A boat of experienced lightweight women won the first United States gold medal at the 1994 World Rowing Championships at Eagle Creek Park Sunday.
The lightweight four without coxswain applied power and knowledge to seal their win as Great Britain on one side and China on the other closed in fast at the finish line."We wanted to make sure we had a solid middle," said Danika Harris of Durham, N.H. "The Canadians got out on us at the start and it didn't frazzle us. Our power carries us through."
The winning time for the 2,000-meter race was 6 minutes, 36.40 seconds for the United States, with Great Britain finishing in 6:37.28 for the silver and China in 6:38.27 for the bronze.
Others in the crew are Charlotte Hollings of Alexandria, Va.; Linda Muri of Lyme, Conn., and Christine Smith of Darien, Conn.
Each of the women in the gold medal boat has been rowing for 10 years. Hollings won a world championship silver medal in 1985, Harris a bronze in 1993.
The Romanian four with coxswain, sparing no horsepower for the eights race they would run later in the day, defeated a come-from-behind United States crew and the Netherlands to defend their title.
The Romanian boat clocked a fast third 500 to secure the lead, finishing in 6:06.69 to the United States' 6:06.98 and the Netherlands' 6:07.73.
"We were in sixth place going into 750," said silver medalist Ted Murphy of West Newton, Mass. "We did three consecutive power 20's to move on the field."
The United States led for 1,500 meters in the openweight women's four without coxswain race, but were nipped in the sprint by the Netherlands, 6:30.76 to 6:31.92. Australia won the bronze in 6:32.85.
"We knew the Netherlands were even with us," said Catriona Fallon of Burlingame, Calif. "All we could do is just go."
The crews of four of the boats that raced in the women's four without coxswain were to race again in the afternoon in the eights, a result of races postponed by strong winds Saturday.
Italy knocked off world champion France in the four without coxswain event, 5:48.44 to 5:49.82, pulling ahead at 1,500 meters and holding on. Great Britain, with former world and Olympic pairs champions Jonny and Greg Searle aboard, closed for the bronze in 5:50.37.
"Usually at the first 1,000 we are not the leader," said Jean-Christophe Rolland of the deposed French crew. "In this race, we were. We were up too fast."
Andre Willms of Germany celebrated his 22nd birthday by winning the openweight single sculls world championship in a time of 6:46.33, defeating Brown University student Xeno Mueller of Switzerland, who was second in 6:48.10, and Iztok Cop of Slovenia, who was third in 6:49.33.
Tougher false start rules spelled catastrophe for Canada's former world champion openweight single sculler Silken Laumann, who jumped the flag with two other boats and, on the restart, came out too fast all by herself. Laumann, who had fought back to competitive form from a serious injury two years ago to win an Olympic bronze medal, was immediately disqualified.
Trine Hansen of Denmark, last year's bronze medalist, won the openweight women's sculls title in 7:23.96, battling the length of the course with Germany's Kathrin Boron, who crossed the line 94-hundredths of a second behind in 7:24.90. Anne-Elise Bredael of Belgium won the bronze medal in 7:25.56.
In the openweight double sculls, 1993 silver medalists Rolf Thorsen and Lars Bjoenness of Norway took the men's gold and Philippa Baker and Brenda Lawson of New Zealand defended their women's title.
In other lightweight races, Italy won the men's pair without coxswain, ahead of Russia and Ireland. Denmark defeated Australia and Germany for the men's lightweight four without coxswain title.
Romania's Constanta Pipota won the gold medal in the women's lightweight single sculls, ahead of Laurien Vermulst of the Netherlands and Pia Vogel of Switzerland.
Friends and training partners Peter Haining of Great Britain and Niall O'Toole of Ireland fought for the lightweight men's single sculls title, with Haining prevailing, 6:53.48 to 6:56.33. Karsten Nielsen of Denmark placed third in 6:56.99.
"The best sculling I've done all year was out there," Haining said. "It was nice to peak at the World Championships."