Canal Cup Goes to Cambridge

Cambridge University celebrate their win

Great Britain's Cambridge University Boat Club beat Germany at their own game when they won the E.ON Hanse Cup in Rendsburg, Germany, but not without a little German help.

Three of Cambridge's crew hail from Germany.

In the five years of the Canal Cup, the German men's eight has won the previous four times. This year the number of eights increased to five including Great Britain, the Netherlands, United States, Germany and Cambridge University. Moving to the Cambridge University rowing crew German World Champion Sebastian Thormann is the only competitor who has won all five races ? four with Germany and this year as Cambridge.

Medical student Thormann, 29, competed this year at the World Rowing Championships in the German men's four but has recently moved to Great Britain to continue his studies at Cambridge University. This weekend he returned to Germany for three days of competition opening with two days of indoor rowing (ergometer) racing.

Ergers under the spotlight

The first day of racing featured a 400 metre on the water sprint in eights. Germany finished just ahead of the United States in a closely fought race. Day two's highlight was a 500 metre erg sprint measured by Watts. Great Britain's national crew finished first with a powerful 715 Watts average, 51 Watts ahead of Germany in second. 

The grand finale, a 12.7km eights race on the Kiel Canal, had 150,000 people lining the course and from the previous days' results it looked like Germany was the crew to beat. Cambridge meanwhile came into it having finished last and second to last after the ergometer racing. But just before the start of the race Germany's Stephan Koltzk had to be replaced when he fell on the slippery boat ramp. Bernd Heidicker was quickly called into the boat although he had just finished a long training session.

Cambridge won over Germany by 18 seconds. 

The Cambridge University crew consists of students from five nations, including three Germans, and will be the basis of the boat that will race in the famous Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in April, 2006.

The Canal Cup is considered one of the toughest rowing races in the world and compares to the 6.8km Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in supporter interest. As well as large crowds the event was broadcast live on German television and also a feature on Germany's biggest television show ?Wetten das? (you bet!) which broadcasts to an audience of 20 million.

Crowds along the Kiel Canal

The Kiel Canal is one of the busiest artificial waterways in the world joining the North and the Baltic seas. It has traffic of over 43,000 vessels per year.

Results
E.ON Hanse Cup (12.7km eights race)
1. Cambridge University Boat Club, Great Britain  38:06,35 min.
2. Germany                                                                  38:24,83 min.
3. USA                                                                          38:51,71 min.
4. The Netherlands                                                      39:40,88 min.
5. Great Britain                                                            41:17,37 min.

International Sprint-Cup (400 Metre eights race) 01.10.2005
1. Germany                  00:59,59 min.
2. USA                           01:00,14 min.
3. The Netherlands       01:02,63 min.
4. Great Britain             01:04,18 min.
5. Cambridge University Boat Club    01:04,34 min.

Stadtwerke Ergo Cup (500 Metre erg race) 02.10.2005
1. Great Britain                715 Watts
2. Germany                      664 Watts
3. USA                              651 Watts
4. Cambridge University Boat Club    640 Watts
5. The Netherlands          617 Watts

Five eights line up at the start

Teams
USA
Matthew Hughes
Matthew Deakin
Daniel Beery
Patrick O'Dunne
Brett Newlin
Joshua Inman
Matthew Schnobrich
Beau Hoopman
(cox) Marcus Mc Elhenney

Great Britain
Tom Solesbury
Matthew Steeds
Marcus Bateman
Noel Jones
Matthew Bartholomew
Toby Wallace
Nick Lloyd
Peter Wells
(cox) Tom Hill

The Netherlands
Simon Glazenborg
Christof Coenders
David Kuiper
Rogier Blink
Jurrien Rom Colthoff
Peter Vos
Olaf van Andel
Mitchel Steenman
(cox) Chun Wei Cheung

Cambridge University Boat Club
Edward Sherwood
Donald Wyper
Kyle Coveny
Thorsten Engelmann
Sebastian Schulte
Thomas Edwards
Sebastian Thormann
Kristopher McDaniel
(cox)  Peter Rudge

Germany
Philip Adamski
Urs Käufer
Tobias Kühne
Philipp Nahrun
Stephan Koltzk*  * Bernd Heidicker for the long race
Ulf Siemes
Jan Tebrügge
Andreas Penkner
(cox) Peter Thiede

For more information go to: http://www.eonhansecup.de/en/

Related Links
2004 E.ON Hanse Canal Cup
2003 E.ON Hanse Canal Cup

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