Fast Start to the 2002 International Season in Seville

Flat water, warm temperatures and world class rowers from 21 countries started the season off in excellent fashion for the 2002 FISA Team Cup in Seville, Spain at the weekend.

Great Britain’s Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell started their competition season in style on the 1000 metre course with a double victory in the men’s pair and in the men’s eight.

In the men’s double the Spanish duo of Mauricio Monteserin and Jaime Rios created a surprise by beating Italian Olympic champs Rossano Galtarossa and Simone Raineri of Italy to the line. The Spanish home crowd was treated to another victory as their lightweight men’s four won by 2.7 seconds ahead of the Dutch men’s lightweight four.

Another surprise was British women’s single sculler Frances Houghton leading Volha Berazniova of Belarus to the line by half a second. The new Dutch men’s four, in their first race since switching from the quad, looked strong when beating the Danish lightweights (rowing heavy) by over one second.

In the women’s pair South Africans Colleen Orsmond and Rika Geyser had a convincing win over the Romanians Maria Rodica and Susanu Viorica by over three seconds.

In an interesting turn around, the World Champion women’s single sculler Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany paired up with Peggy Waleska to beat Olympic Champion women’s single sculler Ekaterina Karsten from Belarus paired up with Volha Berazniova in the women’s double. The German duo came first, in front of a second German duo while Karsten and Berazniova could only manage a third place.

The Italian World Champion lightweight men’s double sustained an injury and couldn’t make it for the trip to Seville.

Spain won the FISA Team Cup with 68 points followed by Great Britain with 59 points and then the Netherlands with 55.