Martin makes it two-in-a-row at Armada Cup

The mass start. The corners. The crashes. The sandbanks.  The single scullers. The 29th Armada Cup in Bern, Switzerland had it all. Croatia’s Damir Martin proved to overcome the obstacles the best.

Martin’s win marks his successful defence of last year’s win as he took on three other scullers from the final of the 2015 World Rowing Championships men’s single sculls – World Champion Ondrej Synek (CZE), silver medallist Mahe Drysdale (NZL) and fourth-placed Olaf Tufte (NOR).

Racing in autumn temperatures on Lake Wohlen, there was some early morning fog with flat, ideal water conditions for the 250 single scullers from 16 nations. The rowers were lined up in rows of 25 (20 male and 5 female scullers) with the aim of getting away as quickly as possible to get a clear run.

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Local Swiss sculler and 2013 winner, Nico Stahlberg capsized about 1km into the 9km. Stahlberg still managed to finish the race – 27th in the men’s open category.

Germany’s national team lightweight rower, Jason Osborne was not so lucky. Osborne fell into the water following a collision. He had to be helped to shore and was not able to finish the race. In 2014 Osborne finished third overall.

Martin was able to take advantage of a crash between Tufte and Drysdale with Tufte’s boat suffering damage. Both rowers untangled themselves and continued to race with Drysdale chasing Martin. Martin had a better finish and crossed the line in a time of 33min16sec with Drysdale 24 seconds behind. Portugal’s top sculler and lightweight rower, Pedro Fraga was third. World Champion, Synek ended up 12th and Tufte was seventh. Two young Swiss, Roman Roosli and Barnabe Delarze finished ahead of Tufte’s time.

Rowers from Switzerland’s World Champion lightweight men’s four held their own in the race. Mario Gyr and Simon Niepmann finished fifth and sixth respectively among the openweight men. Their fellow Swiss team mate from the lightweight men’s double sculls, Michael Schmid was fourth in the open men’s field.

In the open women’s category, Ireland’s top single sculler, Sanita Puspure was the first woman home followed by Marcela Milosevic of Croatia who was 23 seconds back. Marcela’s sister, Karla Milosevic was third. The Milosevic sisters raced in the women’s pair at this year’s World Rowing Championships. Armada Cup regular, Pamela Weisshaupt of Switzerland was in fourth.

In the under-23 category, first was Patricia Merz of Switzerland. Merz’s time of 38min 10sec earn her second overall. Kathrin Morbe of Germany was the second under-23 woman and fourth overall.

Full results: http://www.armadacup.ch/de/attachments/49