Great Britain tops first Rowing World Cup

British men's four after winning the final

This knocked perennial winner, Germany out of what has become habitual for the Germans giving Great Britain the overall Rowing World Cup trophy.

High British expectations loaded on their men’s four continued to be reckoned with the team clocking up their 27th international win in a row. The crew of Andy Triggs Hodge, Alex Partridge, Steve Williams and Peter Reed has not lost a race since they came together in 2005 following the post-Olympic retirement of star rower Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell.

The best in the women's quad – Great Britain

Top women’s crew for Great Britain, the women’s quad also lived up to their two-time World Champion status. Katherine Grainger, Frances Houghton, Debbie Flood and Annie Vernon cemented their position at the top with Grainger commenting to GB Rowing News, “We have wanted to get a fast start for the past few seasons but we've never really managed to achieve it. Today we were thrilled to get out quickly and demolish the field early.”

Men’s double winners, Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham were the surprise winners for Great Britain in a race that saw only 1.32 seconds separate first to sixth place and the reigning World Champions relegated to fourth. The final gold for Great Britain went to Matthew Langridge and Colin Smith in the men’s pair. Coming through the heats and semi-finals it looked like France and Croatia had the edge but a strong second half and a “storming” finish by Smith and Langridge gave them gold.

At the start of the men's eight, China second from the top

Germany had the unusual distinction of finishing second on the points table, 15 points behind Great Britain, at 47 points. The Germans picked up one gold, the women’s eight, despite finishing fourth in the heats and getting to the final via the repechage. Great Britain won silver in the same event. The large Chinese contingent stormed into third position on the table (38 points) with gold medals in the women’s double and lightweight men’s four. But their proudest race must have been the men’s eight. The team walked away with bronze and the recognition of being the first ever Chinese men’s eight to win a medal internationally. Canada was fourth (30 points) followed by the Czech Republic in fifth (22 points).

Twenty-three countries of the 46 competing earned World Cup points which are awarded from eight points down to one for the top seven positions.

The second Rowing World Cup for this season will be in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 22 to 24 June, 2007.