Olympics
Rowing: American eights break world marks

By The Associated Press

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SCHINIAS, Greece — America's rowers arrived in Greece saying they were ready for the rough conditions on a windswept, manmade lake outside Athens. Turns out they were right.

With a tail wind packing gusts of up to 20 mph, both the U.S. men's and women's eights broke world records and won tough preliminary heats yesterday to advance to Sunday's finals.

Forecasts of stronger winds prompted postponement of today's races until tomorrow.

The women's eight won in 5 minutes, 56.55 seconds, surpassing the previous world mark of 5:57.02 set by Romania in 1999.

The U.S. men's eight finished in 5:19.85, easily surpassing the previous world best of 5:22.80, set by the Netherlands in 1999.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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