xThree more Chinese crews finished first in their heats yesterday, boosting the total to five top spots in the first two days of competition and suggesting the country could win its first rowing gold.
Rain postponed the second day of competition right before the two biggest events — the women’s eight and the men’s eight. No makeup date was immediately announced.
The US won gold in the eight for the first time in 40 years at the Athens Games in 2004.
The first two days of heats showed the Beijing Games might really be the perfect spot for the country to win its first gold medal.
“China is one of the best,” said Marit van Eupen of the Netherlands. “They are really dangerous.”
Tang Bin, Jin Ziwei, Xi Aihua and Zhang Yangyang won a four-boat women’s quadruple sculls heat in 6 minutes, 11.83 seconds — the best time of all eight boats competing in the two heats — and advanced to the final.
Xu Dongxiang and Yu Hua — who set a world-best time in this event two years ago — won their heat in the lightweight women’s double sculls in 6 minutes, 57.58 seconds. Their time, however, was nearly 8 seconds off the pace off the top mark of the event set by the Netherlands.
The lightweight men’s four crew of Huang Zhongming, Wu Chongkui, Zhang Lin and Tian Jun won a five-boat heat in 5 minutes, 51.30 seconds. This was the same crew that won the 2006 world championships and, combined with some impressive wins in Europe, they have become a heavy gold favorite.
Britain finished second in the heat and its foursome was impressed with China’s performance.
“They’re really good characters and we get on with them, despite us only speaking three words of Chinese and them only speaking three words of English,” James Clarke said.
The wildly enthusiastic home crowd cheered on all the Chinese boats as they neared the bubbly finish line — back a day after a generator used to create the effect overheated.
Britain also advanced to the women’s quad final, with Annie Vernon, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Katherine Grainger winning in 6 minutes, 13.70 seconds.
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