Zac is back in Bled

Cautious of wet, slippery hands holding oar handles, rowers also dealt with water roughed up by heavy raindrops. Olympic Champion Zac Purchase of Great Britain came back to international competition today with a win in the lightweight men’s single and Greece and France also saw gold.

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LW1x) – Finals

A Final

After finishing second this morning in the semi-final, was Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece holding something back? Olympian Tsiavou is the current World Champion in the very competitive lightweight double. This afternoon, under rainy conditions, Tsiavou won the single of the first Rowing World Cup for 2010 and picked up the first medal for this regatta. Tsiavou raced with complete control from the front holding off every attack by Germany’s Marie-Louise Draeger through the middle of the race. These attacks meant Draeger had nothing left for the final sprint and Italy’s Laura Milani was able to come through in second.

Coming into the line Tsiavou kept the pace on rating 35 strokes per minute with Milani sprinting through at 37 and Draeger hanging in until the line at a 30 stroke rate. After the race Draeger described how she hit a log in the middle of the race. The log also hindered Milani, but Tsiavou was lucky to miss it.

Results: GRE, ITA, GER, CAN, SWE1, SUI

Alexandra Tsiavou (GRE) – Gold
“I didn’t expect such bad conditions. The water is good, there were no waves but the only problem I had was the sense of time. I do not think I was at my best today, but the result was very good. I don’t know what my plans are for the rest of the season, but I will definitely be in the single until [the final Rowing World Cup] Lucerne.”

Laura Milani (ITA1) – Silver
“I’m happy about the result but the conditions were very bad. The rain was very heavy and the oars were wet, it was not easy.”

B Final

Karin Radstroem, 31, of Sweden just made it onto the international scene two years ago and winning the B-final today is a solid result for her. In her short rowing career, Radstroem has made the A-final once and is part of a small group of lightweight Swedish scullers looking to see if they can make a fast double combination. Radstroem crossed the line at a steady 30 stroke rate with Weronika Deresz of Poland coming through in second followed by Uzbekistan.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LM1x) – Finals

A Final

After rowing with absolute control in this morning’s semi-final, there was no doubt that Zac Purchase of Great Britain was the man to beat. This evening Purchase donned an extra layer of clothes and rowed in style over the Lake Bled 2000m course. Purchase is the Olympic Champion from the lightweight double and is in the single waiting for his Olympic partner, Mark Hunter, to recover from an injury.

Purchase got out to an open water lead early on in the piece leaving the rest of the field to race for second. After wearing out Slovakia’s Lukas Babac, France’s Maxime Goisset got through to second and last year’s silver medallist at the under- 23 level, Ailson Silva of Brazil recorded a solid third.

Results: GBR, FRA1, BRA, SVK, ESP, ITA2

Zach Purchase (GBR) – Gold
“This was a good opportunity for me to get back into racing. I missed out on it last year so it’s good to get back in a boat and be on the start line racing people. The conditions have been a bit damper than I was expecting, but being a rower in Britain, it’s what you get used to, we spend the whole winter doing it. When I get back to the UK it would be really good to get back into the double with Mark, we’ll probably be racing that in Munich. It’ll be really nice to get back into the boat we won in in Beijing, then hopefully fly out to New Zealand for the World Championships and give those Kiwis a run for their money on their home soil.”

Maxime Goisset (FRA1) – Silver
"It was very difficult to row in these conditions. I think I made a good job in the third quarter of the race but it was nearly impossible to beat Purchase."

B Final

A very happy Artyom Kudryashov of Uzbekistan came through from the back of the field to finish first, or seventh overall at this regatta. This is a big step up for Kudryashov, 23, with this being the highest result he has scored in his international career. It also put Kudryashov ahead of Fabien Dufour of France who finished second.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S PAIR (LM2-) – Final

Jean-Christophe Bette of France is currently in the top 10 rowers list and, along with partner Fabien Tilliet, they are the reigning World Champions of this event.  So it was no surprise that this crew was out in front right from the beginning. Behind them a close battle went on between France’s second crew, Great Britain and Serbia. Coming into the line Serbia’s Nenad Babovic and Milos Tomic gave it all they could, rating 39 strokes per minute. This big push worked as Babovic and Tomic moved into second ahead of Chris Boddy and Adam Freeman-Pask of Great Britain.

Results: FRA1, SRB, GBR, FRA2, CHI, ITA3

Fabien Tilliet (FRA1) – Gold
"We stayed in first position during the whole race. Our sensations were perfect. I hope now that it will be the same in Lucerne. At the World Rowing Championships we would like to compete in the lightweight pair.”

Chris Boddy (GBR) – Bronze
“We have not been in this combination for very long. We’ll have more time to fine tune and get closer to these guys.”