Who to Watch at Lucerne World Rowing Cup

This third and final World Cup of the series has attracted a large and extremely competitive field for the three days of racing. This year’s World Rowing Championships also acts as the qualification regatta for the 2012 London Olympic Games and thus rowers will want to make the most of this last chance before the rowing event of the year.

To follow is a review of the Olympic events that will be raced at Lucerne with to crews that you will want to be watching out for.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

The first of two big New Zealand–Great Britain face-offs for the season will take place in the women’s pair. World Champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown of New Zealand will be up against 2010 world silver medallists Helen Glover and Heather Stanning of Great Britain.

The two crews each competed at one stage of the 2011 Samsung World Rowing Cup and won, so the yellow World Cup leader bib is also at stake here. Glover and Stanning also raced at the Holland Beker regatta and finished first.

But Great Britain and New Zealand will do themselves a disservice if they do not watch out for the rest of the fleet. South Africa’s new young line-up of Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse were second at Hamburg and can only improve. There’s also Australia (Tait and Stanley) competing at their first international regatta this year and the United States (Francia and Musnicki), who won silver in Munich.
 

Men’s Pair (M2-)

The second New Zealand-Great Britain showdown will be in the men’s pair. At last year’s World Rowing Championships, Great Britain’s Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge along with Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand outclassed the rest of the field by racing far out in front. On that day Bond and Murray were the victors by just 0.32 of a second. The two crews meet again for the first

 time since the championships and this time Bond and Murray will not have the home crowd advantage. Reed and Hodge arrive in Lucerne with the sole goal of beating Bond and Murray. The New Zealanders arrive with the goal of winning, as they have for the past two years. This is a battle that has gripped the British press.

If other races are to go by, the rest of the field will be racing for the bronze. Heading the field is likely to be Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen of Canada. The duo took silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and return to international competition for the first time at Lucerne. But they will be up against silver and bronze medallists from World Rowing Cup I: Italy (Carboncini and Mornati) and Greece (the Gkountoulas brothers).

Add to the mix World Cup II medallists Germany and South Africa and you have an event where just making the final will be an accomplishment.
 

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

A back injury suffered by reigning World Champion Anna Watkins of Great Britain has kept her out of the boat at the start of this season. Lucerne will be her first 2011 World Cup. Teamed up with Katherine Grainger, this duo has not lost a race since they came together in 2010, but the disruption caused by Watkins’ injury could mean that other crews will be able to close the gap on these leaders.

The 2009 World Champions, Magdalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska (Poland) are looking back on form after winning at the Hamburg World Cup. They have also had to battle health problems earlier this season.

Adding to the potential medal contenders is Australia, who are using Lucerne as their warm-up for this year’s World Rowing Championships. Kerry Hore and Kim Crow are back in the double, after winning silver at last year’s World Rowing Championships.

Also watch out for medallists from Hamburg. The new German combination of N

ina Wengert and Sophie Dunsing showed that they had good boat speed by taking hold of silver while Yuliya Bichyk and Tatsiana Kukhta of Belarus took bronze. With an extra three weeks of training Belarus will continue to improve.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)

This field has broadened and deepened significantly since the second stage of the World Rowing Cup giving Hamburg winners and reigning World Champions Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan of New Zealand more competition to face.

Cohen and Sullivan will face last year’s world silver medallists, Great Britain’s Marcus Bateman and Matthew Wells, as well as the talented duo of Cedric Berrest and Julien Bahain from France and the 2009 World Champions Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger of Germany. And that’s not all. Olympic Champions from 2008, David Crawshay and Scott Brennan of Australia are back together and racing for the first time internationally since Beijing. This line-up of superb talent means that gaining medals will be no easy feat.

And just to spice things up Olympic medallists in the double from 2000 and 2004, Iztok Cop and Luka Spik of Slovenia, are appearing back together. Cop and Spik must have racing at the 2011 World Championships in front of their home crowd on their mind as they use Lucerne to tune up after both spending the season in the double and single, respectively.
 

Men’s Four (M4-)

The Germans took third in Munich and first in Hamburg, but continue to shuffle their crew lineups as Coach Hartmut Buschbacher looks for the perfect sweep team in the men’s four and eight. Their Lucerne entry, therefore, is another talented, but new crew. They will face the return of winners of Samsung World Rowing Cup I, Great Britain, and second placed boat Greece.

