Two sets of US rowers qualify for finals as lightweight pairs falls off

VAIRES-SUR-MARNE, France – Team USA rowers Michelle Sechser and Molly Reckford finished third in their Olympic semifinal heat of the lightweight women’s doubles sculls Wednesday to advance to Friday’s finals at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

Sechser and Reckford qualified in a time of 7:05.03, behind rowing power Great Britain (6:59.79) and New Zealand (7:02.86).

Sechser and Reckford finished fifth, a second behind the gold-medal winning Italian team, at the 2020 Olympic Games.

"I'm obviously biased I think it's the best race that's ever happened in the sport of rowing," Reckford said of the 2020 Olympic final. "But like many of the same crews who have again qualified for the final, that was a wild experience and like I said I've dreamt about having another chance at that race since then."

Ireland, Greece and Romania will join the U.S., Great Britain and New Zealand in the final.

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This is the last year for lightweight pairs at the Olympics as the event will be replaced by coastal rowing at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 as part of a push by the International Olympic Committee to do away with weight-class division in non-combat sports.

Jess Thoennes and Azja Czajkowski, the U.S. women's rowing pair also qualified for the finals in their event Friday with a second-place finish behind Australia. Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania and Greece also reached the finals.

"Full transparency, I was a little surprised to look over and see that we were up after 500, but it was good," Czajkowski said. "I think we just did our thing and it was epic that the heat, we shook some of the sillies out and now we're in a good spot, I think."