Lightweight Men's Coxless Four (LM4-)Pre-Race AnalysisPreliminary HeatsWinners to semi-finals. Others to repechage. Heat 1L1,CHI L2,JPN L3,CAN L4,FRA L5,GER With the decline of the World Championship boat from DEN due to Thomas Poulsen's injury, FRA which was 3rd at the 1999 Worlds has emerged as the tentative pre-Olympics favorite for the gold medal. FRA won its 2 World Cup appearances at Munich and Lucerne and should win this race easily to advance to the semi-finals. CAN was 6th at the 1999 Worlds. But at the Lucerne World Cup in July, FRA finished 5.7 seconds ahead of CAN and should be able to defeat CAN again in this heat. Heat 2L1,NED L2,IRL L3,AUT L4,AUS L5,RUS AUT and AUS could get into it here with only the winner advancing to the semi-finals. AUS is the 1999 Worlds silver medalist and AUT was 5th at Worlds. But this year in World Cup racing, AUT has won at Vienna, and was 2nd in both Munich and Lucerne. By contrast, AUS placed 5th in Vienna ( 11 seconds behind AUT ) and 4th in Lucerne ( 5.6 seconds behind AUT ). So, unless AUS has had a good two months since Lucerne, and gets a hearty "No worries, Mate" adrenaline rush from their home country fans, AUT should win this race and advance to the semi-finals. Heat 3L1,RSA L2,ITA L3,USA L4,DEN This will be one of the most watched races in this event. It is perhaps the staging point for an enduring Olympic history comeback story. Until Thomas Poulsen of DEN, himself a 5 time gold medalist, went down with injury this year, DEN's many time World Championship lightweight four dominated the World and was a lock for the Olympic gold medal. That has all changed. Soren Madsen is now in the DEN boat for Poulsen, and DEN's revised combination struggled to a 6th place finish in the FA final at the Lucerne World Cup in July. The great story could be DEN's recovery to the Olympic gold podium, a place these guys have become so accustomed to occupying over so many years. This heat race is their first step back in that direction. But to get there, DEN must go through ITA, which was 4th at last year's Worlds, and which placed 4th in Vienna World Cup, and later placed 3rd at Lucerne to defeat 6th place DEN by 3.2 seconds, the margin DEN must now make up. At this point it looks like ITA will win this race and advance to the semi-finals, but stay tuned. Copyright 2000. Kent Mitchell.
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