Rowers Rise to the Occasion ? Finals Continue at Lucerne

She missed out on gold at the 2000 Olympics by a barely a hair. She started training again in February 2002. She just won the women’s single in absolute style. What’s next? Roumiana Neykova of Bulgaria led from start to finish and never let World Champion, Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, of Germany even get a look in. Germany was able only to maintain silver.

Miroslava Knapkova of the Czech Republic, who showed that there is room for new single scullers to do well, took the bronze in this classy field. Knapkova will be the one to watch in the future. World silver medallist, Yulya Levina of Russia had to settle with fourth.

Hacker outclasses the men’s single field. Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Marcel Hacker exorcised all gremlins from last year’s World Championships on this lake by taking gold in the men’s single. He led a field of Olympic medallists from the start and continued in the form that has made him look comfortable throughout this regatta.

Norway’s Olaf Tufte had a better start than in Hazewinkel but still had to come through from fourth to capture the silver medal from newly married Iztok Cop of Slovenia. This is Cop’s 2002 season debut and he rowed a very controlled race. Fellow countryman, Luka Spik could not maintain his fast start and finished sixth behind the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

You don’t come all the way from the southern tip of Africa without having one thing on your mind ? a top spot on the medal podium. Rika Geyser and Colleen Orsmond started behind in the field of the women’s pair and worked their way up into the silver spot, taking it from Belarus at the line. Natallia Helakh and Yuliya Bichyk could not find the same sprint as the South Africans and finished in the bronze spot.

This was the battle going on behind Olympic Champions, Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu, of Romania. The Romanians took the lead soon after the start and continued to inch away through the whole race, showing their experience and power.

The supporters from Great Britain were kept happy with a win in the women’s double. Frances Houghton and Debbie Flood showed that you don’t need to be close in height to row well together. It took them until the second half of the race to take the lead from Kristina Paplavskaja and Birute Sakickiene of Lithuania in their season debut. Flood and Houghton maintain the yellow jersey with this effort.

Germany grabbed the bronze medal from the United States who were unable to match the pace of the sprint and found themselves instead deterring a strong finish from Belarus who ended in fifth position.

After an inconsistent path to the final, Hungarians, Akos Haller and Tibor Petoe, showed that they still have World Champion form by winning the men’s double. However to get there they had to hold off continuous attacks from the very experienced, Andre Willms and Andreas Hajek, of Germany and the Czech Republic. Milan Dolecek and Ondrej Synek held onto the silver medal, while Germany took to bronze.

Without the top British crew competing, first place was up for grabs in the men’s four and it was Germany who took the spot. They reversed the finishing order from Hazewinkel where they finished third behind Italy. This time it was Slovenia battling it out with Italy and Germany being comfortably in front. The Italian and Slovenian crews swapped spots a number of times, but it was Italy with the better sprint.

Between the top two crews going into the men’s pair final was many years of international winning experience stretching back to the 1980’s. However, this did not stop the Croatian brothers of Niksa and Sinisa Skelin from presenting the gutsiest challenge of the day.

Australia breaks Great Britain’s winning streak.
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Ahead of Australia and Great Britain, Croatia held on to a slim lead at the 1000 metre mark. It was then that James Tomkins looked out of the boat and together with Drew Ginn took the Aussie pair into first place. They didn’t look back. Pinsent and Cracknell of Great Britain found themselves in the rare position of battling to gain the second spot. The Skelin’s were unrelenting. At the line Australia was comfortably in first with Great Britain sliding into silver spot by a slim eight hundredth of a second over Croatia.

They’ve had the added stress of weighing in before every race in the lightweight women’s double. It was Janet Raduenzel and Claudia Blasberg of Germany who dominated again today. They are current World Champions and yellow jersey holders and their command of this event continued. Great Britain remained in second throughout the race. The two Dutch crews were left to battle it out for third and in a surprise result the number two combination of Marit Van Eupen and Hedi Poot, held off the number one crew to take bronze.

In front of 12,400 spectators Italy continued to dominate the lightweight men’s double. Elia Luini and Leonardo Pettinari have not lost an international race all season and will continue to wear the yellow jersey. As in Hazewinkel, they led Peter Ording and Manuel Brehmer of Germany who finished in silver medal position. The Russian combination of Andrey Chevel and Denis Moiseyev worked their way up to the bronze spot by passing Denmark in the second half of the race.

The newly formed Canadian lightweight men’s four came to Europe and beat them all. The only non European Union boat showed complete control and maintained a speed that had their bow ball in the lead by the 1250 metre mark. This led Italy, France and World Champions, Austria, carry on a right royal battle behind the Canadians. It may look like a serene sport from the sidelines, but in the boat, reality is screaming muscles and gasping for air. This race certainly demonstrated it with centimetres separating second third and fourth.

Italy retained the yellow jersey by finishing in second and Austria gained bronze.

Germany was not happy with their silver at Hazewinkel in the women’s quad and so they changed their line up. However, Ukraine rose to the occasion in this event that has been dominated by the Germans for years. Olena Ronzhina, Natalya Huba, Olena Senkiv and Tetyana Kolesnikova led from the start and stayed there. The World bronze medal holders, USA, put up a strong challenge, leading the Germans for the first half of the race, but didn’t have the same sprint and finished in third.

Too close. The men’s quad produced two winners. Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

You can’t get any closer racing than the men’s quad. It was extremely tight at Hazewinkel and today, even tighter. Ukraine and Italy both finished in 5.44 ? only seven seconds outside the world best time ? and both crews were awarded gold medal. Poland held second place for most of the race, but could not match the sprint going on in lane four and five. They finished in third place.

Australia made their first international appearance in the women’s eight after being unavailable to race Saturday’s race for lanes. Australia is the current World Champions and so Romania, Belarus and Germany were expectant of the challenge. However, it was yellow jersey holders, Germany, who dominated again today. They took gold easily from Romania by more than three seconds. Australia kept Belarus off the medal podium by finishing in the bronze position; finishing four seconds down on Romania.

The United States made their season debut in style in the men’s eight. Taking home the only gold medal for their country, they rowed a very confident race moving, from third position through to first. Also racing for the first time internationally was Canada. They led from the start progressing through the 1000 metre mark over half a length ahead of the USA. But they could not match the final sprint and ended in third position behind Germany.