Reflecting back on 2006 in Rowing

By Melissa Bray

The new year is a time to reflect back as well as look forward. For World Rowing 2006 was packed full of events, rising stars, the return of old faces and new ideas.

The year 2006 opened with Great Britain’s two-time Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell spending 49 days rowing across the Atlantic. The experience was enough to push Cracknell into rowing retirement. On the other side Canada’s single sculls hero Derek Porter announced his return from retirement and was seen later in the year competing at the Canadian trials.

The FISA Team Cup in February gave an indication of the year to come. Rowers broke out of winter training and headed for Seville, Spain for the 1,000 and 500 metre dash. The Netherlands and Great Britain showed some early season form.

The famed Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race presented Oxford with back to back wins and the second Boat Race medal for Canadian Olympic medallist Barney Williams.

Munich, Germany opened the 2006 Rowing World Cup series with the trialling of a new progression system and the rise of China’s Dongxiang Xu. Over the short, three day regatta Xu took bronze in the lightweight single and then came back to win gold in the tough lightweight women’s double. This was just the start for Xu who set a new World Best Time at the second Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland, with new partner Shimin Yan and capped it off at the World Rowing Championships in Eton, Great Britain with World Champion status.

Following a 23 year hiatus, the European Rowing Championships found reinstatement and will be raced on September 2007 in Poland.

The return to Poznan for the second Rowing World Cup introduced the rowing world to the new found speed of France’s Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet in the men’s double. Beating the reigning World Champions (Cop and Spik), Hardy and Macquet also set a new World Best Time.

Sticking together paid off for the Polish men’s quad (Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michal Jelinski and Adam Korol) who did everything right in front of their own people. They won the quad in a new World Best Time and continued on later in the year to become back-to-back World Champions capped off by the honour of 2006 FISA Male Crew of the Year.

Credit also went to the youngest of the great Italian rowing family. Agostino Abbagnale was honoured for an outstanding career in rowing with the prestigious Thomas Keller Medal. Abbagnale received his award during the final Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. Before accepting his award Abbagnale was able to watch Belarussia’s Ekaterina Karsten continue her domination in the women’s single and Great Britain’s magical men’s four (Andy Hodge, Peter Reed, Steve Williams, Alex Partridge) remain unbeaten.

World Rowing Championship regattas for the year opened in July with the Under 23’s taking over Hazewinkel, Belgium. In its second year as a championship event a new standard of World Best Times came into being as well as the addition of the women’s eight. Taking the inaugural first place, the United States were the gold medal winners in the eight.

Amsterdam looked after the next championship event, the Junior World Rowing Championships. As in previous years Germany dominated. Every final had a German boat represented and at the end of the day Germany had medals in eight of the thirteen events.

Moving to the home of the 2012 Olympic regatta course, Eton organisers got to test their mettle by staging the World Rowing Championships. Large crowds enjoyed watching a slew of brand new World Best Times. British darling Zac Purchase secured the new standard in the men’s lightweight single while New Zealand’s Mahe Drysdale snatched first away from Marcel Hacker of Germany and also stole Hacker’s World Best Time. The new time to beat in the single is now 6:35.40.

Australia came to the forefront by setting the new standard in the women’s four which also helped push Jo Lutz, Kate Hornsey and Robyn Selby Smith into World Rowing’s top 10 women overall for the year. One of two gold medals for the United States, the women’s eight, was achieved by bettering their own World Best Time set at the Athens Olympics in 2004. A new World Best Time also went to China in the lightweight women’s quad.

Just off the coast of Great Britain, Guernsey in the Channel Islands hosted the World Rowing Coastal Challenge. Highlighted by rough water thrills and spills FISA’s events commission chair Mike Tanner commented, “Having seen this for the first time, I’m impressed.”

Head racing season opened with stand out single scullers Karsten and Drysdale showing they can do it over the longer distance. But both scullers met one hiccup each. Drysdale’s pace was not enough to win the Head of the Charles in Boston, United States where Argentina’s Santiago Fernandez took gold. At the Armada Cup in Switzerland Karsten fell behind Russia’s Julia Levina handing Karsten her first loss in two years.

For more photos of the year go to the World Rowing photo gallery. 

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