Two Bay Area athletes helped the U.S. women's eight crew to victory in its opening race Sunday, setting up a finals showdown with Canada in what shapes up as one of the top events of the Olympic regatta.
Cal grad Erin Cafaro of Modesto and Stanford product Elle Logan contributed to the Americans' winning time of 6 minutes, 14.68 seconds on Dorney Lake. Runnerup Australia was more than six seconds behind.
The U.S. team is unbeaten the past six years. Cafaro and Logan both rowed in the Americans' 2008 Olympic gold medal boat.
In Thursday's final, the Americans will duel powerful Canada, which won the other opening race in 6:13.91.
"It was a strong first race," American rower Taylor Ritzel said. "It's always nice to finally just feel the race ... and get a race under our belts. Can't wait for the final now." Canada, which lost by three hundredths of a second to the U.S. in a recent World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, finished nearly a length ahead of Romania in a slightly quicker time of 6:13.91 in the second heat. That was the final race of the day, ending just before thunder and lightning rumbled over the course.
"It's going to come down to the last stroke," U.S. coxswain Mary Whittle said.
Elsewhere, Lafayette's Anthony Fahden and the U.S. men's lightweight four boat won its repechage race in 6:00.86 to advance to Tuesday's semifinal.
Livermore native Julie Nichols and partner Kristin Hedstrom placed third in their first-round heat of the women's lightweight double sculls and will try to stay alive in a repechage race on Tuesday. Hedstrom and Nichols, a Cal grad and PhD student at UCLA, crossed in 7:08.46.
Olympic and world champion Britain made a timely return to form in the men's lightweight double sculls to seal a morale-boosting victory against rival New Zealand in the heats.
Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase started the year as one of the host nation's leading gold-medal hopes but appeared to lack fitness. They slumped to disappointing sixth-place finishes in the last two World Cup events, in Lucerne and Munich.
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