Sunday Race Preview: Grand Finale

September 03, 2011

BLED, Slovenia – Day eight.

Sunday is the last day of the 2011 World Rowing Championships. Since last Sunday, crews from around the world have been racing across the blue waters of Lake Bled with hopes of winning medals and qualifying boats for next summer’s Olympic Games in London.

With 20 of the 26 American crews done racing, the final six boats will go to the line in the lightweight women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s quadruple sculls, women’s single sculls, men’s four, lightweight men’s eight and the leg/trunk/arms mixed four with coxswain.

The crew of Charlie Cole (New Canaan, Conn.), Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.), Brett Newlin (Riverton, Wyo.) and Giuseppe Lanzone (Annandale, Va.) will row for a chance to medal Sunday against Greece, Australia, Germany, Great Britain and The Netherlands. The U.S. finished third in the semifinal Saturday; all six qualifying boats were within seconds of each other in times.

Great Britain finished first in Lucerne and won two world cup gold medals this season.

In the lightweight women’s double sculls, Julie Nichols (Livermore, Calif.) and Kristin Hedstrom (Concord, Mass.) rowed a fierce semifinal Saturday, finishing third and advancing to the final against Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Greece and New Zealand. After a summer of racing that saw the two win the overall points trophy on the world cup tour, the U.S. is in good position to medal. Canada is the defending world champion.

In the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls, the crew of Sam Cunningham (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Todd Mickelson (West Simsbury, Conn.), Chris Lambert (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Shane Madden (Ambler, Pa.) will race the final against Germany, Poland, Ireland, Denmark and Hungary. Germany advanced directly to the final from the heat.

In the women’s single sculls, Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.) will row the B final against Great Britain, Spain, Russia, Lithuania and Azerbaijan. Stone finished fifth in the semifinal. To qualify the boat for the Olympics, she must finish in the top three.

Azerbaijan beat her in the repechage, but finished behind Stone yesterday. Lithuania finished one boat up on her yesterday in the semifinal.   

In the leg/trunk/arms mixed four with coxswain, the crew of Alex Stein (Stamford, Conn.), Eric McDaniel (Weeki Wachee, Fla.), Emma Preuschl (Indianapolis, Ind.), Eleni Englert (Oceanside, Calif.) and Andrew Johnson (Greenwich, Conn.) will go to the line in the final against Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Ireland.

The lightweight men’s eight crew of coxswain Jack Carlson, (Belmont, Mass.), William Newell (Weston, Mass.), Jimmy Sopko (Mathews, VA.), Nick LaCava (Weston, Conn.), Edward King (Ironton, Mo.), Matt Kochem (Burnt Hills, N.Y.), Christian Klein (Herndon, Va.), Kenny McMahon (Ladysmith, Va.) and Austin Meyer (Cohoes, N.Y.), will race in the final of that event and go in as the top seed, having won the preliminary race for lanes against Italy, Denmark, France and Australia.

Complete heat sheets, entries and results are available at www.worldrowing.com. Watch Sunday’s finals LIVE and on-demand at www.UniversalSports.com.

For complete coverage of U.S. crews, press releases and features, visit www.usrowing.org.

USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing’s official suppliers include Boathouse Sports, Vespoli, Win Tech, Filippi, Croker Oars, Rudy Project, Concept2, Nielsen Kellerman, PowerHTV and Ludus Tours. USRowing also receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors, ANXeBusiness Corp and Voxer. For more information, visit www.usrowing.org. USRowing has joined forces with Team Arnstein to help ensure the U.S. Team's success leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games under a new corporate sponsorship campaign, The Row to London. For more information, please visit www.teamarnstein.com.

Ed Moran

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