14 Dec 2011
Waddell back on top at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup
This was just one of the exciting races on the Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland at the second Rowing World Cup.
Women’s Pair (W2-) – Final
China’s You Wu and Yulan Gao won at the first Rowing World Cup in May and they continued to stamp their name on this event by leading today’s final. Wu and Gao are likely to now be the chosen combination for the Olympic Games. For Wu it will be her second Olympics as she raced in the eight at Athens. Gao will be going to her first. Today Wu and Gao took off the fastest out of the starting blocks and got out to over a boat length lead by the half way point. This left two United States boats to do battle.
In USA One Eleanor Logan and Caroline Lind found themselves behind USA Two of Portia McGee and Anna Cummins. The pair has become a popular training boat both at the national team level and amongst the very strong university programmes in the United States. Their strength showed today. Coming into the final sprint Logan and Lind took their rating to 35 and pushed ahead of USA Two who reacted by hitting a hunched over 45 strokes per minute. China finish first firmly holding on to the yellow leader’s bib.
Results: CHN, USA1, USA2, AUS, NZL, FRA
Caroline Lind (USA1) – Silver
“This was a really tough race. But we knew it would be and we didn’t underestimate the competition. And China got the better of us this time, but hopefully next time we’ll beat them. It’s still up to the coach to decide if we are going to stay in the pair. It is great to have good competition in your own country.”
Anna Cummins (USA2) – Bronze
“It’s great racing with our mates. And we are hoping to race in the Olympics with these guys.”
Portia McGee (USA2) – Bronze
“It’s great to see two US boats up here.”
Men’s Pair (M2-)
Neither World Champions Australia nor last year’s silver medallists raced at the first Rowing World Cup. Instead they started their season here in Lucerne along with the Canadians. The pecking order would be sorted out today in the final. Right from the word go Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen of Canada grabbed the bull by the horns and went for gold. This left the two best in the world to play catch up.
New Zealand’s Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater have been rowing together since 2004 when they finished fourth at the Olympics. Australia’s Drew Ginn won this race at the 2004 Olympics and with new partner Duncan Free they have dominated over the last two years. Canada’s Calder was disqualified at Athens and moved away from rowing. But he’s back in 2008 and going for another Olympic shot.
Through the race Canada remained calm, controlled and in the lead. Australia looked a little ragged and New Zealand hung on to their high stroke rate style just behind Australia. Coming into the line Bridgewater and Twaddle got their rating to 40. So did Canada. Australia, at 38, watched their second place position slip away. Canada take gold, New Zealand silver and Australia bronze.
Results: CAN1, NZL, AUS, FRA, CHN2, RSA
Dave Calder (CAN1) – Gold
“NZL really came up at us at the end of the race, I don´t know what the final margin was, but it must have been close. We still have to qualify in Poznan so we are in our top shape when the others will peak in 2 months, but it´s still good to beat them here.”
George Bridgewater (NZL) – Silver
“It was awesome, most of the race panned out. It's amazing what an Olympic year can do. Exciting to get a race under our belts."
Duncan Free (AUS1) – Bronze
“This wasn’t the best race for us. There are still a few things we need to work on. We will go back to Australia tomorrow and I am really looking forward to the next training block until Beijing."
Coming through the heats and semis this race looked like it was going to turn into a Chinese battle at the head of the field. Could any country break this domination? As expected Qin Li and Liang Tian of China One got out in front followed closely by Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth of Germany with China Two (Weiwei Zhu and Yangyang Zhang) moving with them. The Chinese are part of a recently very strong women’s sculling squad who have also won medals together in the quad. Split up today Li and Tian showed that they are the dominant boat. This left Germany and China Two to do battle for second.
As Li and Tian cruised across the finish line in first, Zhu and Zhang, Huth and Thiele went for broke. Huth and Thiele had the better sprint. Li and Tian win gold, Huth and Thiele take silver and Zhu and Zhang earn bronze.
Results: CHN1, GER, CHN2, USA, GBR, FRA
Christiane Huth (GER) – Silver
“We didn’t have a very good race yesterday and this was a motivation to get it better today, and we did. Also today was pay-back time from Munich and we are happy to have beaten the Chinese boat which came second in Munich.”
Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)
Slovenia are the reigning World Champions, France won in 2006. Both boats lined up at the start and looked across to lane four. Sitting in the bow of the New Zealand boat was 2000 Olympic Champion in the single, Rob Waddell. Waddell has been racing yachts in recent years and only got back into rowing 9 months ago. With Nathan Cohen in stroke, the New Zealanders had made their mark through the heats and all eyes were on them to see what they had to give in a final.
All boats went through the first 250m together. All boats went through the 500m mark together. It was then China decided to break away. Winners of the first Rowing World Cup, Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham of Great Britain went with the Chinese and by half way had a bow ball edge over Su and Zhang. Cohen and Waddell then squeezed out a piece and with 500m left to row the New Zealanders had the lead. In a show of perfect negative splitting, Cohen and Waddell cross the line first, Wells and Rowbotham pick up silver and pushing China out of the medals, Australia’s David Crawshay and Scott Brennan take bronze. At the back of the field France and Slovenia will have to go back to the drawing board.
Results: NZL, GBR, AUS, CHN, FRA, SLO
Rob Waddell (NZL) – Gold
“It is a positive start with a new combination. We are looking for every bit of encouragement we can get. Our tactics were to row well and our overriding goal is to skull nicely and find a good rhythm. It's still early days with a few months to the Olympics, so we are still trying to get faster.”
Matthew Wells (GBR) – Silver
“We are comfortably in the medal zone and it is still a long time before the Olympics, and we have to be carefull not to peak to early. I believe we made a massive step on from Munich. Unfortunately NZL have made a greater step. We just have to learn from that and that´s important.”
David Crawshay (AUS) – Bronze
“Our goal was to get ourselves on the podium and we made it. We really got a good rhythm going right from the first stroke. Changing seats from last season was a bit of challenge. But I got a great tutor on board and it’s going really well now. We will train another two weeks in Varese after this, then head back to Australia and continue our preparation for Beijing in Tasmania.”
Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Final
This race is in need of a good shake up. Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus has not lost a race since finishing second to Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski at the 2004 Olympics. Since then Karsten, with the retirement of Rutschow-Stomporowski, has been unstoppable. Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic has tried all sorts of different race plans to overtake Karsten. But to no avail. Karsten continues to bring in the gold. Knapkova has a stack of silvers. Today the same old scenario panned out with Karsten pushing through Knapkova to win gold. Knapkova finished right behind with silver.
Fitting firmly into third position, Xiuyun Zhang of China set herself in a strong position to be a medal contender at Beijing. Zhang missed the Athens Olympics due to a heart problem and missed the Sydney Olympics because of a Chinese official decision. The very patient Zhang will be in Beijing.
Results: BLR, CZE, CHN, BUL, NZL, AUS
Ekaterina Karsten (BLR) – Gold
“It is usually my tactic to win races in the last 500m. Munich was the first race of the season and I was very careful and kept some energy for the end of the race and won. Here, my mistake was to let Mirka away, but knowing what happened in Munich, I knew I could win it in the last 500m. But I will have to be more careful and not take any risks in Poznan.”
Mirka Knapkova (CZE) – Silver
“It was a good race, I was satisfied as I was in Munich to be able to compete with Karsten (BLR). Hoping to be able to continue having a good competition with her in Beijing.”
Xiuyun Zhang (CHN) – Bronze
“I feel good, I am very happy.”