Lightweight glory at Munich World Cup

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Final

From start to finish this race was all about the complete domination of Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece. With about 40 strokes rowed, Tsiavou had already gained an open water lead over the field and she continued to move away in a class of her own. This was a one-woman race. Tsiavou has already been recognised for her talent. In 2008 she was part of her country’s Olympic crew finishing sixth in the lightweight double. The following year she was named Greece’s Athlete of the Year.

With such a huge lead Tsiavou did not have to sprint the finish. She left this up to Katherine Copeland of Great Britain and Pamela Weisshaupt of Switzerland. Despite strong crowd support, Brazil’s Fabiana Beltrame could not quite pull herself into a medal position.

At 5’9” Tsiavou is tall for a lightweight rower and as she collected her gold medal in front of a Munich crowd, Tsiavou towered about silver and bronze medallists – Copeland and Weisshaupt.

Results: GRE2, GBR, SUI1, BRA, POL1, NED

Alexandra Tsiavou (GRE) Gold
“Today, I think the race went well for me. There is no secret, There is only training. Sometimes the result will be good sometimes not, but there will always be training.”

B-final

Racing for spots seven to 12 at this regatta, Eri Wakai of Japan made a fine job of it. Wakai, 24, has been racing internationally since 2004 and last year she finished a credible ninth at the World Rowing Championships. Today Wakai led the B-final from start to finish holding off Fabiane Albrecht of Switzerland.

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Final

10-time World Champion (lightweight quadruple sculls) Daniele Gilardoni of Italy showed why he is such an accomplished rower. Gilardoni, 35, started off behind Maxime Goisset of France, but in a perfectly timed race, Gilardoni had found the lead by the half way point and remained there to the line. Goisset managed to hold on to second despite challenges coming from both France2 and Peru’s Victor Aspillaga Alayza.

In the final sprint Gilardoni must have been feeling good as he took his stroke rate to 35 and hold off a late charge by Goisset. Gilardoni took gold, Goisset silver and Alayza takes his first international rowing medal and the first World Rowing medal for Peru in many years.

Results: ITA, FRA1, PER, FRA2, BUL, JPN

B-final

After giving it his all in this morning’s semi-final, Milosz Jankowski of Poland just missed out on making the A-final. But Jankowski made the most of this race and, despite a slow start, Jankowski had the lead by the finish of the race. Jankowski finishes this race seventh overall.

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Final

Great Britain’s number two crew must have been feeling on fire. They had already outraced their number one compatriots and at the start of this final they grabbed the lead. This, fire, however was soon extinguished by a very close field with Jiri Kopac and Miroslav Vrastil of the Czech Republic taking over in the lead. Kopac and Vrastil have spent the majority of their international rowing career in the lightweight four. So, despite being new to the pair, they are very much used to international racing.

With that Kopac and Vrastil remained at the head of the field as Germany, Italy, Serbia and Great Britain fought it out for the lesser medals. All boats had to sprint the finish with the standard stroke rate seeming to be about 40 strokes per minute. Italy’s Armando Dell’Aquila and Luca De Maria managed a short-stroked 44. It did the trick. The Czech Republic finished first, followed by Great Britain, whilst Italy took the bronze medal.

Results: CZE, GBR2, ITA1, SRB, GER, ITA2

B-final

When you see the World Champions racing in the B-final you know that competition is tough. This was the case today when Fabien Tillet and Jean-Christophe Bette of France found themselves out of the A-final. The duo, however, made the best of it and gave the audience a nail-biting performance against Great Britain. Tillet and Bette finish seventh overall at this regatta.