Reigning World Champions France are yet to medal this season, after missing out on the podium in Munich and not racing in Hamburg, and will be hoping to get back on top of the field in Lucerne.

New Zealand has a new 2011 boat which includes the return to rowing of 2007 World Champions James Dallinger and Carl Meyer. This line-up took silver in Hamburg despite only just having arrived in Europe and having been just two weeks together as a crew.

Keep an eye out too for the Australians. Three-time Olympic Champion Drew Ginn is sitting in the bow seat of the boat he declared would take him to his fourth Olympic Games. The experience and status of Ginn will no doubt bring out the very best in the entire crew.
 

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)

The most in-form crew this season appears to be Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell of Great Britain. The duo won in Munich and then raced at Amsterdam’s Holland Beker regatta beating 2010 World Champions Lindsay Jennerich and Tracy Cameron of Canada.

However, now that Jennerich and Cameron have a 2011 race under their belt, they will no doubt come back stronger to Lucerne. In Lucerne they will also face World Cup leaders, the United States, with Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols. Hedstrom and Nichols won bronze in Munich, and in the absence of Great Britain won gold in Hamburg. In Lucerne, they will have the added pressure coming from a second US crew who are vying to beat them to earn the lightweight doubles spot on the US team.

Watch out too for Germany’s Marie-Louise Draeger and Anja Noske. Both of these scullers are very talented in their own right and the more they spend time in the double together, the faster they will get. There is also Alice McNamara and Hannah Every-Hall of Australia who finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships in 2010 after winning gold in Lucerne last year. This regatta will be their first international race of the season.
 

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)

New Zealand’s Storm Uru and Peter Taylor came together nicely in the final at the Hamburg World Cup to win. The level of competition has deepened as this 2009 World Champion duo move to Lucerne.

For a start, 2008 Olympic bronze medallists Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist of Denmark will be there. Rasmussen and Quist took time out from the double after Beijing to come back together for a third-place finish at the first World Cup in May. They race again in Lucerne.

Germany’s Lars Hartig and Linus Lichtschlag will also be in Lucerne. The young exuberance of this duo brought them gold at the first stage of the World Cup in Munich. They were followed by Jeremie Azou and Frederic Dufour of France. Azou and Dufour race again in Lucerne.

One crew that will perhaps be causing less concern than usual is the British. The reigning World Champion crew is only at half level as Zac Purchase continues to recover from a virus. But his partner Mark Hunter has teamed up with Adam Freeman-Pask. Together, however, they may surprise.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)

At both Samsung World Rowing Cups this season the lightweight men’s four has presented some of the closest racing. On the medals podium all crews have looked happy and just relieved to have made it there. Crews have had to rate in the mid-40s to get to the line in a medal winning position and photo finishes are becoming the norm. There is no doubt the competition at Lucerne will be just as tight.

Denmark, under the stroking guidance of the great Eskild Ebbesen, is the World Cup leader in this event, having won both initial stages of the World Cup, albeit by a mere fraction. They will again be up against France and Great Britain who are regularly in the tight finishing pack.

Keep an eye out too for Germany. The boat of brothers and twins finished with bronze in Hamburg. Then there are Canada and Australia, arriving on the international scene for the first time in 2011 here at Lucerne. The final will be a race you will not want to miss.
 

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

Ukraine has made it clear that this is the event they will do anything to win. They won Samsung World Rowing Cup I, but when they finished second to Germany at World Cup II, the crew looked devastated. This second-place result has led to a crew change with Anna Kravchenko and Tetiana Kolesnikova coming into the boat. Germany, however, will not be sitting back. Their win last month has given the crew confidence to take on Ukraine again. This two-way battle has left 2010 World Champions, Great Britain, somewhat bemused and at least figuratively left out of the loop in Munich. Great Britain has also brought in super-spare Melanie Wilson to fill in for an injured Francis Houghton so the dynamics of the crew have changed slightly.

Added into the mix at Lucerne are Australia and the United States. Both of these countries have medalled in the past when everything comes together at the right moment.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

Last year this race was regularly about a battle between Poland and Croatia. So far this season Poland has not been firing and they have chosen to stay away from Lucerne. Instead the rivalry has turned to Croatia versus Germany. Croatia and Germany have taken one race each out of the two World Cups so far this season.

