From Lucerne to Bled

The final World Rowing Cup played like a sneak preview of World Championships. It showed who was at pace, who were the crews to beat and who could romp away to an easy gold.

The lightweight men’s four displayed a whole bunch of boats that had medal winning pace. Denmark finished the season as World Cup leaders but their third place finish in Lucerne showed that they are not insurmountable especially when Italy and Great Britain are at their best.

Belarus’s Ekaterina Karsten finishing out of the medals in the women’s single sculls was a scene that has not been witnessed in over a decade and gave not only winner Emma Twigg (NZL) a huge boost to the belief that perhaps Karsten could be beaten, but also the entire fleet of single scullers.

Certain crews looked simply unbeatable. Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins of Great Britain and of the women’s double sculls look like they have an answer to anything that any other crews want to throw at them. Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand of the men’s pair are in a similar state of affairs. Bond and Murray look to be the crew that, under the right conditions, will be setting a new World Best Time in their event.

The men’s four was won by Great Britain at Lucerne. They have become the crew to beat as Germany goes back into training camps to decide the final line up of their men’s sweep boats. The four, eight and pair have been shuffled around all season and, if they reach selection perfection, the four could be theirs. The United States, third in Lucerne, have a similar scenario unfolding.

The Lucerne results put Germany as overall World Cup winners (177 points) – a position that has been held by Great Britain since 2007. Germany has won the previous nine years of World Cups. Great Britain still came through to take second overall (149 points) despite missing the second World Cup of the series. New Zealand finished in third with 113 points and the United States were fourth with 70 points.

There is less than 50 days to go until the World Rowing Championships open in Bled, Slovenia on 28 August 2011. The Bled regatta is even more significant this year as it serves as the first Olympic Qualification Regatta for the 2012 London Olympics.

Slovenia’s most medalled athlete and top rower, Iztok Cop is reuniting with his Olympic Champion partner, Luka Spik and they have declared that they will be rowing together on their home waters at the World Championships in the men’s double sculls. Cop and Spik raced in Lucerne finishing fifth.

Bled has been upscaling its image in anticipation of the championships. The shores of Lake Bled have been landscaped with renovations going on in the boathouse, the grandstands and the finish tower. The World Rowing Championships press release stated, “The main idea underlying the planning of the tower was to make an invisible object, to essentially make it as transparent as possible and at one with nature. In the case of the new stands, similar guidelines were observed, which is why the stands themselves follow the configuration of the terrain. Now the shore of Lake Bled and its surroundings are ready to host the biggest rowing competition in the history of Slovenia.”