Monday 20th August 2001, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Overnight the swirling air masses over western Europe brought a torrential rainstorm to Lucerne, and day two of the 2001 World Championships dawned cool, with clouds scudding across the pale blue sky above the Rotsee lake. Conditions were pretty good, the lower temperature making it much fresher for the athletes, and racing began with a tidy little tailwind helping them along before the weather front shifted direction in mid-afternoon.
The wibble below does not cover every race, but picks out some of the more interesting bits of racing from the second day of the championships.
LM2-
With the FISA seedings, it is no surprise to see the Irish and British pairs in different heats, as they lead the form guide this season. The first race sees typical Irish domination, Gearoid Towey and Tony O'Connor clear by halfway, and showing a degree of cruise in their finishing style as they sweep smoothly over the line allowing NED to come back on them. With one crew to go through, third-place Germany for reasons best known to themselves make a huge dash for the finish, despite being two lengths back off the Dutch and streaks ahead of fourth-placed Spain. The commentary is patchy, although more interesting than yesterday. The second race is won by GBR, Nick Strange and Peter Haining clearly enjoying themselves as they stalk Chile down the course, making their big move at 500 to go and coasting over the line at an easy 35 once they've made their point. IRL look to have more raw speed, however, so it could be silver again for the British pair.
LW4x
Australia in commanding form, sitting comfortably lengths clear of the USA and following pack as they reach 500 to go, then smashing the current world's best time by a tidy five seconds despite barely appearing to lift in rate. A nice new record to start the day with, and the USA was only just outside the old record. ESP win the second heat in a much tighter race, and along with NED, whom they row down, are inside the old record though still two seconds slower than Australia. AUS have put their name on this event - they will be monumentally hard to beat.
LM4x
This one's a bigger event, so three heats, and in each case three go through to the semi-finals, which makes racing a little less competitive than the women's quads. I'm struggling to recall the names of last year's champion Japanese quad, but I'm pretty sure there are several still in this year's line-up, and they look good as they follow faster DEN to the line in heat one, well ahead of IRL. Race two sees Italy in charge by two lengths at the last marker, although the Nation's Cup champions Germany do a good final sprint to close the gap a little. The final heat winners are Spain, who trade the lead with NED right up the course, bringing them a league away from Argentina. It's good stuff, if a little pointless, and NED will kick themselves for timing the final push a bit late, as Spain are already sure of victory a few seats up on them.
M4+
Good entertaining stuff from these crews, several of whom are quite young. In heat one, Romania take the first lead, with the USA hard on their heels, the Brits and Croatians banging heads a short way back. One to go through, and the US do it beautifully, making their move deliberately late, by which time ROM can't easily respond: a win for the Yanks by 0.66 seconds. The second race is a bit similar, Italy and France zooming out ahead of SLO, but this time they are three lanes apart, and this may be how France manage to sneak past Italy in the final three hundred metres, both coxes craning their heads to try and look across. FRA, who are clearly a large strong crew, take smaller Italy by more than a length, while GER in fourth paddle inexplicably slowly to the line - we haven't yet found out why as they don't look to have any injuries.
LW2x
Sydney silver medallist Claudia Blasberg from GER has picked up a new partner in Janet Radunzel, and the duo whip off in the fastest start of the heats, then ease home in a non-competitive race (three to the semi's). Romania are defending Olympic champions but have a new line-up, and they duly win their heat, while the other winners are the third seeds, Canada, beating NED who look suspiciously unruffled by sitting half a length back. They could upset the form guide in this event, on that showing.
LM2x
One of the most competitive events in the regatta, with twenty-one entries and four heats, one from each qualifying to the semi's. Plenty of medallists here too, so it is no surprise that every winning crew contains a Sydney finalist - FRA, ITA, POL and GER. Silver Olympians ITA are more in control of the second race than the commentators think, and Spain chase GER surprisingly hard to past halfway before letting go. The big race is number three, however, with Olympic champions Kucharski and Sycz (POL) giving us one of those lovely TV shots, apparently alone on the lake as they cruise the middle of the race two lengths clear of the field. Beautiful stuff - they have glorious technique and must be main favourites despite staying out of the public eye for most of the 2001 season.
