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August 19, 2004 10:29 am

Double sculls rowers knocked out in semis

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece - Rowers Steve Tucker and Greg Ruckman won't be going for a medal in their second Olympics.

Tucker of Mooresville, Ind., and Ruckman of Cincinnati failed to advance from the semifinals of the lightweight men's double sculls Thursday at the Olympic Regatta in Schinias, about 25 miles from Athens near the Aegean Sea.

The U.S. duo came to the Olympics with high hopes after a strong fourth-place finish at the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June.

Defending Olympic champ Poland, Greece and Denmark out-rowed the United States, which missed the final with a time of 6:21.46. The Czech Republic and Slovakia trailed the U.S. boat.

The U.S. crew will row for places 7-12 in Saturday's B final.

Tucker, 35, and Ruckman, 30, have a lot in common besides two trips to the Olympics in rowing. Both are avid cyclists. Both graduated from demanding colleges - Tucker from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ruckman from Harvard.

``I decided to row with Greg in 2002,'' Tucker said. ``He took about two years off from rowing after the Sydney Olympics and did cycling. He was second in the 2001 Mount Washington Hill Climb (in New Hampshire). So he's very good physiologically. He's what made it possible for me to row the double. I was rowing the single two years before that.''

Tucker, the more talkative of the two, usually handles interview requests.

``We've had better races than this,'' Tucker said. ``But we have a good shot in the B final.''

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