Lucerne World Rowing Cup sets the stage for World Championships

For immediate release
Lucerne, 12 July  2015

The 2015 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland gave insight into crews that could perform well next month at the World Rowing Championships.

Medals were spread across 21 countries with New Zealand earning the top place on the medals table. The New Zealand team ended the regatta with 11 medals, six of them gold. The gold medal success included Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward in the lightweight women’s double sculls. The World Champion duo were silver medallists last month at World Rowing Cup II, but went one step better this time. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale won the men’s single sculls in commanding style over Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania. Olympic bronze medallist, Alan Campbell of Great Britain took third.

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray (NZL) recorded their 57th win at a World Rowing event. Bond and Murray finished first in the men’s pair ahead of Great Britain and Serbia. New Zealand showed strength in the women’s and men’s boat classes, finishing the day with medals in both the men’s and women’s eight.

Second on the medals table was Great Britain. The most consistent crew for the British this season has been Heather Stanning and Helen Glover. Stanning and Glover continued to be a class act in the women’s pair. The World Champion British men’s eight had a gold medal result when they held off Olympic Champions, Germany in the final sprint.

Germany showed dominance in the quadruple sculls by winning both the men’s and women’s race. Their two gold medals helped put them into third on the medals table just ahead of Australia in fourth. Australia also earned two golds. Kim Crow is the most successful rower currently on the Australian team. She has raced twice this season internationally, both times winning the women’s single scull by large margins. Taking the lesser medals behind Crow at Lucerne was Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic and Genevra Stone of the United States.  Australia’s second gold came in the men’s four. The four outraced Italy to finish first with Romania taking bronze.

Lucerne marked the final regatta of the World Rowing Cup series for 2015. At the conclusion of the series of three, New Zealand had the highest number of World Rowing Cup points with 117. Germany was just behind in second with 115 and Great Britain rounded out the top three with 107 points.

The next World Rowing regatta is the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. This takes place from 22-26 July 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The World Rowing Championships will then take place from 30 August until 6 September 2015 in Aiguebelette, France. It is also the qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series included Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July). 

Results, race reports, photos and videos are available on www.worldrowing.com.