Twenty-nine boats headed for Beijing

(BEIJING, June 18) -- The Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, hosted in Poznan, Poland, ended on June 18 with 29 boats earning spots in this summer's Olympic Rowing Regatta.

The final day of races kicked off at 9:30 a.m. local time, with Phillipa Savage of Australia, Gabriella Bascelli of Italy and Iva Obradovic of Serbia finishing in the top three of the Women's Single Sculls and qualifying for Beijing. Rowers from Spain, Russia and Denmark fell short in their qualifying bids.

In the Men's Single Sculls, Ken Jurkowski of the USA came from behind to take the top spot. He heads to Beijing along with Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania and Anrdraz Krek of Slovenia. Twenty-three-year-old Ioannis Christou of Greece fell short in his bid, finishing in fourth by just .18 seconds.

France and Denmark claimed the two Olympic qualifying spots in the Women's Pairs by finishing first and second, respectively. The Russian team was a full second ahead after the halfway point but slipped to second at the 1500m mark and finished well back in fourth. Denmark finished outside of Olympic qualification in third place.

In the Men's Pairs, Canada, which competed in the Athens Olympics, finished first. They head to Beijing with Italy, which finished in second place. After placing second in the first semifinal, the Chinese team placed a disappointing fourth in the final; Czech Republic, Spain and Switzerland also fail in their attempts to qualify.

The two Women's Double Sculls Olympic spots went to first place finisher Ukraine and second place Australia. Both boats were heavy favorites going into the final.

Host nation China will have a boat in the Olympic Men's Double after the Chinese finished four seconds ahead of the field in Wednesday's final. Russia heads to the Olympics after edging out Bulgaria. Poland, which qualified directly for the finals after winning heat one, finished fifth.

China also qualified in the Men's Fours after finishing second to Australia in the final race. Canada, Argentina, Greece and Egypt all failed to qualify for the Olympics.

The Netherlands and USA completed what they started after directly qualifying for the finals through first place finishes in their respective heats in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls. They took the top two spots at the halfway mark of the finals and held on to clinch Olympic qualification.

Portugal came back from sixth place at the 1500m to stun the field and grab an Olympic spot by finishing second in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls. New Zealand and Canada also qualify by placing first and third, respectively.

To the surprise of nobody, Germany took top spot in the Men's Fours and will head to the Olympics with Ireland, which finished second.

Russia won its head-to-head showdown with Romania in the Women's Quadruple Sculls to grab the sole Olympic spot in the event. Russia had lost to Romania in the race for lanes on June 17.

In the Men's Quadruple Sculls, Belarus, the winner of heat one, and Slovenia, the winner of the repachage, took the top two spots of the finals to qualify for Beijing. Canada, which won heat two and placed a promising sixth in the Lucerne Rowing World Cup, finished fourth.

The Chinese crew fell short of expectations in the Women's Eight, finishing in the fourth spot in the final after winning the race for lanes on June 16. First-place Canada and second-place Netherlands took the two Olympic spots in the event.

In the last Olympic qualification race of the day, the Netherlands beat out five other teams for the only Olympic spot in the event and the last of the regatta. They beat out Russia by .35 seconds.