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Men's Coxless Pair (M2-)
Pre-Race Analysis
Preliminary Heats
Top 3 to semi-finals. Others to repechage.
Heat 1
ARG (Lane 1), IND, ITA, FRA, CRO (Lane 5)
With the top 3 crews advancing to the semi-finals, crews are likely to shut down after
the first 1000 meters, if the top 3 places are decided by then. FRA, CRO and ITA, who were
2nd, 3rd and 4th at the 1999 Worlds, will be the top 3 crews in this race. Whether they
will race each other all the way for top honors depends on whether they want to race for
the favored lanes in the semi-finals, to avoid the most wind affected lanes on the Penrith
course. So far, ITA, with a new combination, has beaten both CRO and FRA at the Lucerne
World Cup in July, but only by 0.8 seconds over CRO and 2 seconds over FRA. In a contested
race to the end, ITA should win.
Heat 2
USA (Lane 1), EGY, YUG, GER, RSA (Lane 5)
GER, 6th at the 1999 Worlds, is favored to win this race, if contest all the way to the
finish line. Howver, with 3 crews to qualify for the semi-finals, the other 2 places could
be hotly contested between the USA ( a new combination ), RSA (7th at the 1999 Worlds )
and YUG ( another new combination ).
Heat 3
SLO (Lane 1), CAN, GBR, AUS (Lane 4)
AUS, favored to win the gold medal, should win this race. Others who should advance
with AUS to the semi-finals are GBR and SLO. CAN, which was 2 seconds behind SLO in the FB
final at the Lucerne World Cup in July, may be a real challenger to SLO for the third
ticket to the semi-finals.
Copyright 2000. Kent Mitchell.
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