Women's Four win heat at World Rowing Champs
- Dave Worsley
- Sep 23
- 3 min read
New Zealand has made the most of its opportunities as World Rowing's new progression system inspired some desperate racing on day two of the World Championships in Shanghai, China.
Top finishers from each heat earn automatic qualifying spots before fastest times across the event decide who advances.
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Four New Zealand crews were in action on the Dianshan Lake course, and all advanced through automatic qualifying.
Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Beckie Leigh and Juliette Lequeux produced the highlight of the morning session, winning heat two of the Women's Four. They won a bronze medal at the World Cup Lucerne event at the end of June in their first regatta together, finishing just 0.43 seconds behind second-placed Australia and three seconds back on winners, the USA.
They lined up next to Australia's unchanged crew again and a Dutch combination, which included two of the crew that won gold in this event at the Paris Olympics.
The rematch against Australia an opportunity to see which boat had kicked on from that day in Lucerne.
"I guess out of the start in Lucerne we were still quite new," said stroke Sherman. "It was our first race together and we were just figuring things out. We've just changed it slightly so we could apply our pressure better."
Australia were first to the 500m mark with the Dutch 1.20s behind them and New Zealand third, 2.18s back on the leaders. New Zealand were second at the halfway mark, just 1.32s down on Australia and their boat speed building.
" I had a look around at the 1000 to see where everyone was and I was like, 'Yeah, we've got this,'" Sherman said.
The gap closed even further at the 1500m, Australia just 0.27 s up on New Zealand who were maintaining a better length of stroke. New Zealand pushed their bow out in front at 1600m and when the call came for another lift from bow seat Lequeux with 100m left they put the result beyond doubt.
Australia faded to finish third, 2.79s behind New Zealand, who crossed in 6 minutes 31.51 seconds. The pace of the other heat meant the Australians missed qualification for the A Final on Friday.
The importance of nailing those automatic qualifying spots was no better demonstrated than in the heats of the Men's Four.
New Zealand's Flynn Eliadis-Watson, Campbell Crouch, Zack Rumble and Matt Dunham drew European Champions Romania in their heat, which presented a perfect opportunity to chart their progress in the last couple of months.
It's been a testing time for the crew with Josh Vodanovich withdrawing because of a medical condition just six weeks ago and Dunham coming out of retirement to fill the seat.
New Zealand were third through the first 500m behind the Romanians and Uzbekistan but had moved into second by the halfway mark. They maintained that position and closed the margin across the line, to finish in 6.00.69, 2.86 s behind the Romanians.
The progression system led to the unusual sight of all four crews from heat four making the semis, Croatia's Sinkovic brothers and Loncaric twins winning in 5.59.89, France second in 6.00.14 and dragging Italy and Ukraine through as well.
Ben Mason and Finn Hamill will have familiar foes Serbia alongside when they race the semifinals of the Men's Double Sculls on Wednesday as well.
The Serbs just pipped them at World Cup Lucerne to win gold by just 0.05s, and they ended up going head-to-head again today.
The Europeans had the faster opening 500m, 1.55s up on the New Zealanders.
The margin at the finish was just 1.56s in favour of the Serbs, who crossed in 6.13.18, New Zealand in 6.14.74.
"It would've been cool to have been up a bit closer but they probably raced a little bit differently today," said Hamill. "They led by a length basically the whole way down the course. But that's the heat. We've got them in the semi so we'll get to go and do it all again."
Single sculler Logan Ullrich will potentially have the most arduous regatta of the New Zealand squad, facing four tough races in six days if he's to make the A Final. He finished second (6.52.95) in heat five, 1.55s behind China's Wei Han. Ullrich, who's competing in his first World Championships in the single, races the quarter-finals
