Julia Edward 5^th in Semi Final 1…

Great Britain, Greece,Germany, USA,  New Zealand,Cuba

FROM WORLDROWING.COM In semifinal one of the lightweight women’s double sculls all six crews had the potential to be in the top three. Greece’s Alexandra Tisavou and Christina Giazitzidou are the reigning World Champions with spectacular racing ability. Great Britain’s Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland had a wonderful race in the heats. Germany and the United States both seem to step up with every race at this regatta and New Zealand are the World Best Time holders but come to these Olympic Games as relatively inexperienced.  Take your pick.
Semifinal two in the lightweight women’s double has China’s Dongxiang Xu and Wenyi Huang faced off against Denmark’s Juliane Rasmussen and Anne Lolk Thomsen. These two crews finishing seventh and eighth respectively at last year’s World Rowing Championships, but both of them must be given the award for most improved through this season.

The reigning World Champions, Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece jumped out into the lead over Lena Mueller and Anja Noske of Germany at the start of Semifinal One. Going through the middle of the race Tsiavou and Giazitzidou moved to a solid full boat-length lead. Going through the 1250m mark Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking of Great Britain began to move. It got them ahead of Germany and closed the gap on Greece. Rating 37, Copeland and Hosking continued to move and at the 1550m point they had the lead and with that, Copeland and Hosking powered home to a comfortable win. Greece held on to second with Germany qualifying for the final by finishing third. Newcomers New Zealand finished 5^th and move to the B Final.

Dongxiang Xu (b) and Wenyi Huang (s) of China (l) continued to have a great regatta . Xu, finished fifth at the Beijing Olympics. Today in Semifinal Two they got out in front of a fast-starting Australia (Bronwen Watson and Hannah Every-Hall) to take the lead.Going through the middle of the race,  there was nothing in it between China, Australia and Denmark. All three crews were working hard and trying to shake off the Netherlands. Then China and Denmark (Anne Lolk Thomsen and Juliane Rasmussen) started to pull away from the rest of the field. Australia tried to hold on as the sprint to the line saw Thomsen and Rasmussen rating 41 to keep up with Xu and Huang on 37.These three boats – China, Denmark and, in third, Australia had qualified for the final.