2000m of racing intensity at Lucerne Rowing World Cup

As the sun warmed up the temperature, today’s finalists enjoyed flat water, practically no wind and finishing line crowd support.

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x)

These crews had already raced this morning with Denmark and Italy earning the two middle lanes.Jumping out at the start was Greece’s top lightweight woman, Alexandra Tsiavou. Tsiavou is an Under-23 World Champion in this event but has spent recent years in a double and raced at the Beijing Olympics as a double. Tsiavou made easy work of this Final and already had a full boat length lead with just 500m rowed. The Greek kept her rating high and her boat moving swiftly along. Meanwhile a major tussle went on through the middle of the race between Italy, (Laura Milani) and Italy2 (Erika Bello). Bello had more of an advantage and even got quite close to Tsiavou, but ran out of steam in the final sprint. Tsiavou had retained enough energy to charge for the line and finished first. Milani got the better of Bello to take silver.

Results: GRE, ITA1, ITA2, SUI1, GER2, DEN

Alexandra Tsiavou (GRE) – Gold
“It was a very difficult day for us non-Olympic events but I’m extremely happy to have won. I was confident I could. I love Lucerne as a course and town and no matter the weather, I love to race here. I don’t know if I will go on in a double or single in Poznan. There are many reasons for me to want to be in either boat but I don’t know yet what will happen.”

Laura Milani (ITA1) – Silver
“We will see were we go from here. It will be on our coach Josy to decide if we will go into the double.”

Erika Bello (ITA2) – Bronze
“It was a hard but also very good race. The wind was a bit difficult and was stopping me in certain moments. I tried to attack, but Alexandra and Laura were strong.”

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x)

Coming into this Final, Duncan Grant (NZL) and Frederic Hanselmann (SUI) had won their respective semis this morning. The question was, who had the better stamina to do it all again, but even better, this afternoon. It is customary for Grant to jump off the line and race from the front. He had done this last month when he won the second Rowing World Cup and he did it again today.
By the first 500m mark Grant had a handy lead over the entire field and through the middle of the race this lead expanded. Meanwhile, Denmark’s Olympic medallist Mads Rasmussen and Lorenzo Bertini of Italy were right on top of each other. The Bertini vs Rasmussen battle brought the two boats closer to Grant. But Grant looked completely in control and able to counter anything that the scullers behind him decided to offer.

A powerful sprint by Rasmussen earned him the silver and forced New Zealand to a 39 stroke rate sprint. Grant took first, Rasmussen second and Bertini finished comfortably in third.

Results: NZL, DEN, ITA1, GBR, SUI, JPN

Duncan Grant (NZL) – Gold
“It was a good race. We had a bit of a headwind, but it’s always good to get in front and to dictate the race. In that position you can see everybody and respond to any attacks. Lucerne is a nice course and this was another good race and I hope for more to come.”

Mads Rasmussen (DEN) – Silver
“I’m very happy. It’s my first season in the single and I am now confident that I can be in front of my competitors. This was a good test for the World Rowing Championships. I had hoped to be a bit closer to Duncan, but the legs were tired from our semifinal today.”

Lorenzo Bertini (ITA1) – Bronze
“It was a beautiful race. I am satisfied. I was a bit worried about the Swiss and the British after their results in the semifinal, but it all worked out well. I didn’t count on the Danish to be there though. Not sure what will happen next, I would love to be in an Olympic boat, but either way will be fine.”
 

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-)

The two semifinal winners this morning were Armando Dell’Aquila and Andrea Caianiello of Italy and Jean-Christophe Bette and Fabien Tilliet of France with France perhaps looking more powerful and the better crew. Who could pull it off this afternoon and win the World Cup gold medal?Dell’Aquila and Caianiello jumped out ahead of Bette and Tillet at the start with Juri Vlcek and Bruno Mascarenhas of Italy2following very closely behind. With over 100 strokes rowed, Italy2had begun to slip back while Dell’Aquila and Caianiello had established themselves just slightly more confidently in the lead. Bette and Tilliet remained solidly in second. Coming into the final sprint, France gave it their best shot to get up to the leading Italians. Italy held them off.

