Germany Overall World Cup Winners

Rutschow-Stomporowski – Germany’s sole gold
© Dominik Keller

Germany finished well ahead of their nearest rivals in the overall World Cup points trophy. The final BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland ended yesterday with Germany’s rowing president, Helmut Griep, accepting the trophy once again for his country.

Starting in May, Germany dominated the first World Cup in Poznan, Poland when they won medals 13 of the 14 events ? six of them were gold. They retained the leader spot after World Cup number two in Munich, Germany despite a number of setbacks with crew withdrawals due to illness or injury.

At the final World Cup last week in Lucerne, Switzerland, Germany again was not at full strength when the men’s four and lightweight four as well as the women’s eight had to withdraw due to illness.

Germany still retained enough crews in the finals to keep their points tally ahead of the closest challenger, Great Britain. This was despite Germany winning only one event. Kathrin Rutschow-Stomporowski came through in a fast final to win the women’s single ahead of the reigning World Champion Rumyana Neykova and Olympic Champion Ekaterina Karsten.

Italy, fielding the biggest team of the regatta, topped the gold medal stakes by winning the men’s pair, double, lightweight men’s double and the lightweight men’s four. The Italians finished an impressive third overall.

The Czech Republic demonstrated the strength of their sculling programme by taking away medals in both the men’s and women’s single as well as the men’s double and quad. They finished fifth behind Canada who collected medals in all of the men’s sweep events including gold in the men’s eight.

The eternal bridesmaids, Great Britain, remained in second position overall striking gold only in the women’s quad. The quad had to row through rain and hail to finish first over Germany.

Thirty-eight countries, covering every rowing continent, finished with World Cup points including Egypt, Japan and Chile.

Points for the three World Cups are awarded in the 14 Olympic events and work on a descending scale starting at eight points for a win. This is the eighth year of the points competition and Germany has been the winner every year.