Kiwis win two and take bronze in World Rowing Cup

by Melissa Bray, FISA on 18 Jun 2006 New Zealand crews competed in four A Finals overnight in the second World Cup in Poland, winning two, and taking a bronze medal in the third.

Giving predictions to the camera crew at the start of the day seemed easy enough. By the end of the day the predictions were meaningless. Highlights of the racing saw the a new French double set a World Best time. It saw the domination of Ekaterina Karsten nearly end. It saw the strain of Australia’s women racing more than one event. It saw China continuing to dominate the lightweight double.

Men’s Single Scull (M1x) – A Final

The punters couldn’t pick it. Would 23 year old Munich winner Alan Campbell of Great Britain have the goods? Would Germany’s Marcel Hacker be able to take his race up a notch? Would World Champion Mahe Drysdale show that he’ll continue to foot it with the Europeans? And would Olympic Champion Olaft Tufte of Norway find a quicker start?

Campbell got off the line first and opened up a hefty two second lead over a surprised Drysdale, with Hacker having a disappointing opening, back in fourth. Campbell continued to power away and still had a good lead with the half way point passing by. Then the New Zealander began to move. Stroking a solid 33 rate, Drysdale was not going to let Campbell keep the lead. Meanwhile Hacker had a huge deficit to make up, fighting to overtake Sweden and Tufte. As Drysdale’s 33 stroke rate propelled him into the lead, the big screen at the finish line showed the power of his torso. Last year Drysdale sustained a debilitating accident when he was hit by a water-skier while training. Since then he has worked on his core strength and come out the better for it.
In the final sprint Campbell attacked, rating 38, Hacker continued to gain spots, rating 39, but Drysdale held them off. Despite the cross-tail conditions, Drysdale came within three seconds of the World Best Time. Campbell held on to second, a disappointed Hacker comes through in third.

Men’s Pair (M2-) - Final

It is nothing short of a treat to watch the Australian pair. Stroked by two metres tall Duncan Free with Drew Ginn (196cm) sitting in bow, the duo’s long fluid strokes made the rest of the field look short and choppy. The experienced duo have spent their long rowing careers quite separate. Free was in the quad for the last three Olympics, while Ginn has Olympic golds from the pair and four. Today they met the reigning World Champions, New Zealand for the first time.

But at the start of the race it was Germany 2 that held the advantage. This did not last long. Ginn and Free soon pushed ahead with, quite unexpectedly, New Zealand at the back of the field. New Zealand had come through as winners of the semi-final but were not on the pace. Meanwhile Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic of Serbia & Montenegro were showing that their win at Munich last month was not a fluke. A strong middle 1000 propelled them into second ahead of Jochen Urban and Adreas Penkner of Germany’s Munich winning eight.
The sprint was on. Australia sat calmly on a 35. Goran and Stojic went from 38 to 40. Germany got to 39. At the line Ginn and Free had gold, Goran and Stojic silver, and Urban and Penkner bronze.

Women’s Double (W2x) - Final

They hold the World Best Time. They are the current World and Olympic Champions. They come from New Zealand’s North Island east coast and are best known in their home country for advertising beef and lamb. Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell arrived in Europe less than a week ago in Caroline’s 11th year of spending every New Zealand winter outside of her country. It is Georgina’s 10th year doing the same.
Today the twins met Munich winners Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington of Great Britain for the first time. But it was China that pulled out the first attack. Dispelling that the New Zealanders then had to deal with Catriona Sens and Sonia Mills (Australia I) and Dana Faletic and Sally Kehoe (Australia II), who have also been racing this regatta in the quad. But the two Australian boats seemed unconcerned with the New Zealanders and instead raced their own race against each other. Faletic and Kehoe were in front first, then Sens and Mills got through to second. While the Evers-Swindells remained in front, the Australians fought to a photo finish. Faletic and Kehoe earn silver and Sens and Mills take bronze.

Men’s Four (M4-) - A Final

Great Britain’s flagship crew continued on their winning ways with Alex Partridge, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and stroke Andy Hodge showing that a small tweaking of the line up won’t change their strategy – get out in the lead and remain there until the final buzzer. At Munich the British were given a good run for their money when both the Netherlands and Germany put the squeeze on them. The Dutch aren’t racing here and the newly mixed German four didn’t make the final. This left it up to New Zealand who, like Great Britain, had won their heat two days ago.

But the big surprise was to come from Slovenia. Rok Kolander, Tomaz and Miha Pirih and Matej Prelog have reshuffled within their squad and this new line up, two of which raced in the Olympic four in 2000, looked great in the semi-finals. Sitting behind Great Britain in second Slovenia held the pace with the Czech Republic in third. The New Zealanders sat outside of the medals and off the leaders pace.

Great Britain remain World Cup leaders after crossing the line in first, a very happy Slovenia finally get onto the medal podium with silver and the new New Zealand line up pull out an awesome sprint finish to earn bronze for their country.

For full reports on other events see: www.worldrowing.com and also see Rachel Quarrell's excellent weblog of the regatta at: http://www.rowingservice.com/blogpoz06.html