Action at the first Rowing World Cup - Who to watch

 

Danube River and the town of Ottensheim

This can only be described as a strong opening to the season with a full field of 880 athletes starting their 2007 international season.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)

Rowing has attracted Germany’s four-time Olympic gold medallist back into the fold. Kathrin Boron will line up against reigning World Champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus to give Karsten a taste of Boron experience. Boron is best known for medalling in the quad, but in 1994 and 1995 the single was her primary boat.

Boron will be able to experience all of the top six scullers from 2006. Regular silver medallist Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic is there along with third placed Swede, Frida Svensson. France’s indoor rowing World Record holder Sophie Balmary opens her season in Linz while Michelle Guerette is taking the trip all the way from the United States. Russia’s Julia Levina is there as well. China has also increased their already large team by adding seasoned single sculler, Xiuyun Zhang to the entries. Zhang made a brief appearance last year at the third Rowing World Cup but her most successful rowing dates back to the early 1990s, especially the 1996 Olympics where she picked up silver in the double as well as finishing fifth in the quad.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

Germany’s top single sculler, Marcel Hacker faced the best of Slovenia, Iztok Cop two weeks ago at Germany’s Huegelregatta and got the better of him. But with both Cop and doubles partner Luka Spik focusing on the single at this regatta, Hacker will still have his hands full. Also on the scene is Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte. Tufte (NOR) is known for taking a while to warm into a season and so he tested the 2000m racing speed recently with a local Norwegian regatta to help his de-thawing process.

Potential favourite, Marcel Hacker of Germany

Great Britain’s toast of the single Alan Campbell is staying solo and comes to Linz having easily won his country’s singles trials. Also likely to push the top contenders is Sweden’s Lassi Karonen and last year’s bronze medallist Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Don’t overlook Belgium’s Tim Maeyens who regularly surprises with his fast starts.

The event, however, will miss current World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand. Drysdale is presently training in his home country and will travel to Europe in time for the second Rowing World Cup.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

Australia has divided their women’s eight down into pairs, as has become their custom to do early in the season. However with the large number of entries here, it may mean the Aussies will find themselves pushed harder than normal to compete in both the eight and pair. There is a staggering 28 entries in the pair. The field includes three United States entries made up of last year’s gold medal eight. This includes Megan Cooke and Anna Mickelson who won the final Rowing World Cup of 2006 and also finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships along with their eights win at the same regatta.

But all of these entries will find their biggest challenge coming from reigning World Champions Jane Rumball and Darcy Marquardt of Canada. Rumball and Marquardt have been in Europe since the Huegelregatta where they cleaned up with an open water win.

Watch out for what China has to offer from their three entries and also the four German entries who are mainly made up of their number two eight.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

Croatian brothers Niksa and Sinisa Skelin have been dabbling in other boats during the off-season including the eight and four, but they return to the pair for their seventh year of competition together. Depending on their post-winter form the Skelins may be the crew to watch as this event sees many new, internationally untried, combinations.

Canada has a new combination. Olympic silver medallist Barney Williams is there with Scott Frandsen. Great Britain’s Colin Smith finished sixth in 2006 in the pair and has now teamed up with a new partner, the feisty Matthew Langridge.

Stable in their combination, Germans Jochen Urban and Andreas Penkner finished fifth in the world last year and move into their second season together.

The surprise Serbian win for the last minute duo of Nikola Stojic, 32, and Jovan Popovic, 20, in the coxed pair at last year’s World Rowing Championship has meant a continuation of this combination, now in the pair. Also a new, but hopeful, combination will be Giuseppe De Vita, 24, and Raffaello Leonardo, 34, of Italy.

Women’s Double Sculls (W2x)

Lacking significant depth, this event is missing top boats from Australia and New Zealand. Instead all eyes will be on Germany’s Britta Oppelt and Susanne Schmidt to see if they can hold their own against two other German entries.

Filling out the field is a fleet of Chinese boats with Qin Li and Liang Tian leading the way. Li and Tian finished eighth at last year’s World Rowing Championships and will be looking to retain their top Chinese double status. Keep an eye out also for Romania’s Simona Strimbeschi and Roxana Cogianu. Strimbeschi was an Olympic finalist in this event at Athens 2004 and since then she has been dabbling in the top Romanian boat, the eight. Cogianu comes through to her country’s senior squad having finished last year as an Under-23 Champion.

Men’s Double Sculls (M2x)

This event attracts crews that seem to stick together – sometimes for years – and at Ottensheim there will be racing four of the top six boats from last year. Top of the pile is the French. Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste Macquet remain firm favourites under the influence of coach Jean-Raymond Peltier.

Macquet and Hardy showing the way for France

Back again, Great Britain’s Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham will be aiming to stay ahead of some new, but noteworthy, combinations. Dual Olympic medallist Derek Porter has returned after a seven year international break and will again compete for Canada, this time with former fours Olympic silver medallist, Jake Wetzel. Jueri Jaanson of Estonia is also adding his name to this event. Jaanson, 41, has a career that stretches back into the days of competing for the Soviet Union and his partner Tonu Endrekson, 27, was only just beginning when Jaanson already had World Championships and Olympic Games under his belt.

Also returning to the doubles fold, but yet to prove their current potential, are 2001 and 2002 World Champions Akos Haller and Tibor Peto (HUN). Leaving the dieting until later, two-time Olympic lightweight double Champions Robert Sycz and Thomasz Kucharski of Poland will start in this open event.

Men’s Coxless Four (M4-)

Hoping to continue their unbroken winning streak, Great Britain’s head men’s coach Juergen Grobler has kept his two-time World Champion four together. Despite rumours and reshuffling through the winter season, Steve Williams, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Andy Triggs Hodge remain together.

