Sloan DuRoss ’95 and Deaglan McEachern ’01 have finished their first two heats at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany. Both DuRoss and McEachern represent the United States in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls event, DuRoss in bow seat and McEachern in two seat.

• On Monday, in the first heat against Egypt, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Argentina, the quad finished third behind Czech Republic and Ukraine. While the top two finishers in each of the four heats qualified directly for the semifinal on Friday, the remaining eleven boats had to row in the repechage races on Wednesday in order to qualify for the semifinals.
• On Wednesday, the U.S. boat raced against Belarus, Canada, China and Croatia, needing a second-place finish or better to qualify for the semifinals. In a photo-finish, the quad qualified in second place over Canada only 0.26 seconds behind them. The quad will compete in the A semifinals on Friday for a shot at the finals on Sunday. Check out a video of stroke seat Mark Flickinger’s thoughts on their repechage at Row2k or download it direct here (22MB).

In other news, FISA announced that three Russian rowers were banned from the regatta (and a further two years of competition) for “intravenous infusion,” an illegal practice according to FISA’s anti-doping rules. As a result, the Russian Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) and Women’s Eight (W8+) will not not race anymore in the regatta, and therefore also lose their eligibility to row in next years Olympic games for those two events. Read the full report at WorldRowing.com.

On the whole, the U.S. team is in the running for the finals for every single event it entered except the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls. This includes 86 athletes in 26 crews, some of whom are competing for spots on next year’s Olympic team. Good luck to Sloan and Deaglan, and all the athletes representing the United States!

View further results live at the FISA website.

Photo and video courtesy of Row2k.com.

Two Exonians will compete at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany. Sloan DuRoss ’95 and Deaglan McEachern ’01 will both be racing in the U.S. Men’s Quadruple Sculls event. This regatta will culminate the 2007 racing season and offer predictions for the Olympic Games next year in Beijing. Both athletes have worked hard to prove their speed at various regattas and trials this summer:

• At the Third 2007 National Selection Regatta in early June, DuRoss and McEachern rowed in separate boats in the Men’s Double Sculls event–DuRoss finishing second and McEachern third in the final.
• Two weeks later, DuRoss competed in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls event at the Rowing World Cup in Amsterdam, finishing seventh overall.
• The following week, McEachern competed in the Men’s Double Sculls and Men’s Quadruple Sculls events at the 2007 USRowing National Chmapionships at Mercer Lake, New Jersey. Amazingly, McEachern won first place in both finals on the same day less than four hours apart.
• In mid July, McEachern competed in the Men’s Double Sculls event at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the final, he won a third-place bronze medal, a mere six-hundredths of a second short of silver.

After racing separately all season, the two Exonians, by chance, were both selected to row in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls for the Rowing World Championships this weekend. The quad’s first heat will take place against Egypt, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Argentina on Monday, August 27th at 12:00 noon Munich local time (6:00 AM EST). The top two boats in each of the four heats for the quad will qualify directly for the semifinals on Friday. The remaining sixteen boats will compete for the four other spots in the semifinals in the repechage races on Wednesday. In the meantime, check out a video of the quad doing a practice start in Munich.

View results live at the FISA website.

Video from http://www.rowcoachmedia.com.

Update: Check out more photos of the quad at row2k.

Final results from the 2007 FISA Junior World Rowing Championship in Beijing are available:

• Ian Winthrop ’08 raced in the Grand Finals of the Men’s Eight event. The U.S. boat started in third, trailing Germany and China by less than half a length at the 500m mark. The crew began to fall behind in the second quarter, after New Zealand began to surge forward. In the end, Germany won by 2.48 seconds over New Zealand, with China in third trailing the Kiwis by 4.10 seconds. The U.S. finished just behind Italy in fifth place, in 5:51.56 total.
• Jeremy Bernstein ’07 raced in the second finals of the Men’s Coxed Four event, easily beating South Africa in the two-boat race in 6:45.15. The four earned a seventh-place finished overall.

Final results from the 125th Royal Canadian Henley Regatta are available:

• Tim Moore ’08 finished fourth in the finals of the Men’s Junior Pair event for Boston Rowing Club.  Moore also finished third and won a bronze medal in the Men’s Junior Eight event for Boston Rowing Club.
• Allison Courtin ’08 finished fifth in the finals of the Women’s Junior Eight for West Side Rowing Club of Buffalo, New York.
• Chris Courtin ’06 finished sixth in the finals of the Men’s Senior B Coxless Pair also for West Side Rowing Club.
• Luke Thoms ’08 finished fifth in the finals of the Men’s Senior B Quadruple Sculls for Quad City Rowing Association of Moline, Illinois.

Congratulations to all the Exonians who competed overseas at Junior Worlds and at Canadian Henley!