Germany pulls ahead of Great Britain - World Cup Points Tally

Hacker helped Germany gain eight World Cup points

The power of German rowing kicked into action at the second BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Munich, Germany over the weekend, pushing Great Britain out of the number one spot on the World Cup points table.

After the first Rowing World Cup in Eton last month Great Britain led the way with 45 points over Germany’s 36, but with points gained in all but one of the events at Munich, Germany came back to lead with a total of 98 points.

Helping the German success was gold medal winner, single sculler Marcel Hacker who does his training at the Munich Olympic Regatta Course. Also winning gold, Christian Schreiber and Rene Burmeister added a further eight points to the German total after winning the double.

Italy, who only sent one boat to Eton, surged ahead in points at Munich helped by gold medal wins in the men’s eight and lightweight men’s double, as well as two silvers in the men’s four and double. Italy is now positioned in third overall.The small New Zealand contingent of just 11 athletes missed Eton, but scored the fourth highest number of points at Munich with wins in the men’s and women’s pair as well as silver in the men’s single.

Australia competed at Eton finishing seventh equal with China and after basing themselves in Europe for the last month Australia fared much better at Munich with the help of the women’s eight who moved from finishing last at Eton to gold medal first at Munich. Australia now stands at fifth overall in the points table behind the Czech Republic.

Points are awarded in the 14 Olympic events going in a descending order starting with eight points for a win. The country with the most points at the end of the three World Cups is awarded the overall World Cup trophy. This will be decided after the third BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland from 8 – 10 July, 2005.

There are currently 36 countries on the points table with the top five places filled by Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Czech Republic and Australia.

To get a full list of the overall standings, please go to: http://www.worldrowing.com/custompage/default.sps?iType=148&icustompageid=14430