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Men's Double Sculls (M2X)
Pre-Race Analysis
Preliminary Heats
Top 3 to semi-finals. Others to Repechage.
Heat 1
CAN (Lane 1), POL, FRA, HUN, CRO, ESP (Lane 6)
With the top 3 crews to advance to the semi-finals, most crews will shut down after
1000 meters, if the top 3 have clear leads then. HUN, 5th at the 1999 Worlds, also
finished 3rd in each of its 3 World Cup appearances this summer, and should win this race.
FRA should place a comfortable 2nd, but a real race may develop between the four remaining
crews for the 3rd place in the semi-finals, with the nod going to POL, which placed 6th in
the Lucerne World Cup final.
Heat 2
EST (Lane 1), USA, SLO, DEN, ITA (Lane 5)
SLO, the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal, and the reigning World Champion,
should win this race easily. Based on the 7th, 8th and 10th place finishes for ITA, EST,
USA in the FB final in the Lucerne World Cup in July, and the fact that the ITA crew has
been strengthened since then with the addition of Nicola Sartori, its best single sculler,
the next three place finishers should be very tight. Only two of them will advance to the
semi-finals with SLO, and they should be ITA, EST and USA in that order.
Heat 3
UKR (Lane 1), CUB, NOR, GER (Lane 4)
GER was 2nd and NOR 3rd at the 1999 Worlds, but GER slipped to 6th, 4th and 5th in
World Cup competition this summer. By contrast, NOR finished 2nd, 1st and 2nd in their 3
World Cup appearances, and are favored to win this race over GER. The 3rd qualifier for
the semi-finals should be UKR, which finished 12th in the Lucerne World Cup in July.
Copyright 2000. Kent Mitchell.
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