International Class Heats Break the Water - BearingPoint Rowing World Cup II

By Melissa Bray

Forecasted warm, sunny weather turned into a cloudy cool, but calm day at the home of the 1972 Olympic Games. Munich, Germany welcomed the Rowing World Cup for the eighth time since 1997 and after challenging conditions at last month’s Eton races today’s competitors enjoyed almost flat conditions with a slight tail wind.

Lightweight Women Single Scull – Heats

Racing got underway at 9am so these lightweight-class athletes would have been up early to weigh in at 7am with a one-hour window of opportunity to stay below the required 59kg maximum weight.

These rowers are possibly 20 kg lighter than their heavyweight counterparts and in the last year single sculls have been designed to take this into account. German boat builder BBG has thus brought out a much shorter boat that requires competitors to add a rod to the stern of their boat to help the starter’s line up the boats.

Coming in the top three spots of the three heats meant a direct path to the semifinal and these positions were invariably sorted out early in the piece.

Fastest time went to Croatia’s Mirna Rajle whose experience of 10 years of international racing obviously prevailed. Rajle has a World Championship silver medal from 2003 and in heat number two she staked her claim at the line comfortably ahead of France’s Benedicte Luzuy and Lara De Stefano of Italy who will also advance to the semi.

Heat one’s Jennifer Goldsack of Great Britain recorded the second fastest qualifying time after facing a strong challenge from Lea Fluri of Switzerland and the Czech Republic’s Daniela Nachazelova. All three boats wanted first place pushing Goldstack right to the finishing beep.

The final heat was nothing more than a procession when Austria’s Michaela Taupe overtook a fast starting Naomi Hoogester of Great Britain. Taupe was confident enough to row the final 300 metres at a comfortable 27 strokes per minute leaving Hoogester in second with Lena Kersten of Germany also qualifying from third.

Lightweight Men’s Single Scull – Heats

A large field of twenty scullers meant four heats lined up with the top two boats going directly to tomorrow’s semi-final.

Heat one had no surprises with Tim Male of Great Britain leading the whole race. Male comes to Munich after winning bronze at Eton and will definitely be a name to watch. Behind Male, Switzerland’s Frederic Hanselman, who is better known for his team-boat rowing, secured a comfortable second.

Early race tussling made way to a veritable procession by the last quarter of the race in heat two with Gerard van der Linden spending most of the race at the back of the field in fourth. But a strong push in the third 500 propelled van der Linden through to first and recorded for him the fastest qualifying time of the four heats. This was at the expense of Jose Czcy of Argentina with Hungary’s new sculler Peter Loerinczy will take the semifinal spot. 

Slovakia’s Lukas Babac started off with a burning first half before burning himself out. This left the calm and experienced German Ingo Euler a chance to cruise through to first with Italy’s Juri Vlcek rowing from the back of the field through to second and a semifinal qualifying sport. Both Euler and Vlcek rowed with a similar, strong second-half-of-the-stroke style.

Great Britain’s Zac Purchase is in his first senior year and doing mighty fine. The 19-year-old finished fourth at Eton and pushed his way past Honk Kong’s Rolandas Kazlauskas who also qualified by holding onto second. Kazlauskas’s position was an upset as it was at the expense of compatriot and Hong Kong’s number one sculler Hiu Fung Law.

Lightweight Men’s Pair – Heats

Two heats and only first position qualifying for the final stepped the pace up a notch with heat one featuring World Champion Miguel Cerda of Chile. Rowing with new partner, Felipe Leal, Cerda and Leal recorded the fastest qualifying time and move directly to the semifinal over Great Britain and a fleet of German entries.

In the second heat Italy’s Salvatore Amitrano and Catello Amarante had the lead by the second quarter and kept the pressure on to stay there rating a solid 34 strokes per minute as they came into the closing metres.

more info to come…