German Womens Quad ready to take Lucerne

The German women’s quad are favourites to take gold at the FISA World Rowing Championships this week but coach Jutta Lau says there is more at stake than first place.

“We have a tradition in this boat class and the responsibility to uphold it,” she said.
“We will do everything to continue the tradition.”

The German women’s quad has won every World Championships since 1994 and has only been beaten to the title once, by China in 1993, since the boat class came into the World Championship program in 1985.

They are off to a good start again this year as they took their heat yesterday by more than six seconds in front of Australia and Denmark, qualifying directly to the A final on Sunday.

The winning crew from Sydney has changed by 50 percent for the new season, and seems to be working just as well.

New additions Peggy Waleska and Marita Scholz replace Kerstin Kowalski and Meike Evers. Manja Kowalski, former bow of the Sydney crew, has now moved to stroke.

The change was not easy according to coach, as the former crew had been together for four years, but they have come together well, as this year’s results show.

They are the World Cup champions, winning every regatta they attended with clear water.

Since the final World Cup regatta in Münich, the four have been focusing their training mainly on improving their co-ordination and rhythm, but other technical issues are being constantly improved on.

They are keeping an eye out for their closest opponents, slightly relieved by the fact that Belarussian single sculler, Ekaterina Karsten will not be rowing in the quad in Lucerne, as had been hinted earlier on in the season.

But New Zealand have a strong crew and came second in Münich last July.

Lau says that should definitely create some excitement, but that the quad are not too worried.

The crew not only believes in hard training and coaching, they have been known to rely on lucky charms such as four leafed clover before a race.

They also have a mascot – last year’s kangaroo has been replaced by a new lucky little furry friend, whose identity is yet to be revealed but which, we were assured, has been accredited for the World Championships.

The quads next race will be the A final held at 3:30pm on Sunday 26 August. Follow all races and get live results on the Race Tracker. Worldrowing.com also provides daily race reports and all news updates from the World Championships.