Ullrich battles to make Single Sculls semis
- Dave Worsley
- Sep 25
- 2 min read
New Zealand crews were forced to fight hard at Lake Dianshan at the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai as races were rescheduled due to course conditions.
Men's Singles Sculler Logan Ullrich was third through the first 500m of his quarterfinal, behind neutral athlete and Olympic silver medallist Yauheni Zalaty and Romania's Mihai Chiruta, with Croatia's David Sain also piling on the pressure.
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The New Zealander had moved into second through the 1000m, just under two seconds down on Zalaty but having to cover the challenge of the Romanian and Croatian.
Ullrich, in his first season racing the single, held his nerve to go through to Friday's semifinals.
 "My race plan was pretty much unaffected by the other boats until about the last 500," said Ullrich. "Then I had to kind of make decisions about how much I push."
It was a tactical win and mission accomplished. Zalaty won in 7 minutes 11.20 seconds, Ullrich was second in 7.14.01.
"It was good to just qualify, that was the only goal," said Ullrich. "It's going to be a big semifinal, so now it's about trying to get recovered and ready for that."
The Men's Four was the first event out of the gate when racing resumed in the afternoon.
Six weeks ago, Matt Dunham was out riding his retired racehorse Hangabout when he got the call from Zack Rumble asking if he'd consider coming out of flat-water rowing retirement.
The crew had just had the devastating news Josh Vodanovich was having to withdraw because of a medical condition. There was the very real chance Rumble, stroke Flynn Eliadis-Watson and Campbell Crouch were going to have to withdraw from the World Championships altogether.
Today, Dunham, 31, turned back the clock with his new crewmates in a semifinal that included European champions Romania, and the in-form Lithuanian, French and Italian boats.
" Everyone went out like cut cats at the start," said Dunham. "But even still, we were having a good start relative to Romania from how we went in the heat."
Despite that, New Zealand was down three seconds on the leading boats and in fifth place at the 500m.
"Then we hit a really solid middle and we just stepped out there to put ourselves in the race, which we needed to do."
New Zealand crews pride themselves on their third 500m, and there was a real sense of belief as they passed through the 1500m in third.
 "I really felt like we'd made it, like we were going to get there," said Dunham. "We had some serious speed and then those other crews somehow found another gear and managed to shoot through us right at the very end."
Lithuania crossed first in 5.54.75, Romania was second in 5.56.53, France third in 5.56.94, New Zealand fourth in 5.57.94.
New Zealand has the B Final on Friday, a race that includes Croatia's triple Olympic-champion Sinkovic brothers and Paris 2024 gold medallists the USA.