Williams commented in the GB Rowing press release, "It's going to be a tough season. When you're unbeaten and World Champions everyone pins a target on you and takes aim. The positive for us is that we feel we've still got a few seconds in the tank and that we weren't pushed to the very limit last season.”

Retaining their same line-up are last year’s silver and bronze medallists, Germany and the Netherlands. And keeping with the trend last year’s number five placed boat, Slovenia, has only one change to their consistent line-up while number six, France, remains with the same four athletes.

Margins are always tight in this event and there’s no doubt that exciting races will continue to be the norm.

Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls (LW2x)

Dongxian Xu and Shimin Yan of China hold the current World Champion title and World Best Time. All of that and Yan is still just 19 years old. They will open this season against a strong, 27 boat, field which includes four Chinese entries.

Xu and Yan back for another season together

Xu and Yan will surely be challenged by last year’s bronze medallists, Greece’s three-time Olympian Chrysi Biskitzi and partner Alexandra Tsiavou. And Canada may surprise. Last year’s fourth-place finisher, Tracy Cameron has a new partner in former Under-23 Champion Lindsay Jennerich. Keep an eye out also for Finland and Ireland who are regularly in the final and often pushing onto the medals podium.

Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls (LM2x)

Entering the open double class at Germany’s Huegelregatta two weeks ago permitted Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist, current World Champions, to race Slovenian heavyweight Olympic medallists Cop and Spik. They finished second, but only just, as they come out of a winter training period which included loads of racing on the indoor rowing machine.

Rasmussen and Quist will again be up against the very consistent Marcello Miani and Elia Luini of Italy who did nothing less than second in all of their finals last year.

Meanwhile, the Italians will also have to be keeping tabs on France. Fabrice Moreau and Frederic Dufour finished third last year in their first season together. Watch out also for last year’s lightweight single World Champion, Zac Purchase. Great Britain’s Purchase has been selected for this Olympic event and will leave his solo rowing behind to try his hand with Mark Hunter. Another former single champion (2005) Greece’s Vasileios Polymeros is back with partner Dimitrios Mougios for a second year.

Men’s Lightweight Four (LM4-)

China’s Zhongming Huang, Chongkui Wu, Lin Zhang and Jun Tian burst onto the lightweight four scene last year and took an unexpected World Champion title for their country. They have remained together and appear at Ottensheim ready to again face the very strong French crew as well as the best of the Irish – second and third respectively at the 2006 World Rowing Championships. France has retained their same line-up while Ireland has made one change. Richard Coakley replaces Gearoid Towey.

The new Danish lightweight men's four; Helleberg, Kruse-Andersen, Joergensen, Ebbesen

But all eyes will be on the performance of the new Danish four. This internationally untried alignment includes the return of rowing hero Eskild Ebbesen who is setting himself up for Olympics number four in Beijing. Watch out also for Canada. They finished just out of the medals in fourth last year and have retained three of the same members this season.

Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x)

Great Britain became two-time World Champions last season after the disqualification of Russia and the Brits will surely be the favourites going into this season. But with Sarah Winckless out of the team due to knee surgery, Great Britain will be testing a new player. Annie Vernon joins the regulars; Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton, Katherine Grainger. Vernon brings with her the experience of doubles racing.

Russia is back with two new crew members Anastasia Fatina comes through the under-23 ranks and Anna Sergeeva was in the fourth placed Athens Olympics quad.

With Germany’s top scullers dueling it out in doubles, coach Jutta Lau has put together a boat of up-and-comers. Stroke Jeannine Hennicke is the only seasoned rower having been in last year’s third placed German quad.

Great Britain looks to be in a solid position to dominate this event.

Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x)

Current World Champions Poland tasted more success two weeks ago at Germany’s Huegelregatta and come to Linz as the most consistent, stable and accomplished alignment in this event. Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michal Jelinski and Adam Korol are World Rowing’s 2006 Team of the Year and they haven’t lost a race since winning at the 2005 World Rowing Championships. They now also own the World Best Time.

This leaves a big challenge for Russia who will face up to the Polish test by returning to the boat three of their Olympic gold medallists from Athens. Germany is giving their young guns a shot with both the current Junior (Hans Gruhne) and Under-23 Champion (Karsten Brodowski) filling out bow and two seat of their number one crew.

But there are many new faces in this race. The Czech Republic has a new line-up, as do the Italians and Australians. The fight for the lesser medals will definitely reveal a potential trend for the season.

Women’s Eight (W8+)

Often this event runs as a straight final. But not this year. Nine boats will be vying for a medal spot with Germany’s number one crew (silver in 2006), likely to be the crew to beat. Watch out for Australia. They have put together their best sweep rowers to focus on the eight and already the boat has recorded some encouraging times in training. They retain six of the crew that won bronze last year.

German women's eight

China will have nothing less than winning on their mind. Last year they finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships and six of those members remain in the number one boat. With huge emphasis being put on Chinese eights for the Beijing Olympics, especially stimulated by the reality television show to find a coxswain, these athletes know the goal they must reach.

Men’s Eight (M8+)

In the absence of World Champions Germany and also regular medallists the United States, this could be Italy’s opportunity to go for gold. The Italians only have one change – the addition of 197cm tall Paolo Loriato – to their silver medal winning 2006 alignment.

Italy will need to keep an eye on the Mike Spracklen coached Canadian eight who have every intention of being at the top by next year’s Olympics. This is also the case for China, who, like their female counterparts, have the expectations of their entire nation resting on them. Germany is boating their number two crew with the return to stroke seat of Michael Ruhe. Ruhe is back after successfully battling cancer.

Check out regular race reports, photographs and Rowing World Cup information on www.worldrowing.com.