How British rowing ended World Cup on high

But this was not without feeling the earlier impact of China.

Great Britain started off the 2008 season by taking the lead on the medals table by notching up the most points at the Munich Rowing World Cup in early May. Then China came thundering onto the scene at the second Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. Winning five gold medals put the Chinese well into the lead of the points table with 112 points over Great Britain’s 95.

In Poznan, Great Britain pulled off a consistent performance scoring three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.
The golds for Great Britain came in the women’s double of Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington. This puts Laverick in good stead for going after another Olympic medal in this event. Gold in the lightweight men’s double of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter gives them a hat-trick; their third World Cup gold medal for this season. The men’s eight also won gold with a solid win over Germany.

Great Britain’s Performance Director David Tanner accepted the overall trophy and commented in the GB Rowing press release, “Winning the overall World Cup trophy is a good achievement in what has been a challenging summer so far.” This challenge refers partly to flagship crews, the men’s four and the women’s quad who both experienced defeat during the season.

The British finished up with 134 points overall with Germany following closely behind on 128 points. Germany picked up three medals including gold in the women’s pair. Despite their absence at the Poznan Rowing World Cup, China still finished the season in third place with 112 points overall. Australia finished fourth on 86 points and an impressive performance by New Zealand moved them up into fifth after they won three gold medals at Poznan.
Taking just the Poznan regatta into account Germany topped the medal count with 41 points followed by Great Britain and New Zealand who both earned 39 points.

The Poznan Rowing World Cup was the final international race for this season before the Beijing Olympic Games begin 9 August.