Aussies Paddle Into Cup Deciders

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday June 7, 2008

By CHRIS ROOTS

WARILLA'S David Smith and the Olympic K4 crew came through their first test of the World Cup season in Europe with a pass mark, going straight into tonight's 1000m final in Szeged, Hungary.

Smith, Clint Robinson, Tate Smith and Tony Schumacher finished third in their heat behind Hungary and Germany to automatically qualify for the final.

The Australians overcame a slow start to surge into third place at the halfway mark and held their ground to finish just over a boat length from Hungary.

Smith said it was good to finally race after a two-week training period and he thought the crew would only get better in the final.

"It was a good race considering it was the first time we raced together," Smith said.

"It was good to see where we are, as Germany and Hungary were going hard.

"I think we have a lot of improvement for the final as we didn't push ourselves as much (as the other crews) because we were all still trying to find each other within the boat."

It was a good day for Australia with all boats progressing into semi-finals, or finals.

Queenslander Kenny Wallace won his K1 1000m heat to move through to the semi-finals.

Jacob Clear finished fifth in his heat to also qualify for tonight's semi-finals in the same event.

The women's K4 500m crew of Chantal Meek, Lyndsie Fogarty, Hannah Davis and Lisa Oldenhof went through to the final after they finished third in a tough heat.

Germany and Hungary, which were the gold and silver medal winning crews from last year's world championships, finished in front of the Australians, who edged out China for third.

Torsten Lachmann finished fifth in his heat of the C1 1000m to progress to the semi-finals.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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