First for Oppelt at German national champs

Britta Oppelt of Berlin finished first in the women’s single, a position that has been held for many years by Kathrin Boron.

Oppelt finished second in the double at the last Olympic Games and has spent recent years racing in either the quad or double for Germany. This win in the single is Oppelt’s first national title. In the German rowing press release she said: "I am very happy with the race. I just concentrated on myself, therefore I can't say much about the race. But I'm very happy!"

Oppelt finished ahead of Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth.

In contrast the men’s single race went to regular winner Marcel Hacker. Hacker was led by Rene Bertram for most of the race but managed to come back in the second half of the race and win with a three-length advantage. Bertram medalled at last year’s World Rowing Championships in the quad and has been a force in German sculling for a number of years. In third, 2007 under 23 champion Stephan Krueger showed his strength in this boat class.

After the race former World Champion Hacker said, “I'm very happy with my win. Now I can concentrate calmly on the international races coming up.”

The women’s pair was won by Lenka Wech and Maren Derlien who easily stayed ahead of Christina Hennings and Nadine Schmutzler with Nina Wengert and Magdalena Schmude in third.

Sebastian Schmidt and Jochen Urban led the men’s pair race but won only just over Philipp Naruhn and Florian Eichern. From last year’s bronze medal coxed four, Florian Mennigen and Mathias Flach finished third.

In the lightweight men’s single Manuel Brehmer from the national team lightweight double, won over Jonathan Koch. Marie-Louise Draeger was the fastest of the lightweight women finishing first over her doubles partner Berit Carow. Last year, at the World Rowing Championships, Draeger and Carow finished third in the lightweight women’s double and with that easily qualified for the Beijing Olympics.