LM4-
Small changes to the form this year, Olympic champions France back in the fray after injury to bowman Porchier, and World champions Denmark rejigged after the retirement of Thomas Poulsen. The latter go off in the first heat, and decide to do it the classy way, leading Australia, who make a good attempt at rumbling them but are not close enough after 1000 metres. France have made life more difficult for themselves by doubling up into their lightweight eight, but gave themselves a good start yesterday by winning that heat, and now win emphatically in the four, the crew which was their Federation's price for letting them row the eight. Canada beat USA in a nice little derby race for second, while Japan enjoy rumbling South Africa, coming through in the last strokes to claim fourth.
The final heat is a shindig involving Austria and Italy, AUT getting nearly a length up in time to relax at the end, while Italy hurtle in a vain attempt to avoid the repechage.
W4x
Germany in control, Lutze and Kowalski from the Olympic champion quad teaming up nicely this season with Scholz and Waleska to continue the winning trend and continuing their superb form of the summer. Next up is closer, NZL featuring the doubling-up Evers-Swindell twins, but led off the start by the USA, who have been the only World Cup competitors to race Germany anything like close in recent months. The gap is less than a second at halfway, at which point USA push to hold the Kiwis off, but NZ counter this with their own strong surge, catching the Americans on the fade. From 750 to go it is all NZL, looking stronger with each stroke, as GBR nip past struggling USA in the final strokes. The minor medals will also be in close contention for this event, with several quick crews.
M4x
Olympic champions Italy, still powered by world record holder in this event Nicola Sartori, sweep into the lead and despite a brave effort from the USA and World Cup champions Ukraine, are able to hold strongly onto it. The final 20 strokes see the Italian rate surging and their stern move off the Americans at the rate of half a seat a stroke, which suggests that powerfully as they seemed to be sculling, there was plenty in the tank at the end. A similar, but slower, race won by World Cup joint runners-up POL in heat two, and it's no particular surprise to see the crew which matched them, NED, take the upper hand over sprightly GER at 1750 metres, and go through to win by a couple of seats despite a frantic 42.5 rate sprint by the Germans. I think my money's on Italy at the moment, but it could be one of the close finals of the regatta next Sunday.
W8+
With torrential rain showers already hitting the course, the women's eights begin into what looks like a slight cross-headwind. First heat, GER and GBR pull away from the chasing CAN and NED, and hunt each other down the course, Germany half a length in the lead. There's plenty at stake here - Germany has a point to prove in both men's and women's eights, after their no-show in Sydney, and GBR has embarked on an ambitious doubling-up programme involving their W2x and W2-, so they're racing in order to avoid racing too many times this week. Passing 500 to go, GER are only a seat up, and GBR scent a chink in the armour, hoicking up a solid push which takes them steadily through. GER have nothing left to respond: their stroke Lenka Wech had to be helicoptered to the course this afternoon after her dentistry exam finished just two hours before the race began. The Brits win by a second, while CAN and NED drop right back. Heat two has more Anglophiles yelling in the grandstands, the new-look Australian eight lying third for the first thousand and then rowing through first BLR and then ROM to claim a similar distance win. The Aussies look particularly smooth, moving the boat very well and able to relax a little in the final minute. Romania, Olympic champions and with their stern pair doubling up, don't win this battle, but could yet win the war - they are worth keeping an eye on.
M8+
According to the commentator, the Russians in the first men's heat 'set off at a thumping pace' and took nearly a length out of the field by 800 metres gone. Romania and Australia were fighting for second at this point, and as AUS faded, ROM moved into a stronger position, towing Olympic bronze medallists CRO into third. The Russian bid was a brave one, but just failed, ROM turning up the heat with 500 to go and bumping them off seat by seat, finishing at a punishing 41 and leaving RUS trailing 2/3 L in second. Heat two sees the GER bowball in front at 500 gone, but a close field, and 1.5 seconds at 1000 metres over USA with GBR and CAN pushing through. GER cruise at 37 as the rest close up with their sprint finishes, the final whizz leaving USA a few seats up on GBR, who draw away from CAN. It's not entirely obvious what was going on with Croatia in the first race, as they have shown plenty of speed this year and finished second in the World Cup. WC winners Great Britain, in the other heat, seem to be back to their old troubles of not starting quickly enough, so we'll see how much having to do the repechage encourages them to pull out something more useful. One spectator is convinced the Russians, just losing out in heat one, were rowing to order, and that they could have won qualification if they'd wanted to. We'll see - as usual the last race of the regatta seems sure to provide interesting headlines.
So we're on to the first batch of repechages tomorrow, with better weather predicted as the sun comes out again. One world record gone, albeit in one of the more recently established events, and other times were close, so we might well see some quick results later in the week.