World Rowing Cup II Day One: Men’s four and quad seal finals spots

Two British boats secure their places in Sunday’s finals while four more are set for semis as the first day of action at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan draws to a close

Impressive wins for Great Britain’s men’s four and quadruple sculls saw both boats qualify directly for Sunday’s finals on the first day of action at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan.

The four of Matt Rossiter, Mohamed Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant and Will Satch looked in fine form, leading from start to finish against crews from France and the Czech Republic and eased into the final with the fastest time across the two heats.

And it was a similar story for the quad, with Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, John Collins and Peter Lambert comfortably winning their race and finishing 1.5 seconds faster than Poland, who triumphed in the opening heat.

Vicky Thornley, who has enjoyed a strong start to the season, showed no signs of letting up on Lake Malta with a dominant display in the single sculls, winning her heat and securing a spot in tomorrow’s semi-final.

The Olympic silver medallist already has a World Cup bronze and a European gold to her name this year and lead from the off to claim victory against a strong field in Poland.

The second British men’s quad boat, featuring a lightweight crew of Ed Fisher, Jamie Copus, Gavin Horsburgh and Sam Mottram put themselves to the test against a largely heavyweight field and rowed themselves to a fourth place finish.

The European bronze medal winning lightweight double of Katherine Copeland and Emily Craig were narrowly edged into second by Poland and will enter the repechage along with GB’s Eleanor Piggott and Gemma Hall, who were third in their heat.

The women’s double sculls pairing will also race in the repechage after Georgia Francis and Emily Carmichael finished third, as will the women’s pair, while the lightweight men’s pair of Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour finished third in their test race behind Ireland and Brazil with the three crews set to race for the medals tomorrow.

In the afternoon repechages, both men’s single sculls secured spots in the semi-finals. Josh Armstrong, competing in his first senior race at just 19, won his repechage to progress through before Tom Barras followed suit with a second place finish shortly after.

There were further successes for Zak Lee-Green in the lightweight single sculls as well as the men’s double, with both boats progressing to the semi-finals. Alice Baatz, a Start programme athlete in her first year in the sport, will race the single sculls C final tomorrow.

Results
Lightweight men’s single scull heat two (one progresses to semi-final)
1. Lukas Babac (SVK) 6:50.89
2. Matthew Dunham (NZL) 6:53.29
3. Zak Lee-Green (GBR) 6:56.95

Men’s double scull heat two (two progress to semi-final)
1. Kjetil Borch & Olaf Tufte (NOR) 6:10.02
2. Rodrigo Murillo & Cristian Rosso (ARG) 6:11.63
3. Gerard Van der Velden & Vincent Klaassens (NED) 6:20.91
4. Nick Middleton & Frazier Christie (GBR) 6:32.97

Women’s single scull (two to semi-final)
Heat two
1. Victoria Thornley (GBR) 07:23.360
2. Hannah Osborne (NZL) 07:24.530
3. Sanita Puspure (IRL) 07:24.840

Heat three
1. Magdalena Lobnig (AUT) 7:22.50
2. Annekatrin Thiele (GER) 7:27.51
3. Lovissa Claesson (SWE) 7:32.37
–
4. Alice Baatz (GBR) 7:39.34

Men’s single sculls heat one (one progresses to final)
1. Robert Manson (NZL) 6:45.27
2. Brian Rosso (ARG) 6:51.47
3. Tom Barras (GBR) 6:52.33
–
5. Josh Armstrong (GBR) 6:55.53

Lightweight men’s pair (test race)
1. Mark O’Donovan & Shane O’Driscoll (IRE) 6:28.89
2. Xavier Vela Maggi & Willian Giaretton (BRA) 6:29.64
3. Joel Cassells & Sam Scrimgeour (GBR) 6:30.76

Lightweight women’s pair heat two (one progresses to final)
1. Grace Prendergast & Kerri Gowler (NZL) 6:54.27
2. Melita Abraham & Antonia Abraham (CHI) 7:10.63
3. Anastasia Chitty & Rebecca Girling (GBR) 7:17.83

Women’s double sculls heat one (one progresses to final)
1. Brooke Donoghue & Olivia Loe (NZL) 6:45.86
2. Daniella Schultze & Frieda Haemmerling (GER) 6:55.06
3. Georgia Francis & Emily Carmichael (GBR) 6:55.89

Men’s four heat two (one progresses to final)
1. Great Britain (Matt Rossiter, Mohamed Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant & Will Satch) 5:44.29
2. France 5:51.21
3. Czech Republic 5:52.76

Lightweight women’s double sculls (one progresses into final)
Heat one
1. Weronika Deresz & Martyna Mikolajczak (POL) 6:57.00
2. Katherine Copeland & Emily Craig (GBR) 6:58.07
3. Georgia Nesbitt & Amy James (AUS) 7:10.22

Heat two
1. Fang Chen & Dandan Pan (CHN)6:55.45
2. Fini Stum & Leonie Pless (GER) 7:05.91
3. Eleanor Piggott & Gemma Hall (GBR) 7:08.43

Men’s quadruple sculls (two progress to the final)
Heat one
1. Poland 5:41.83
2. Germany 5:43.78
3. Netherlands 5:43.14
–
4. Great Britain 5:50.06

Heat two
1. Great Britain (Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, John Collins & Peter Lambert) 5:40.47
2. France 5:42.14
3. Norway 5:44.64

Lightweight men’s single sculls Repechage 1 (two progress to semi-finals)
1. Jan Cincibuch (CZE) 7:01.37
2. Zak Lee-Green (GBR) 7:02.38
3. Hugh McAdam (USA) 7:03.80

Men’s double sculls repechage (three progress to semi-finals)
1. Ruben Steinhardt & Henrik Runge (GER) 6:27.59
2. Nick Middleton & Frazier Christie (GBR) 6:33.03
3. Max Fraenkel& Samuel Tieben (GER) 6:35.39

Men’s single sculls (two progress to semi-finals)
Repechage 1
1. Josh Armstrong (GBR) 6:57.67
2. Robert Ven (FIN) 6:59.13
3. Anders Backeus (SWE) 7:03.68

Repechage 3
1. Nico Stahlberg (SUI) 7:04.43
2. Tom Barras (GBR) 7:07.03
3. Lucas Ferreira (BRA) 7:14.25

Women’s single sculls (three progress to semi-finals
1. Monika Dukarska (IRL) 7:32.84
2. Birgit Puehringer (AUT) 7:35.44
3. Megan O’Leary (USA) 7:35.49
–
6. Alice Baatz (GBR) 7:51.21