2 lengths ahead of AUS on the line in a time of 8.19.88.
Heat 2: Early leader EST maintains his lead over DEN at 1000m by just 1 sec. With 500 to go DEN has taken the lead from EST with a solid margin of 3 lengths, pulling away to the line ahead of the rest. Wining time 8.17.84 ITA sculler in lane 4 coming in many lengths down, winning round of applause from grandstand for his efforts!.
Heat 3: LAT 4 lengths ahead of SLO with 750 to go, maintained this commanding lead to win in a time of 8.21.75
Heat 4: - Our interest is Colin Smith in lost in the Final of this year's Diamond Sculls at Henley to Hacker of Germany who is not competing here as I'm sure many of you will already know. First 3 boats LTU GER GBR ahead of rest field with GBR in second off the start. At 1000 GER still in 2nd this was to change dramatically as LTU sculler blew at 400 to go leaving Colin Smith to win in a time of 8.23.85 a whole 10 seconds ahead of GER in second - well done GB!

Men's quadruple scull, M4x

Heat 1: GBR in lane 2 Dunley, Pelly, Townsend and Gregory, having lost Wells to the Olympic squad. LAT in lead GBR in 4th. At 1000m GBR dropped to 5th, At this point the very strong LAT crew beating last year's winners AUS. AUS fighting back as a good race is developing for the lead. At 500 to go LAT still in lead and good race between AUS and ITA for 2nd. GBR still in 5th. LAT cruise in to win in 6.36.50 with AUS second and ITA third. GBR time 7.09.68
Heat 2: At 1600 m POL in 2nd by third of a length to GER. By 1000m GER took lead over POL. Winning time 6.40.04

Men's coxless pair, M2-

Heat 1: GBR in lane 2. At 1000 m GER lead GBR and gradually increased to win by 2 lengths over GBR in time of 7.42.36. GBR time 7.49.32 challenged in last 200 by LAT.
Heat 2: ROM lead with BLR and CRO 2nd and 3rd. Winning time 7.53.46 with a very well spread field behind.
Heat 3: Leaders at 1000 CAN over SCG. 500 to go CAN have faded SCG have taken lead with FRA third. SCG win in time of 7.35.93 2 lengths ahead of CAN.
Heat 4: At 500 POL ahead of ARG but being challenged hard. Same order at 1000 with RUS in third. POL win by 1/2 length in 7.49.09

Men's coxless four, M4-

Heat 1: Good race beween AUS and CRO but with 500 to go AUS push out a good lead winning by 2 lengths in time of 6.49.31
Heat 2: GBR in lane 4: Sherwood, Livingstone, Orme, Sykes-Popham. At 500 GER in lead with GBR in scrap with POL ITA and ROM. By 1000 GBR now in third behind GER and ITA. With 500 to go GBR moved up to 2nd behind GER Last 250 ITA challenging GBR eventually pushing into 2nd place. GER winning time 6.49.30 second ITA with GBR a canvas behind.

Men's coxed four, M4+

Heat 1: GBR in lane 2. Three boats in this heat out of an entry of 7. At 1000 GBR leading by 3 lengths over POL and crossed line at least 4 lengths ahead. Winning time 7.06.39 Well rowed GB. Conditions on lake improving all the time, with this morning's headwind favouring lanes 1 and 6 according to the commentary boat.
Heat 2: Remaining 4 boats. A strong AUS crew lead throughout winning easily in time 7.01.66, ROM 2nd for most of race overtaken by late GER push to come third.


Friday 6th August - afternoon repechages

LM1x

(First 2 to the semi finals as far as we know - will double check that one later once racing has finished ñ even commentary seem to be unsure at the moment!)
Rep 1 - Won by SLO in a time of 8.20.81 in a close race, second UKR 8.22.83
Rep 2 - Curry is the GB interest in this race - 4th in this mornings heat he is in 2nd and 4 seconds behind at 500m, the Turkish sculler leading the field. At 1000m Yeltepe (TUR) has a clear command of the race, We understand that he was 6th in the 'A' final of this event last year in Belgrade. With 500m to go the positions are the same but Currie has responded to a threat from the Swiss in third with a push to maintain his second place over the line. TUR win by 3 lengths in a time of 8.11.97. GBR time = 8.21.18 Currie safely in the Semi final!
Rep 3 - Won by RUS time = 8.28.39, second FRA = 8.33.25
Rep 4 - Won by MEX time = 8.14.33, second ARG = 8.29.30

M2x

Rep 1 - Photofinish! 1st ESP = 7.34.78, 2nd HKG = 7.37.64, 3rd FRA = 7.38.68
Rep 2: GB were 2nd in their heat this morning and at 500m were in 5th place. Commentary from the water failed at this point but the Polish chap in the tower was getting very excited - sounded like GB were coming through. By 1500m commentary on the water would have us believe that POL are in the lead with GER in second and GBR in third - this is good! However - great excitement ñ in front of the stand and in clear view I can see that the chaps are in fact in second place chasing the Polish who are still in the lead. Hot on their heals and catching up fast are the Japanese! Keep breathing normally! Not quite a photofinish but a very close thing with POL 1/2 a length up on GBR who beat JPN into third by a canvass.
....or at least that's what it looked like from here.....
Just double checking times with the FISA website and what a surprise! unofficial results are that GBR piped POL on the line to win this rep, however they soon amended their error. Times as follows:
1st POL = 7.42.64, 2nd GBR = 7.43.36, 3rd JAP = 7.44.73
Rep 3: 1st POR = 7.26.11, 2nd SLO = 7.28.36, 3rd AUT = 7.31.32
Sorry no info on this race as we were too busy trying to work out what had happened in the last rep!

M2-

M2- Reps (2 to semi)
Rep 1 - Reasonably close race between first three GRE 10 secs adrift. 1st FRA 7.29.90, 2nd ESP 7.32.04, 3rd ARG 7.34.24.
Rep 2 - LAT well clear but very close during last 200 between CAN and CRO, CAN go through by .20 of sec. Great race to watch. 1st LAT 7.18.47, 2nd CAN 7.21.56, 3rd CRO 7.21.76.
Rep 3 - GBR in first place at 500 3.5 secs ahead of EST and SLO. Commentary all fuzz again so no boat-side words of wisdom. At 1000 and 1500 order still the same and it seemed set to the finish. However at 250 the fight between EST and SLO intensified to an all aout slog to the finish. In the middle of this the GBR boat was caught resulting in a photo finish. Final result: 1st EST 7.25.00, 2nd GBR 7.25.33, 3rd SLO 7.26.43
So GBR go through but all a bit to close for comfort!
Last race for today, rest of reps start the day tomorrow followed by semi-finals. Us off for a beer!