Who will take the yellow leader bib after Lucerne? As reigning World Champions, Croatia perhaps has the edge. But the German line up of Schulze, Wende, Schoof and Grohmann are in their first season together and have a look of freshness about them. Add to the mix Great Britain who recently beat World Champions Croatia at Henley Royal Regatta.

Switzerland has decided to change their double into a quad and with former top single sculler Andre Vonarburg in stroke seat the crew finished fourth at the second World Cup. This is a crew to watch.

Also watch out for the Russians. Stroked by 2004 Olympic Champion Sergey Fedorovtsev, this boat is hoping to reach back to the glory not seen since 2004.
 

Women’s Eight (W8+) – Blue Riband Event

The first two World Cups have not revealed too much about how the women’s eight is shaping up. Lucerne will change this. Reigning World Champions, the United States are racing for the first time this season. As US coach Tom Terhaar continues to tweak his crew, he has added a couple of very talented ‘older’ rowers. Caryn Davies and Caroline Lind are back rowing and back in the boat after being part of the Olympic Champion 2008 crew. Alison Cox (silver at the 2004 Olympic Games) has also worked her way back into the boat. The United States will face the Netherlands and Great Britain who were first and second respectively at the first World Cup back in May. The Netherlands have been focusing on getting more powerful this season and their win at Munich looks like they are on the right track.

Romania will also line up in Lucerne, their first World Cup showing this year. The Romanians formerly dominated the women’s eight, but their reign ended in 2008 when the United States took Olympic gold in Beijing.

Despite winning at European Championship level for the past four years, Romania will be doing all that they can to improve and be back on top at world level in time for London next year. Lucerne will show how they are progressing.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Blue Riband Event

Uber-single sculler Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus must be coming to realise that she is in the midst of one of her toughest seasons so far in her long career. At the first two stages of the 2011 Samsung World Rowing Cup, Karsten was led for most of the race by Germany’s top sculler Annekatrin Thiele, in her first year as a single sculler. Karsten had to pull out her devastating sprint to earn gold.

Then in Hamburg at World Cup II, New Zealand’s Emma Twigg kept in touch with Karsten even through the final sprint. Less than two seconds separated them at the finish line. Thiele will not be at Lucerne after withdrawing earlier this week, but Twigg is back at Lucerne and racing on the darling of all regatta courses means that the best a rower has to give truly comes to the fore.

Watch out too for reigning World Champion Frida Svensson of Sweden. Svensson is yet to medal this season and must be timing her training to get racing better as the season advances.

These scullers will also need to be wary of the experience and talent of Xiuyun Zhang of China (bronze  medallist in Munich), Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic and Julia Levina of Russia who, when they race well, are medal contenders.
 

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Blue Riband Event

The single scullers lining up at Lucerne make up arguably the most talented field ever to be competing in the men’s single. To make it into the top six finalists will be a feat in itself with at least 10 athletes having the ability to qualify.

To give just a taste: consecutive two-time Olympic Champion in this event, Olaf Tufte of Norway is there, as is former World Champion from

Germany Marcel Hacker who has returned stronger and calmer after taking most of last season off. Both Lassi Karonen of Sweden and Tim Maeyens of Belgium are Olympic finalists. There is Liang Zhang of China who was in the final of last year’s World Rowing Championships.

And that is just the beginning.

The top two fastest men of 2010 met for the first time in June at the Holland Beker regatta in Amsterdam. Reigning World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic prevailed, albeit by just a small margin against four-time World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand. Synek won the first stage of the 2011 World Rowing Cup in Munich, and Drysdale the second in Hamburg. In Lucerne, they will face off for the first time at World Cup level this season, with Synek having the slight psychological advantage.
 

Men’s Eight (M8+) – Blue Riband Event

This race has been shaping up to a battle between Germany and Great Britain with the Germans remaining unbeaten no matter what Great Britain does. The two crews met earlier this season at the first World Cup with Germany finishing just over a second ahead of Great Britain.

The British were not pleased. For Lucerne, Germany has brought their top four back into the eight so each time they race it seems to be a slightly different mix. Is this the crew that will stick until the World Rowing Championships? Their results will play a part in forming that decision.

Great Britain has held their line up all season with 1992 Olympic Champion, Gregory Searle remaining in six seat. Last year’s bronze medallists, Australia turn up in Lucerne. They have been simulating World Cup racing in their preparation at home and will be ready to shake off the winter and race hard. So too will Poland and the Netherlands, who are regularly on the edge of pushing into the medals.