Lucerne to Munich – Preparing for the Final World Cup

LW2X Start of the final at Lucerne
© Getty Images

The boat park at Lucerne was nearly empty by the time the last race, the men’s eight, came down the course. With less than three weeks to go until the next World Cup and crews having a better idea of their boat speed against other countries, time spent in training becomes crucial.

So what are the crews doing now?

Coach for the Czech Republic, Premysl Panuska, was very happy with his crew’s performance at Lucerne. “People are pleased with the results and in a good mood.” He singled out sculler, Miroslava Knapkova, who at 20 years old, struck bronze against a much older and more experienced field. She will race at the World Under 23 Regatta next week in Genoa, Italy. The senior crew will compete at the Czech Republic National Championships this weekend for their respective clubs and then meet again in training camps.

For the Netherlands it’s back to business and back into training. Their best result came in the women’s lightweight double where two Dutch crews made it to the final. The same team will compete at Munich with the men’s double and lightweight double also fitting in the Under 23 Regatta next week.

The United States team heads back to their country and is still to decide crews for Munich. They enjoyed their greatest success in the men’s eight who pulled out a gold over the strong European crews. This lineup will not be finalised until August so the rowers will go back to training and selection in Princeton. Crews had to finish in the top six at Lucerne to earn a place at the World Championships and the women’s double and quad both achieved this.

Points leader, Germany, are back in their respective training centres and will continue to build on their results from Lucerne. Again, all Olympic class boats will be covered at Munich. The only alteration may come in the arrangement of the women’s quad and double as they sort out the fastest mix.

For a with a population of 5 ½ million, Denmark always makes a remarkable showing. They are currently ninth in the points table, despite the formidable lightweight men’s four being unable to compete. However, the four is training again and both Thomas Ebert and Eskild Ebbesen are back on track. The women’s quad did not do as well as anticipated after Sarah Lauritzen had to be replaced by single sculler, Astrid Jespersen, because of back problems.

The team will continue training in Denmark and will compete in the National Championships at the end of July before heading to Munich.

Back in England, the British squad has a clear run of training, without interruption, between now and Munich. They retained their number two position on the World Cup points table with the boats-for-two posting the best results. The women’s double, men’s pair and lightweight women’s double racked up the most points. The second place in the men’s pair has given the Cracknell/Pinsent combination drive to improve their technique. “We have a simple brief and that is to find out how good we can be,” Cracknell told the Telegraph. The World Champion men’s four who did not race at Lucerne due to illness, are back in training.

Part two to come …