2002 Zurich Rowing World Cup, Who to Watch in Hazewinkel

View of Hazewinkel Course
© Sybrand Treffers

Hazewinkel, Belgium will play host to the first 2002 Zurich Rowing World Cup. This regatta is shaping up to be an exciting three days of racing beginning on June 14th, with many crews eager to change some of the surprise results from Duisburg’s regatta last month. These crews will be joined by many more countries including an international debut from Armenia.

There will be 34 countries represented with the biggest squad coming from Great Britain and also representation from the Asian and African continents.

Women’s single scull

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Ekaterina Karsten representing Belarus will showcase this event. Without Germany’s Kathrin Rutschow-Stomporowski competing, Karsten’s stiffest competition will come from Russia’s Joulia Levina. Karsten will not want a repeat of last year’s World Championships when Levina finished ahead of her in the silver medal position. Also keep an eye out for Hurnet Dekkers from the Netherlands who burst onto the rowing scene with a record setting ergometer score and has now turned her skills to the single. She has already shown her potential at the Duisburg Regatta in May, placing third behind a strong field and she can only look to improve her position.

Men’s single scull

With a 31-entry lineup, the men’s single scull is the biggest event and packed with Sydney Olympians. Marcel Hacker of Germany will be looking to improve his form after failing to make the final at last year’s World Championships and looks like he is back on track from his first place at Duisburg last month. Iztok Cop of Slovenia will have a tough job against Norway’s Olaf Tufte who beat him by less than half a second at last year’s World Championships to take the gold. In Duisberg they had similar close battles and this will continue in Hazewinkel. Tufte’s Olympic medal winning doubles partner, Fredrik Bekken, is also racing to show his boat moving skills. Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic has been a World Cup regular since 1989 and will also be a medal contender.

Women’s Coxless Pair

A surprise win by South Africa’s Rika Geyser and Colleen Orsmond earlier this year at the FISA Team Cup has put the Romanian pair of Viorica Susanu and Georgeta Andrunache on the defense and wanting a win. Experienced Yuilya Bichyk of Belarus has teamed up with junior World Champion Natallia Halapiatava and this new combination will also be a crew to keep a close eye on.

Men’s Coxless Pair

Can the South African pair of Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech, follow their female counterparts?  Lining up against Great Britain’s star attraction of James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent, means the South Africans will definitely be the underdogs. But the duo were less than two seconds behind Cracknell and Pinsent at last year’s World Championships and won’t be traveling all the way from the Southern Hemisphere to sit on their laurels. It is also worth watching the Croatian pair of Igor Francetic and Kresimir Culjak who have medal-winning experience from the Olympic eight in 2000.

Women’s Double Scull

This event has been dominated by Germany for a number of years and this year is unlikely to be any different. Manuela Lutze and Kerstin El Qalqili (Kowalski) have come from the World Champion quad and will be racing against their country’s number two combination of Britta Oppelt and Judith Obrocki, but an upset is doubtful.

Men’s 2x for Slovenia just getting started
© Sybrand Treffers

Men’s Double Sculls

After last year’s World Championships when the top three boats finished within half a second of each other this race will definitely be exciting. The gold medallists, Hungary and bronze medallists, Italy have returned again this season to confront each other. The Italian duo of Rossano Galtarossa and Alessio Sartori won gold at the Sydney Olympics in the quad and will be formidable in the double, both matching each other in height at two metres. Slovenia’s Luka Spik is paired up with new partner Gregor Novak.

Men’s Coxless Four

Great Britain is showing their depth with two entries in this event. Their top boat is made up of the 2001 World Champion rowers with one change ? Ed Coode has been replaced by Joshua West. This crew will be going against Germany’s same World Champ silver medal lineup, so there is no gold certainty for Britain. The Duisburg Regatta demonstrated how close these crews are when Great Britain won on the Saturday, but was beaten by Germany in a very tight race the following day. Slovenia will also be hot contenders and, like Germany, will start with the same bronze medal lineup as in 2001.

Lightweight Women’s double Sculls

The double sculls being the only Olympic event for lightweight women, means the best single scullers from each country often try to pair up and find a fast combination. Lightweight single sculling World Champion Sinead Jennings of Ireland is doing just that. She teams up with Heather Boyle to go against current World Champions, Janet Raduenzel and Claudia Blasberg of Germany. Poland also has their same silver medal lineup of Katarzyna Demianiuk and Ilona Mokronowska. Also watch Holland’s Mirjam Teer Beek who, like Jennings, has moved into the double from the single with partner Kirsten van der Kolk. This will be a closely contested race.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls

If you added up the experience of the top contenders for this race it would be over 100 years of rowing. There are four crews who all have a chance at the gold medal spot. 1996 Olympic gold medallist Markus Gier is hoping to make gains with 2001 partner Nicolas Laett of Switzerland. They will be up against the current World Champions, the Italian double of Elia Luini and Leonardo Pettinari and also the 2000 Olympic gold medallists, Poland’s Robert Sycz and Tomasz Kucharski.  Keep an eye out for France as well. They have tasted bronze for two years and will be looking to change this colour.

Lightweight Men’s Coxless Four

Austria will be raring to start the World Cup season in style with their same lineup of Martin Kobau, Wolfgang Sigl, Bernd Wakolbinger, and Sebastian Sageder who won at last year’s World Championships. Denmark is a late entry to Hazewinkel and will want to win back the top spot that they dominated through the 1990’s. France comes into this event as the Olympic gold medallists but apart from Jean-Christophe Bette, they have an untried lineup.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls

Germany, the current World Champions, no longer look like a certainty in this race. At Duisburg the crew was left behind by Belarus and the Ukraine on the second day of racing and these same crews will line up again at Hazewinkel. Peggy Waleska and Marita Scholz are joined by Nations Cup 2000 winner Christiane Huth and young Magdalena Schmude and the crew will have to pull together all their experience to continue Germany’s domination of this event. Also look out for Great Britain. They enter this race with two new members and the experience of Alison Mowbray to lead the crew.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls

There’s only one word for this race ? Italy. Unless casualty strikes or World Cup soccer blues douses their fire, Italy crew should dominate this event. The crew will star three-time Olympic gold medallist Agostino Abbagnale, who is back after a break following the 2000 Olympics. He is joined by last years World Championship medallist Simone Raineri and finishing off the combination, new blood from Luca Agamennoni and Marco Ragazzi. Keep an eye out for the Ukraine who were forth in last years World Championships and are returning with three of the same crew. This lineup dominated at Duisburg last month and they will be looking to try their skills against the Italians.

Women’s Eight

The three-boat lineup will make for a straight final of Belarus, Germany and Romania. These crews are used to battling against each other but the field will wide open with coaches wanting to test new combinations at Hazewinkel. Germany looks to be the most experienced, but Romania, with a number of new rowers to the international scene, never race for second.

Men’s 8+ from Germany warming up
© Sybrand Treffers

Men’s Eight

The Romanian, Croatian, and German boats are chocked full of experienced rowers used to medalling and this is likely to be a fight all the way to the finish line. But even to medal will be a challenge as Great Britain is also there and cannot be dismissed. The crew has new blood since their Olympic 2000 win and coach, Jurgen Grobler, has a different lineup from last year’s World Championship crew who came fifth. Grobler will want to see continued improvement from this position. A shakeup happened for the German crew at their National Championships last month when their eight was beaten by a combined crew of the coxless four and coxed four. Since then one change has been made to the boat, Johannes Doberschuetz has replaced Jan Martin Broeer. Watch out for this close and exciting race.