2004 World Championships- Banyoles Spain

Selection

This team was designed as a development squad for athletes coming through for the next Olympiad. Originally Haimish Karrasch was selected in the men's lightweight single but choose not to compete. Also Marguerite Houston was to compete in the women's lightweight single but was forced to withdraw due to illness after Lucerne. Finally a men's coxed pair was also due to race but were asked to work with the Olympic eight as reserves and so also withdrew.

The men's four raced both at Henley and Amsterdam. At Henley they met the Olympic Champions from Great Britain in the final of the Stewards Challenge Cup.

Results—Men

Men's Lightweight Eight

First & Final — 1st FRA 5:42.49 (Franck Solforosi, Damien Margat, Alexis Saitta, Jeremy Pouge, Franck Bussiere, Vincent Faucheux, Nicolas Planque, Fabien Tilliet, Nicolas Majerus), 2nd ITA 5:43.88 (Santino Faggioli, Luigi Scala, Bruno Pasqualini, Giuseppe Del Gaudio, Fabrizio Gabriele, Stefano De Piccoli, Livio La Padula, Emanuele Federici, Gianluca Barattolo) 3rd AUS 5:46.64 (George Roberts, Sam Waley, Ross Brown, Kaspar Hebblewhite, Tom Gibson, Tom Nicholls, Tim Smith, Sam Beltz, Marc Douez), 4th GER 5:46.80, 5th USA 5:51.77

The French raced a great race being 3rd at the 500 metres, 2nd at the 1000 metres and a strong third 500 metres gave them 1.55 sec lead at the 1500 metres.

The Silver medallists were the front runners but were rowed through in the third 500 metres and never recovered.

The Australians started well but could not match the speed of the French in the third 500 metres. They held off a fast finishing German crew to take bronze.

Men's Lightweight Eight

Training on Lake Barrington, Tasmania - June 2004
Photo by Peter Lord

Men's Lightweight Pair

E1: 1st DEN, 2nd GER, 3rd AUS, 4th UKR, 5th CAN
E2: 1st ITA, 2nd FRA, 3rd POL, 4th GBR, 5th NED
E 3: 1st USA, 2nd IRL, 3rd CHI, 4th RUS, 5th URU
R: 1st CAN, 2nd GBR, 3rd UKR, 4th NED, 5th RUS, 6th URU
SF: 1st DEN, 2nd AUS, 3rd FRA, 4th GBR, 5th CHI, 6th USA
SF: 1st CAN, 2nd ITA, 3rd GER, 4th IRL, 5th POL, 6th UKR
Final C: 13th NED, 14th RUS, 15th URU
Final B: 7th POL, 8th USA, 9th GBR, 10th CHI, 11th UKR, IRL did not start
Final: 1st DEN 6:40.29 (Bo Helleberg, Mads Andersen), 2nd ITA 6:40.59 (Nicola MORICONI, Salvatore Di Somma) 3rd CAN 6:44.03 (Douglas Vandor, Mike Lewis), 4th AUS 6:45.14 (Michael McBryde, Tim O'Callaghan), 5th FRA 6:45.82 (Erwan Peron, Jean-Christophe Bette), 6th GER 6:49.34 (Joerg Lehnigk, Joachim Drews)

The Australians started well qualifying for the semi finals through the heat. They finished second in the semi-final to the eventual gold medallists in a good race in which they were always in touch with the leading crew.

In the final the Australians started well enough although 2.5 seconds off first place after the first 500 metres and worked their way to second placing by the 1000 metre mark. However a strong push by the Italians pushed them back to third placing by 1500 metres and the Canadians did the same in the last 500 metres to leave the Australians fourth by 1.11 seconds by the finish.

Men's Coxed Four

E1: 1st AUS, 2nd FRA, 3rd LTU, 4th ROM, 5th RUS
E2: 1st SLO, 2nd GER, 3rd DEN, 4th UKR
E3: 1st CAN, 2nd USA, 3rd ITA, 4th NED
R: 1st ROM, 2nd UKR, 3rd RUS, 4th NED
SF: 1st USA, 2nd SLO, 3rd AUS, 4th DEN, 5th LTU, 6th RUS
SF: 1st CAN, 2nd ITA, 3rd FRA, 4th GER, 5th ROM, 6th UKR
Final B: 7th GER, 8th LTU, 9th DEN, 10th ROM, 11th RUS, 12th UKR
Final: 1st ITA 6:11.53 (Lorenzo Carboncini, Stefano Introzzi, Edoardo Verzotti, Valerio Massimo, Alessandro Speranza), 2nd CAN 6:11.55 (Rob Weitemeyer, Malcolm Howard, Peter Dembicki, Andrew Ireland, Steven Cheng), 3rd USA 6:11.97 (Andrew Brennan, Paul Daniels, Douglas Steven Copolla, Joshua Inman, Marcus Mc Elhenney), 4th SLO 6:18.51 (Sebastjan Toplak, Ziga Galicic, Rok Kolander, Matej Prelog, Blaz Krope), 5th FRA 6:18.56 (Vincent Durupt, Elie Vervueren, Timothee De Lagarde, Lionel Jacquiot, Florent Bougras), 6th AUS 6:23.66 (Karsten Fosterling, Ben McGeachie, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, Sam Conrad, Tim Deveson)

The Australians started well with a good win in the heat where they rowed through the French in the third 500 metres to win comfortably. In the semi-final, Australia was in third place through the first 1000 metres, swapped for second place with the Slovenians in the third 500 metres, and this was reversed in the last 500 metres finishing third and into the final.

The final was a superb race with the first three crews separated by 0.44 second and the fourth and fifth positions by 0.05 seconds. Australia was not in the mix after a slow second 500 metres and so left them out of the sensational racing in the last 1000 metres.

Men's Adaptive Single Scull

First & Final: 1st AUS 2:58.20 (Peter Taylor), 2nd GBR 3:11.33 (Rob Holliday), 3rd USA 3:11.68 (Ron Harvey), 4th CAN 3:11.78 (Richard Van Der Wal), 5th BRA 3:32.77 (Moadr Rauber)

Lake Barrington, Tasmania

Photo by Peter Lord