Munich sees first rowing medals

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Final A

Sweden’s Sara Karlsson and Denmark’s Juliane Rasmussen qualified directly from their heat for today’s Final. This gave them the added advantage of not having to race a repechage this morning. With energy to spare, Karlsson and Rasmussen burst out of the starting blocks neck and neck and did not let each other go. At the 500m mark, Karlsson had the lead, but just by a few hundredths of a second. That is when Rasmussen determined to take the lead and secure it made a move. Also Germany’s Daniela Reimer decided to pick it up – until then, the German World Champion and Olympic silver medallist in the lightweight double had been back in fourth. Moving past countrymate Laura Tibitanzl in third, Reimer overtook Sweden, but only slightly. At the half-way mark only a second separated the top three crews of Denmark, Germany and Sweden. As Denmark’s Rasmussen continued to increase her lead by increasing her stroke rate to 37, a battle for silver and bronze broke loose between Karlsson and Reimer – so much so that Reimer did not realize the threat coming from Klara Janakova of the Czech Republic in lane one. Janakova was closing in on Reimer in no uncertain terms and Reimer had no strength left to fight back. At the line, Denmark’s Rasmussen took gold a length and a half over Karlsson of Sweden in silver, with Czech rower Janakova in bronze and Germany’s Reimer back in fourth.

DEN, SWE1, CZE, GER2, AUT2, GER1

Juliane Rasmussen (DEN) – Gold
“The conditions were very good and I found a good rhythm. It was a great race. I will continue in the single this season. My Olympic partner is taking a year off to become a doctor, so I will do it by myself this year.”

Klara Janakova (CZE) – Bronze
“I am out of breath. This is my first race and medal in the single.”

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Final A

The sun came out as the lightweight men’s single scullers waited for the starting beep. Favoured middle lanes three and four were occupied by double World Champion in this boat class, Duncan Grant of New Zealand, and experienced Japanese Olympian, Daisaku Takeda. At the starting beep, Duncan Grant charged ahead at more than 40 strokes per minute. The Czech Republic’s Ondrej Luzek followed suit, refusing to grant New Zealand a comfortable advantage. At the half-way mark, Grant was still maintaining a very aggressive stroke rate, while Luzek still refused to tire down. Behind them, the fight for bronze was on between Japan and Great Britain. There was nothing between these two crews. Great Britain’s Adam Freeman-Pask, remembering his bronze medal in Banyoles, upped his stroke rate to 37 in the last 250m, finally getting loose from Japan. At the line it was New Zealand in first, the Czech Republic in second and Great Britain in third.

NZL, CZE, GBR, JPN, AUT1, AUT3

Duncan Grant (NZL) – Gold
“This was a new field with different people from last year, so you never know what to expect. But I made sure to put everything into the race and put myself in front of the field right from the start and was thus able to control the field. We only arrived on Sunday but I had a good build-up during the week. Maybe I am still a bit jet-lagged, but we are here for the whole summer and we will put in a lot of work and I am sure keep improving.”

Adam Freeman-Pask (GBR) – Bronze
“I was a little bit over my threshold at the middle of the race and that didn’t leave me enough at the end.”

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Final A

Serbia’s crew of Nenad Babovic and Milos Tomic won yesterday’s Race for Lanes and thus earned middle lane three for today’s Final. They had been followed by two Danish crews both trying to impress selectors. Today’s Final was quite similar to yesterday’s race. Serbia was the first to show, rating 39 strokes per minute in the first quarter of the race. The two Danish crews were racing on either side of Serbia and were completely level in third and fourth position, right behind Austria. Just a few hundredths of a second separated these crews, but Austria began to lose momentum, giving in to Denmark1 and Denmark2. At the half-way mark, Serbia began to increase their lead, upping their stroke rate to 37. The Danish continued to stay level in second and third, with Denmark2 finally accepting the slight lead of Denmark1 in the last 500m.  At the line it was Serbia, Denmark1, and the Denmark2 in gold, silver and bronze positions.

SRB, DEN1, DEN2, JPN, GER, AUT

Nenad Babovic & Milos Tomic (SRB) – Gold
Milos Tomic (SRB): “Of course we are happy about winning this race. Even though the water felt very heavy. It is cold water here and we are from the South and are used to warmer and not so heavy water. But we managed to keep the rating up and that helped us to stay in front. We will probably not stay in the pair though. But that will be the coach’s decision.”

Ulrik Romme & Christian Moelvig (DEN2) – Bronze
Ulrik Romme: “They should enjoy it while it lasts, as this won’t happen again. It’s 5:1 won races for us.”
 

Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls (LW4x) – Final A

Switzerland finished first in their Race for Lanes yesterday, earning a middle lane position for the Final. They were followed by China, then India. But today would be China’s day. Although all crews started out hard at 40 strokes per minute, only China would be able to maintain the pace.  Switzerland soon fell behind China, and India behind Switzerland. At the line it was a procession of three boats: China, then Switzerland, then India.

CHN, SUI, IND

Jieya Li, Chuchu Xiao, Linna Guo, Zhiying Xie (CHN) – Gold
“We are very happy.”

Antonina Iagovitina, Deborah Birrer, Fabiane Albrecht, Eliane Waser (SUI) – Silver
Antonina Iagovitina: “We were disappointed that the Chinese got away so soon, but we knew that they were strong. We still had a good performance in this race and hopefully we will get another chance in Lucerne.”

Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) – Final A

In the men’s version of the lightweight quad Final, again only three boats lined up. Although this event has been owned by Italy for years in a row, the absence of Italy gave other countries the chance to show their strength in lightweight sculling. Mexico finished first in yesterday’s Exhibition Race and today, although starting out more slowly behind Austria, the Latin Americans had decided to win again. Closing the gap with Austria, Mexico was increasing its clear water advantage over South Korea and not content to be at the front of the field continued to increase their lead. Austria were unable to respond after having put in so much energy at the start. At the line, Mexico took gold three lengths ahead of Austria, and Korea finished well behind in bronze medal position.

MEX, AUT, KOR

Horacio Rangel Ramirez, Juan Jimenez Regules, Saul Garcia, Alan Eber Armenta Vega Jr. (MEX) – Gold
Saul Garcia: “This was the first World Cup medal for Mexico and we are very excited. It was also our first race in the quad, so we are pretty happy. We will go back to Mexico now, but hopefully we will get to go to Poznan and finish in the medal ranks there also.”

Gregor Heizinger, Bernhard Sieber, Michael Hager, Alexander Rath (AUT) – Silver
Bernhard Sieber: “We are very happy. We gave everything right from the start and just tried how far we would get with it. Our power didn’t really last all the way, but we are still happy with this medal. We are part of the Austrian Lightweight Eight project, so we will probably race in that boat class at the World’s.”