Image Credit: World Rowing
The World Rowing Championships are in full swing in Shanghai as eight more events kicked off across the morning and afternoon sessions. With fast racing in doubles, fours and singles, here’s everything you need to know from Monday on Dianshan Lake.
PR1 Single Sculls
The first racing of the day opened the para-rowing for the championships, with a race for lanes in the women’s PR1 single sculls. In that event, the Ukrainian Anna Sheremet cemented her favourite status. Jumping out to an early lead, the European champion was never challenged, posting a 36-second victory to progress to Friday’s final with complete confidence.
Following that race, the men’s event had a far stronger field, with all three Paris medallists competing. In the first heat, it was silver against bronze for the top spot, with a reversal of fortunes. The Australian Erik Horrie took an early lead and controlled the race, but Roman Polianskyi kept him honest. Never backing off nor looking like he would overtake the Australian, the Paralympic champion from Rio and Tokyo finished a length behind, comfortably progressing to the final.
In the other heat, it was a far less compelling race as the champion from Paris began his campaign for his first world championship title. Taking an early lead, Benjamin Pritchard was untroubled down the course, setting the fastest time across the two heats as the Welshman won his heat by almost 15 seconds.
Women’s Double Sculls
With 12 entries, this event had just two heats racing to compete in the A-final. In the first of those heats, the crew from Uzbekistan was the surprise early leader, sitting at the head of the field at the halfway point. Their first challenge came from France, who would realise their strong form to overhaul the Central Asian crew and win the heat; however, there were more challenges to follow. Entering the final 250 metres of the race, the Uzbek crew remained in the second automatic qualification spot, but paying for their early effort, they were rowed through. The Swiss crew would claim that spot with relative comfort, while third place (and the final qualification for the final on time) was won by the Greek duo, who demonstrated their increasingly iconic final sprint to stay in the hunt for medals by just 0.3 seconds.
The other heat was a little simpler as pre-event favourites China established an early lead of around a length, which would stay unchanged for most of the event. Behind them, the closest race was for second between the Netherlands and an AIN crew of Russian athletes. Slow starters, the neutral crew were the fastest crew on the course across the middle of the race, clawing their way back through the field to enter a tussle with the Dutch, claiming the second place with around four hundred metres to go. However, the Dutch would not take this lying down, reclaiming the second qualification position with a strong closing sprint, as the neutral athletes would still progress based on time.
Men’s Double Sculls
This morning, the men’s double, which had twenty entries, split into four heats. 12spots in the semifinals were available, with the others falling into the C and D-finals. Across the four heats, the racing was not terribly exciting, with early orders generally holding throughout the race, but there was a great deal of intrigue around the progression, as the times from the various heats played their part.
The second heat had the best racing, as the Polish crew comfortably led the field with the Spanish and AIN crews battling behind. After a strong start, the Spaniards were the weaker of the two crews across the middle of the race, allowing the neutral athletes to come from two lengths behind to claim the automatic qualification spot with just 250 metres left. But the Spanish double unleashed their signature sprint, claiming back their second place to qualify automatically. Ultimately, this race would propel both crews to strong results, as the AIN crew will race in Wednesday’s semifinal by virtue of their strong time.
In the other heats, strong performances led to fairly simple qualification. In heat four, the British crew will rue the draw. Posting the 11th fastest time of the round, they would have hoped to progress to the semifinal, but with the first heat being much slower, the final two spots were claimed by the Irish and Italian crews, as their former lightweights achieved the top two spots in the opening heat.
Women’s Four
A similar dynamic was at play with the entries for the women’s four, as 12 entries allowed two heats to progress straight into the finals. The first heat was the faster of the two, with four of Friday’s finalists lining up. Pre-race favourites, the United States had a challenging start, crossing the first timing line more than two seconds down on the leaders, but established a brilliant rhythm and rowed through the competition to win the heat. The early leaders from Romania and Great Britain stayed solid throughout this race phase, as the Brits spent much of the race sitting just a canvas behind the Romanians, ultimately finishing third and progressing by virtue of their fast time. The home team, China, also performed well and finished fourth with a strong time.
