This weekend characterizes the closest and toughest ever grabs for rowing gold medals at Beijing Olympics. With seven gold medals snatched mostly by Europeans on Saturday, the competitions for the remaining seven gold medals will also be very fierce on Sunday.

The duel will start at about 3:30 p.m. with that for the gold in the lightweight women's double sculls (LW2X), closely followed by the boat class for men, men's and women's quadruple sculls, as well as the most spectacular show of men's and women's eight.

The Netherlands, Canada, China and Finland are considered to be gold medal hopefuls in the LW2X. The Netherlands registered the fastest heat time and followed it up with the fastest time in the semifinals. They had to strive to overcome a pace-setting Finland in the semifinal, but their confidence will be boosted by the way they lifted over the last 350 meters of the race.

"The final will be open. But everyone has the chance to get on to the podium. You really need to fight," Kirsten van der Kolk from the Netherlands said after qualifying for the final on Friday.

In the LM2X, Britain, Denmark and Greece are favorites. The British boat posted the fastest of four heat winners last Sunday. Being 2006 and 2007 world champions, the Danes remain genuine gold medal contenders.

Greece was the World Championship silver medalist and won the second semifinal with a result of 6 minutes 24.61 seconds on Friday, the fastest in the semifinals.

The lightweight men's four will be a fight without China. Denmark, which posted the fastest time in the heats and semifinals, is deemed as a favorite for the gold medal. However, it will meet with strong competition from world champions Britain and the Netherlands.

"We are heading for gold. We were a boat-length clear for the preliminaries and almost a boat length clear in this semi so there is no doubt about it. We are going for gold," Danish rower Mads Christian Kruse Andersen told reporters.

But he added that a lot of things could change in the Olympics.

The team sport, as the most spectacular event in rowing races, will receive the most attention.

The quadruple sculls for both men and women, together with the men's and women's eight, will provide a splendid race show for the excited audience.

Britain's world champion women's quadruple sculls crew are expected to make history on Sunday by being the first women's rowing crew from Britain to win an Olympic gold medal. According to the statistics listed from the heats and semifinals, Germany and the United States should be in the running for medals while Australia's and Ukraine's chance of winning any medal is rather slim.

In men's quadruple sculls, Poland has been the most consistent crew this week with a heat and semifinal win. France and the United States will pose strong challenges to its victory.

Both Romania and the United States are equal favorites for the women's eight gold medal after they strode into the final A with impressive heat wins. Canada and the Netherlands seem the most likely gold medal hurdles to the two favorites.

For the men's eight, world champion Canada is resolved to make history by reversing a 35-year-old trend that has seen no current world champion collect the Olympic gold. Defending Olympic champion the United States will try every means to retain the gold medal although it did not do well enough in the heat races.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2008)