With Sunday’s finals looming Saturday was the final day the field would be cut as semifinals were held in a variety of event at the US Olympic Rowing Trials. The first event was the men’s single sculls and in the first heat 2012 Olympian Ken Jurkowski won and had the top time of the day for the first time in the trials. Justin Keen had the top time in the second heat and was just 0.24 seconds behind Jurkowski. Greg Ansolabehere who had the top time in the time trials and previous round, also reached the final though he was over three seconds behind the top times. The final in this event looks to be an exciting and dramatic one.

Over in the women’s single sculls 2012 Olympian Genevra Stone won her heat to advance to the final without any real challenge but Stesha Cole was the fastest of the day by 3.2 seconds. Stone will probably be a bit faster in the final when finishing first is all that matters.

In the men’s double sculls repechage two more teams made the final. There was a decently close finish as Thaddeus Babiec/Theo Pritz advanced to the final by just 2.4 seconds. It was even closer in the women’s double sculls as Jamie Chapman/Elizabeth Vogt only advanced to the final by 1.88 seconds. Another close finish was in the women’s lightweight double sculls as Rosa Kemp/Monica Whitehouse had only 2.92 seconds to spare. The men’s lightweight double sculls wasn’t quite so competitive as neither heat was decided by less than 4.5 seconds.

Sunday will have eight finals. Two of those are for Paralympic spots, four are for Olympic spots, and two are for spots in a final qualifying event for the Olympics.

Previous Olympic Rowing Trials Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
Day 4 Update