Repechages and Quarterfinals at 2014 World Rowing Championships

Josh Konieczny in bow on the right and Austin Meyer prepare to race their quarterfinal in the men's lightweight double (photo credit USRowing)

Last Updated: 27.Aug.2014

After yesterday's delay of racing due to conditions deemed unfair by the course officials, the men's heavyweight quad was back in action in the repechage, with two crews to advance to the A/B semifinal on Thursday. The quad from Craftsbury hung in second place through the first thousand behind an agressive Italian entry, taking the lead as the early leaders faded in the second half of the race. Even in the lead the US quad was pushed hard by a fast-closing French crew that pushed their way from 3rd to 1st in the last 500m. The US quad of Ben Dann, John Graves, Steve Whelpley and Peter Graves will race in the A/B semifinal tomorrow against Poland, Ukraine, New Zealand, Switzerland and China. The US quad came in third to the Chinese entry in the heat and beat Poland and New Zealand at the third world cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Josh Konieczny and Austin Meyer will also be racing in the A/B semifinal tomorrow after taking third in a hard-fought quarterfinal behind winning crew and world-record holder France and Denmark in second. The Danish entry has Henrik Stephansen in the bow, current world-record holder for a lightweight man over 2,000m on the Concept2 ergometer. The surprise crew of the quarterfinal was China however, who pushed the US entry to the edge for the final qualifying position, finishing just 0.13 seconds behind the duo of Konieczny and Meyer. Tomorrow's A/B semi will be against Norway, Switzerland, France, Russia and the Czech Republic. 

Kyle Lafferty and the US men's lightweight quad raced their repechage today, with the top two boats advancing to Friday's A final. The crew knew from the heats that the Dutch were the crew to beat in the rep as they had finished just behind them on Monday. To stay ahead of their strong sprint the US entry planned to focus on a quick start and to lead the Dutch down the course. While they were successful in their race strategy, holding onto second place through the first 1500m, the Dutch managed a tremendous sprint that made up 4 seconds in just 500m to take the last qualifying spot. The US will now race the B final on Friday.

Find full results here and good luck to all the crews racing in semifinals tomorrow! Go Green and Go USA!

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