Kiwis Have Five More Chances To Medal

Coxed Four Fourth - But Kiwis Have Five More Chances To Medal

With the women's eight in a straight A final on Sunday, New Zealand has a further five chances for its to get themselves onto the dais at the Under 23 World Rowing Championship regatta - but there was disappointment for the coxed four, which just missed out on a medal today in Belarusia.

Finian Scott, Curtis Rapley, Graham Oberlin-Brown, James Lassche put in a great row in the semi final to capture a place in the A final. In their most competitive and convincing performance so far, they tracked the favoured British four throughout and kept their noses ahead of Denmark, Japan, France and Spain, but only by a whisker. The Japanese were just half a second behind, but were consigned to the B final. They will face the British, the Danes, the Italians, the Germans and the United States in Sunday's final.

Karl and Robbie Manson took second in their semi to also qualify for the A final on Sunday. They rowed well to hold off the Italians but with the Ukrainians way down in fourth, and three to qualify, the pressure was off for much of the race and the true pace of the boats will only be seen in the final. Germany won the race, and the three from the other semi to go through to the A Final were the Lithuanians, the Latvians and the Slovenians.

Lucy Strack and Julia Edward missed winning their semi by just one hundredth of a second to the Greek combination of Kalampoka and Giazitzidou but second was enough to also put them in Sunday's main event. These two crews were a country mile ahead of the other qualifier for the final, Great Britain and they clearly have the speed to go well in the final. The other finalists will be Germany, Canada and Sweden.

Leah Stanley also made it into the A final after a close race in her semi, fighting her way past and fending off Kazakstan's Aelexandra Opachanova for the vital third place she needed. The Belarusian and Austrian scullers finished ahead, but not by a huge margin. Athletes from Canada, South Africa and Japan complete the field for the final.

The coxed four of Tufi Sele, Tobias Wehr-Candler, Adam Tripp, David Mabbott and Ivan Pavich went off the start in the final of the coxed fours race with plenty of pace, and held a close second at 500 metres and at 1,000 metres behind the even quicker starting Italians. The early pace took its toll, however, as first the British and then the Germans began to make inroads into their second place. Third with 500 metres to go, all of the crews raised their pace and sprinted for the line and the New Zealanders had nothing left with which to defend their place. The Germans came through very quickly, and even caught the Brits for second, but the whole scrap behind the Italians left the Kiwis in a disappointed fourth.

Results here

ENDS

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