Results: ITA1, FRA1, ITA2, DEN1, DEN2, FRA2

Armando Dell’Aquila, Andrea Caianiello (ITA1) – Gold
It was a beautiful race. We had a great start which gave us a bit of breathing space which we really needed for the end. I suffered, but we got it.” Andrea Caianiello

Jean-Christophe Bette, Fabien Tilliet (FRA1) – Silver
We are happy to have finished what was a really good World Cup. It is our first season together as a pair and we were the outsiders compared to the Italians so we are really happy to have beat the second boat.” Jean-Christophe Bette

“We are preparing together as a pair for Poznan so the result is exactly on the right path to a good result there.” Fabien Tilliet

Bruno Mascarenhas, Jiri Vlcek (ITA2) – Bronze
We only have been rowing in this combination since one week and didn’t really have any high expectations. But this was great and we had fun.” Bruno Mascarenhas

Women’s Four (W4-)

This international (non-Olympic) event often contains the crew members that have not been able to make it into their country’s eight. Or the up-and-coming sweep rowers on the national team. Today the Netherlands, stroked by Olympic medallist from the eight, Femke Dekker, got out in front over a solid starting Chinese crew. This top-two order remained the same through the middle of the race while Italy and Germany carried out an incredibly tight battle for the third spot. Meanwhile the Dutch remained at the head of the field looking smooth and in control and very much in contrast to the rough-looking style of the Chinese. The Dutch crossed the line in first and on the medals podium earned a special round of singing from their supporters as well as a happy birthday song for stroke, Dekker. The Italian – German battle ended up going Germany’s way.

Results: NED, CHN, GER, ITA

Chantal Achterberg, Nienke Kingma, Carline Bouw, Femke Dekker (NED) – Gold
“This was a non-Olympic event with not that many participants, but it was still great.” Chantal Achterberg

“After this we want to win the eight tomorrow and I think that it will be possible.” Carline Bouw

Eva Paus, Franziska Kegebein, Nadja Drygalla, Silke Mueller (GER) – Bronze
“We had stearing problems at the beginning of the race, but we fought hard to the end. We got the best possible out of the second half of the race. We’ve only been rowing together for five days, but I think we’ll stay together for Poznan. ”Silke Mueller

Men’s Coxed Pair (M2+)

These two countries went head to head yesterday with Italy holding the advantage over Poland. Today they raced for hardware and right from the start Italy had the advantage. Coxed by Gaetano Iannuzzi, Romano Battisti and Lorenzo Porzio pushed their boat with the 50kg coxswain down the course. Poland worked hard to hold onto the Italians but lacked the same power to reach the same speeds.

Results: ITA1, POL

Lorenzo Porzio, Romano Battisti, Gaetano Iannuzzi (ITA) – Gold
“It’s really too bad that we were only two boats. If there were more it would be much more fun. But it was a good race, we stayed close until 1,000m, then raised the stroke rate and moved away. At the moment we are the reserves for the eight, but we’ll see what happens over the next weeks.” Romano Battisti

Michal Stawowski, Dominik Kubiak, Daniel Trojanowski (POL) – Silver
"It was a hard race because we only had one competitor and we don’t really know where we stand until the World Rowing Championships in Poznan. We thought there would be four boats but there are only two. It’s very possible that we continue in this configuration, I would say 90%. I love to row in Lucerne, it is my favorite course because it has a very special atmosphere.” Michal Stawowski

Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls (LW4x)

At the start Poland took a slight lead stroked by Weronika Deresz in her fourth year of international rowing. Going through the second 500, Germany challenged Poland and took an ever so slight lead. Poland did all that they could to hold on remaining in very close contact with the Germans. But Germany maintained their speed. Lena Mueller, Helke Nieschlag, Laura Tibitanzl and Julia Kroeger of Germany earned a World Cup gold medal.