In the second heat, it was all going according to the seeding as the silver medallists at both rounds of the year’s World Rowing Cup, Australia, led the field in the early stages after the strongest of the starts. However, this was not to last as they began to fade in the second half of the race, as both New Zealand and the Netherlands were on even footing with the Australians as they entered the race’s final quarter. For the Rowsellas, they were unable to stop this momentum, finishing 2.79 seconds off the victorious Kiwi crew, with the Netherlands in second, less than a canvas back. Compounding the trouble for the Australians, their time of 6:34.30 was 0.3 seconds slower than that of the Chinese, meaning that the strong crew in green and gold will not compete for the medals.
Men’s Four
When the draw for the heats came out, all eyes were drawn to the second heat of the men’s four as the strong Australian and Dutch crews were placed into the same race as a new-look British crew. After a perfect European season, the Australians would have been shocked to trail early in the race, especially to the Cambridge-dominated British crew making its first appearance on the world stage this season. Despite their lack of racing together, this crew dominated the field, sitting two lengths up for much of the race to post the fastest time of the event, with the Australians, two seconds behind, still posting the second-best time. The Dutch, holding close to the Australian crew, were dropped in the final sprint, finishing a length behind them, with the crew of three Paris medallists still in the top five times across the heats.
Elsewhere, Romania and Lithuania comfortably won the first and third heats to maintain their spot in the conversation for medals, while the fourth heat also provided excellent racing. In a four-boat field, the Croatian combination of the Loncaric and Sinkovic brothers was the heavy favourite, but the field did not scatter. Their most considerable advantage came around the 1500 metre mark, as they led the French crew by just half a length, with the entire field within a length and a half. In the closing stages, the crews tightened, and the French and Italian crews unleashed lightning sprints but could not overhaul the leaders, as all three crews were within a second. Such was the speed of the race that even last-placed Ukraine progressed to the semifinals, posting the 12th-fastest time of the day.
Women’s Single Sculls
The first afternoon session of the championships opened the racing in the single sculls as the hot weather was met with strong performances on the water. The fastest time of the morning was that of the favourite, Lauren Henry, who was rewarded for her undefeated season so far with an easier heat, as the athlete from Great Britain won by more than 15 seconds over South Africa‘s Paige Badenhorst, a former Michigan Wolverine and Cambridge blue, the only other qualifier from the first heat.
In the other heats, Denmark‘s Frida Sanggaard Nielsen had the next largest margin of victory as she finished eight seconds clear in the fourth heat, setting the fourth best time of the afternoon. The second heat was a similarly well-managed affair as Paris bronze medallist Viktorija Senkute held off Alexandra Foester, in the fastest heat of the day, with four scullers continuing into the semifinals.
While the women’s single was full of impressive performances, the third heat provided the best racing as the electric start of Spain‘s Esther Briz Zamorano was overhauled by the experienced Irish double-Olympic sweep athlete Fiona Murtagh, as her consistent pace could not be matched by the Spaniard, who would eventually finish more than five seconds back.
Men’s Single Sculls
While the women’s singles opened with dominant performances, it was close racing for the men. Progression to the quarterfinals was never in doubt for many of the major protagonists in this field, but there were tight races across the board. Simon van Dorp made a statement of intent, defeating Tokyo Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos by two seconds in the opening heat, setting the fastest time along the way. There was more success for returners to the event from the Paris podium as European champion Yauheni Zalaty won the second heat, and the world and Olympic champion Oli Zeidler won the fourth heat by less than 0.4 seconds.
However, the results did not all follow expectations. The Uruguayan former lightweight Bruno Cetraro Berriolo won the third heat ahead of Ireland‘s Konan Pazzaia, with the top-seeded Lithuanian Giedrius Bieliauskas finishing fourth, progressing as the 16th fastest sculler overall.
Another upset came in the day’s final race as home sculler Han Wei came out on top of a strong field. Claiming the lead in the second quarter of the race, he held off a strong field, getting the better of two Olympic silver medallists: Logan Ullrich, who won gold at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup, and Tom Barras, twice an Olympian in the quadruple sculls.
Overall, all major players will race again in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, where we may learn how much to read into this afternoon’s more surprising results.
