OLYMPICS /
Team China
Cross talk with Marc: China's chances in today's rowing events
chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua
Updated: 2008-08-16 13:12
In men's single sculls, Norway's Olaf Tufte, Britain's Alan Campbell, Australian Mahe Drysdale and Ondrej Synek from the Czech Republic will duel for the gold medal in the sport of speed and power.
Lassi Karonen from Sweden and Tim Maeyens from Belgium will also join the fight.
Tufte is the reigning Olympic champion. Drysdale won three World Championships in a row over the past three years.
The Czech and British rowers are no easy to beat. They claimed World Cup titles for the event. So, to predict the winner in the race can be as hard as to foretell the tensity of the fight.
The men's double sculls can be a close fight between New Zealand, Australia and Estonia. Britain and France are also medal prospects.
"My expectations are that we'll lay down three very good races and results will come our way," Australian rower David Crawshay told reporters after winning heat 3 on August 9.
In men's pair, Australia and Canada had the best results in the semifinals, followed by New Zealand and the United States. The duo from South Africa and the two rowers from Germany are also in good shape. They have a result gap of less than two seconds, predicting a fight as hard as you can imagine.
The rowers entering the final for women's pair are all Europeans except Wu You and Gao Yulan. The Chinese boat finished the third in the heat 1 on August 9 and qualified for the final by winning the semifinal on Tuesday. Their result of seven minutes 23.71 seconds is one of the best in the races.
Last but not least, the men's four final will close Saturday's races for the day. Britain, Slovenia, Australia, Czech Republic are strong teams. British Head Coach Juergen Grobler puts his best into men's four and at the last two Olympics, his crew has ruled in the event.
The British crew, however, have kept a low profile.
"On Saturday it is going to be one hell of a race, I promise you that," British Steve Williams said after having qualified for the final in Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on Wednesday.
Rowing is unlike slalom racing where the wheel of luck plays a big role. Rowing is rather a sport of speed and power. But nobody knows whether the winners in the semifinals will come to stand on the podium at last or whether the favorites will lose at the last-minute strokes. This is why rowing is so shrouded in mystery so far.