Results: GER, POL, ITA, DEN

Helke Nieschlag, Lena Mueller, Julia Kroeger, Laura Tibitanzl (GER) – Gold
This was great. We have only trained together for two days and never thought we would be able to beat the Polish. We managed to make our start a bit more aggressive, but I think we still need to work a bit on our start and finish. Our middle part is already pretty good.” Laura Tibitanzl

Monika Myszk, Natalia Maciukiewicz, Ilona Mokronowska, Weronika Deresz (POL) – Silver
”The race was a hard piece of work, it was very fast. We are a new crew and we have only been training together for two weeks. Also we have a new boat and it will take time to polish our potential. We are not very happy with the result as we wanted to win, but we have time to become better until the World Rowing Championships in Poznan.” Weronika Deresz

Giulia Pollini, Marta Labate, Sabrina Noseda, Eleonora Trivella (ITA) – Bronze
“We tried to stay with the field and that worked. The others probably have an advantage because we are a complete U23-crew, but we are happy.” Sabrina Noseda

Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x)

Italy has won this event almost every time since lightweight rowing was added at the international level. Today they continued in that direction with three crew members who are very used to winning this race. But it was France that jumped out to an early lead, albeit tiny over Italy, with Germany also very much on the pace. Going through the second 500m Italy challenged the French and managed to get their nose in front. France did not give up remaining very much in touch with the Italians, while Germany slipped back a fraction. In the sprint to the line Italy managed to inch away from France. Basalini, Babboni, Gilardoni, Sancassani crossed the line stroking at 37 and set themselves up for a medal winning World Championships next month.

Results: ITA, FRA, GER, POL

Sancassani, Daniele Gilardoni, Davide Babboni, Stefano Basalini (ITA) – Gold
“We are very happy about this result and I would like to dedicate this medal to Viareggio – that’s where I am from and it’s the region which was affected by the earth quake.”

Pierre-Etienne Pollez, Brice Menet, Maxime Goisset, Stany Delayre (FRA) – Silver
“It was a difficult race, the first 1,000m went well but then they passed us on the second half of the race. We hope it won’t happen again in Poznan… We will stay together for the World Rowing Championships, the only thing that might change is the order but we don’t know about that yet. We like to row in Lucerne, we only mind the waves but other than that it’s a great course.” Pierre-Etienne Pollez

Ingo Voigt, Knud Lange, Felix Oevermann, Christoph Schregel (GER) – Bronze
“We are happy with the result. We have improved since the Race for Lanes and this was only our second race together. I think we managed pretty well.” Christoph Schregel

Lightweight Men’s Eight (LM8+)

There was nothing quiet about the support for the Dutch as they charged towards the finish line in the lightweight men’s eight. Stroked by Joeri Bruschinski and coxed by Ryan Den Drijver, the Netherlands took the lead right from the start. By the half-way point the Dutch had a half boat length lead over Italy in second with Germany back in third. A kick after the half-way point took the Dutch further away from the second placed Italians and even further away from the Germans. It looked like the opening speed was to dictate the rest of the race.

In the final sprint the Netherlands pushed again, taking their rating to 39 strokes per minute. Italy and the Germans had no response. The crowd grew loud. Another medal for the Dutch

Results: NED, ITA, GER, AUT

Thom van den Anker, Diederick van den Bouwhuijsen, Maarten Tromp, Jolmer van der Sluis, Stijn Verwey, Rutger Bruil, Dion Van Schie, Joeri Bruschinski, Ryan Den Drijver (NED) – Gold
 “Yesterday we only rowed hard for 1,000m because my crewmate Jolmer was a bit sick, but we knew we could win this. We hope with this result we qualified for Poznan in the eyes of our federation.” Thom van den Anker

Luigi Scala, Tommaso Balboni, Livio La Padula, Davide Riccardi, Emiliano Ceccatelli, Gennaro Gallo, Daniele Danesin, Martino Goretti, Andrea Lenzi (ITA) – Silver
“We are on the right track and we will see everybody again in Poznan.” Martino Goretti

Jonas Schuetzeberg, Stephan Ertmer, Michael Reckzeh, Morgan Baumgaertel, Frederik Prigge, Lukas Oberhausen, Stefan Wallat, Max Roeger, Peter Puppe (GER) – Bronze
“It was a good race – especially considering we have only been rowing together for a week. Also, we are one of the youngest crews here. There is still time for improvement until the World Rowing Championships and we are on the right track.” Jonas Schuetzeberg