10 August: Mark Hunter and Debbie Flood won their heats in emphatic style on the second day of racing in Beijing. The two Leander athletes, competing in the lightweight men’s double and the women’s quad, are among the medal favourites for their events, in which the competition produced record times.
After a hat trick of gold medals at the three World Cup regatta earlier in the season Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase lined up for their first race having been unbeatable all year. They went off hard and fast, dominating the race in expected fashion, with only the Greeks coming anywhere close.
At the halfway mark the GB men had increased the margin with Greece, last year’s silver medalists, still on their tail. Hunter and Purchase maintained that lead all the way to the line, where they qualified ahead of Greece and third-placed Germany.
After China won the first heat of the women’s quad sculls in a world best time there was all to play for as the British crew lined up alongside Germany in the second heat, where only the heat winners would qualify direct for Sunday’s A final.
The GB crew, with Debbie Flood in the 2 seat, along with Katherine Grainger, Fran Houghton and Annie Vernon, took a marginal lead at 250m and soon found a good rhythm, extending their advantage to one second. But the German crew, including the legendary Kathrin Boron looking for her fifth successive Olympic gold, still had plenty of power and came back hard approaching 1500m, narrowing the British lead to half a length. But the world champions raised their rate to cross the line in the lead and progress direct to the Sunday final with China.
"We're looking forward to getting alongside the Chinese in the final - that will push us even more" said Debbie Flood afterwards.
"We got a good start and we're pleased with the performance today. We would expect to improve right up to the final" said stroke Katherine Grainger.
In the lightweight men’s fours the British world champions were fast off the start but were led by the Chinese with Australia chasing hard. James Clarke, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and Richard Chambers, whose 2008 World Cup results haven't really reflected their champions' status, were back on song and came within a whisker of the Chinese across the line. All three leading crews qualify direct for Thursday’s semifinals.
The day’s racing finished in unexpected fashion after a thunderstorm forced crews off the water for safety reasons. The heats for women’s and men’s eights will now be rescheduled at the start of the Monday afternoon programme.
9 August: It was business as usual for the GB men's four on the opening day of racing in Beijing – Steve Williams, Pete Reed, Tom James and Andy Hodge made no doubt about an emphatic win, leading the field from start to finish and holding off a challenge from Italy in the closing stages.
"Italy were potentially a dangerous crew and we had it as our objective to win that race today. That was important for us as a four because we haven't rowed much together internationally. It's given us a realistic confidence for the next stage", said Steve Williams. "There is still room for improvement. We do need to gel a bit more technically. We weren't at our most efficient today. We need more harmony in our strokes. We have done some really good stuff in training but there is a step up to doing that in a race, especially at the Olympics.”
In the men's doubles Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham were behind Estonia at halfway but pulled through strongly to win in 6:26.33 ahead of Croatia to qualify direct for the semis and give themselves a psychological edge over the rest of the field.
"Pulling through from behind like that has made me really confident" said Rowbotham after the race.
"It's like a game of chess out there on the water", added Wells. "Everyone has to decide when to make a push and time it right. To go in there and put a marker down by winning is really good. All the opposition will now look at us as a heat winner."
But there was disappointment for Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington who finished third in their heat of the women's double scull and now face a repechage.
"It didn't really go to plan", said Laverick. "The Czechs and Chinese moved on us and we didn't respond. Now we have to throw everything at the repechage to make it to the final".
China, who started as favourites, led from the start and went on to win with the Czech Republic second. Only China, the reigning world champions, now qualify direct for Saturday’s final.
Louisa Reeve and Olivia Whitlam qualified recently for the Games in the women's pair. The duo showed what progress they have made since that time by racing to a strong third place behind current Olympic champions, Romania, and Germany.
Germany went out ahead in the early part of this race and were tracked by Great Britain. Gradually, though, the Romanians picked up the pace and moved through to first place by 1500m before taking victory.
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