Finals of International Events - Munich World Cup

Team mate Gaesler helps the suffering Draeger
© HJ Kaeufer

As countries focus more and more on the Athens Olympics, the non-Olympic events were noticeable in the few number of entries and only lightweight events were featured. Many of these athletes will become spares for the Olympic class boats and hence their commitment and competition was just as strong.

Lightweight Women’s Single Scull

With three German crews in the final the odds were on that at least one would end up on the medals podium.  Marie-Louise Draeger was the favourite coming into the final and she established her dominance early in the piece and maintained it into the final sprint. But as she came to the line exhaustion took over. All Draeger could do was paddle across the line with fellow team mate Nina Gaesler winning gold. Draeger held onto second and Fengjun Fu of China finished in third.

Lightweight Men’s Single Scull

Germany dominated again, this time in the form of Peter Ording. Ording opened with a flying start that gave him clear water over Denmark’s Jacob Moeller. Moeller, the spare for his country’s double, closed the gap but ran out of metres and finished in second. The order remained the same with Luis Teixeira Ahrens of Portugal taking third. 

Lightweight Men’s Pair

Nicola Moriconi and Salvatore Di Soma of Italy take over where a retired Carlo Gaddi left off. They comfortably won over the United States who finished over three seconds back in silver position. Great Britain fought with Germany, but got the upper hand at the line, winning bronze by less than a second over the German twins.

By Melissa Bray

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