LUCERNE, Switzerland -- The American men won a bronze medal
in the lightweight eights Saturday, the only success in a day
marked by the losses of other U.S. boats at the World Rowing Championships.
With four American crews losing their races for bronze medals,
the lightweight eights battled back from sixth at the halfway mark
to finish third in a race won by France. Denmark was a close
second.
"It was a really fast race," said bowman Erik Miller. "We had
to fight the whole way down the course. We would have liked to win
a different color medal, but we're very happy we were on the medal
stand."
The Americans charged through the final 500 meters to edge the
Italian boat by 0.4 seconds.
Britain's Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell won an
unprecedented double in the coxed and coxless pairs.
Racing twice within 90 minutes, the British duo clinched the
coxed pairs with coxswain Neil Chugani, then sped back up Rotsee
Lake to prepare for the coxless event. After beating an Italian
boat in the first race, Pinsent and Cracknell won in a photo finish
over a powerful Yugoslav entry.
It was the first time a pair has swept the events at a major
international regatta.
Norway's Olaf Tufte, who won the World Cup title this year in
his first season in the single sculls, edged Iztok Cop of Slovenia.
Favored Xeno Mueller, the Olympic silver medalist from Switzerland,
faded halfway through the event.
Olympic bronze medalist Kathrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany
won the women's single sculls by a boat-length over World Cup
runner-up Joulia Levina of Russia.
"We were kind of surprised that everyone got out on us the way
they did," coxwain Bill McManus said of the rally by the American
eights. "I thought we'd had a good first 500 meters, but all the
crews did.
"We pushed really hard at 1,000, and I was really proud of the
guys to come through the Brits and the Italians the way they did in
the last 750 meters. If we'd had another few strokes we might have
come through the Danes."
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ALSO SEE
Saturday's World Rowing Championships results
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