The Lucerne World Cup wrapped on Sunday, dominated by the Brits, Germans, and Kiwis. Great Britain are continuing to show that London 2012 will be theirs for the taking: Team GB raced 13 events in their return after skipping Hamburg, making the A-Final in 11 and medaling in 10, with four golds. Germany continued to own the Men's Eight and is adding both quads to their list as well, the men by reeling three early leaders to take the gold right at the line. The Kiwis collected seven medals in their ten A finals, matching GBR's gold medal haul at four. On the American side, the USA won gold in the women’s eight and bronze in the women’s pair, men’s four, and women’s lightweight double.
W2-
The GBR pair grabbed this race from the opening strokes and never looked back, taking an open water lead on the field and 2010 world champs from New Zealand. The Kiwis fought hard to close the gap but came up half a length short. The two USA entries fought it out for the last medal spot, with the USA1 entry of Caroline Lind and Taylor Ritzel taking the medal over USA2's Susan Francia and Meghan Musnicki. Both pairs raced in the eight last week at Henley, so the third and fourth place finishes in the smaller boat were a solid start for the duos in international competition.
“We haven’t been together very long,” said Lind. “We just focused on ourselves to see what we could do as a team. Since we’re new together, we wanted to push our limits and we’re faster because of Francia and Musnicki. Taylor’s job was to not look around and just be internal; it was my job to figure out where we were and I could tell that we were in the pack. We had an excellent Romanian crew to the left of us and I could sense we were in it with our teammates so we need to stick with them and go. We wanted to push hard with them and see what we could do together as a team.”
M2-
One of the most anticipated races of the day was the first meeting of 2011 between the two-time world champs from New Zealand and the British pair. Throw in the first international race in the return of the Canadian pair of Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder after they retired following their silver medal in Beijing and there was a lot in play for the Lucerne World Cup.
The race went according to form with NZL taking the gold with GBR and CAN locked in a tight battle for silver and bronze, with the only real shocker being the massive margin between the Kiwi pair and the rest of the contenders. The Kiwis kept it interesting until the 750 mark then unleashed a tremendously strong second 1000. New Zealand clocked a 3:09.5 through 1k and a 3:11.2 for the last half.
“We’ve had a real good winter and we’re right on pace,” added Hamish Bond of the NZL pair. “Last year we were a little bit off but still managed to the win. This year I feel like we’re going well and we’re looking forward to the next event. It’s good having the Canadians in the mix now with the Brits, so to come out on top of them, it means a little more.”
Canada's Calder added, “It was good to blow out a 2k. We had a great start and just wanted to get into the middle of the piece and see how we could do with everybody. The Kiwis squeezed out really well and we had another good barnburner all the way to the line the Brits. It was our first time out and there’s lots of time between now and the Olympics.”
M4-
The men’s four race belonged to the Brits from the first few strokes, and the veteran crew broke open water in the second 500 and never looked back, winning by over a length. The race for second and third came down to the Germans, Greeks, and Americans. USA held a slim margin on both for most of the race before the Greece moved through, then the USA fought off a hard charging Germany to hang on to the bronze.
“We had a great race through the 1500 and then got a little complacent,” said Charlie Cole, 3-man in the US four, following the race. "All credit to the Germans, who are a great crew, but we gave away a chance to push even further up. It was still a solid race. Halfway through the regatta, if you would have said, 'you’ll win the bronze medal,' we would have taken it no questions asked. We had a very tough semifinal yesterday and raced some very tough crews today, so we’re pleased with the result.”
Bowman Giuseppe Lanzone also commented on the tight finish, “The finish was tough: it was hard, and it was a little bit off. We tried really hard so our emphasis was to come together as a boat in the last 400 meters and we held them off.”
The bronze medal for the four, along with a solid showing by the men’s eight, should tighten selection up for Coach Tim McLaren. “We’ll talk to Tim and see what the next step is,” added Cole. “The squad has a lot of depth right now as shown by the eight’s performance. The coaches are going to take a hard look at all the crews and see how we can improve on everything. That may mean some personnel changes or it may mean staying the same."
“I think if you ask us, we’ll tell you we think this is a great group. It’s tough with three Huskies though," Cole, a Yale man, half-joked, "I think they’re just waiting for a fourth one to come up and kick me out.”
LW2x
The world champs from Canada flexed their muscles on Sunday and poured on a relentless second half to break open a three boat race with GBR and the USA1 entry of Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols. Great Britain had a little more gas coming into the sprint and was able to snag the silver from USA. The win for Canada reversed the loss they took to the Brits two weeks ago at Holland Beker.
"Something happened after Amsterdam that brought us into focus, and I think it's the best training camp that we've ever had,” said Canada stroke Tracy Cameron. “We committed to some changes and today we executed them. I'm happy with our progress so far this season. We just have to stay on track and our next focus is Bled.”
For the Americans, the bronze was bittersweet, but capped a fantastic World Cup Circuit for the double. The three medals Hedstrom and Nichols won in Europe this spring (gold in Hamburg and bronze in both Munich and Lucerne) was good enough to win the World Cup trophy in the event. To row2k’s knowledge, they’re the first American crew to pull on the final yellow jersey.
“I think we put together a solid race, but obviously we would have liked to have placed higher. We put together a good effort and we’re looking forward to Worlds,” said Nichols. “We haven’t had a coach since we’ve been rowing together, but we have a video camera that has been our coach these past seven weeks in Europe. We’re excited for some more time rowing together and I think we’ve established a good base of rowing technique and with some fine tuning we should be able to bring it all together and find some more speed.”
“I think we’re in a good place going into Bled and we’ve had a great season here in Europe with lots of good racing experience,” added Hedstrom. “That last 500 hurt and it was hard to tell at some points if we were on the Brits, but at some point, you just have to go. It was disappointing that we didn’t catch them, but we know we have stuff we can work on to find more speed.”
W4x
Germany followed up their gold in Hamburg by tackling a much fuller field in Lucerne and still powering away to the win. The world champs from GBR looked to set the pace early, but the new look GER quad made it pretty clear that they are back as the force to reckon with in this event. GBR just could not sustain the same kind of speed today in the second half of the race as the Germans.
Behind these two, NZL sat comfortably in third for much of the race before facing a hard charge from the USA crew in the last 500. The USA quad lineup was new for the World Cup, with Natalie Dell, Megan Kalmoe, and Stesha Carle of the Henley "A" quad being joined by Esther Lofgren--back on one-boat duty after her successful doubling up in England. This version of the USA W4x came on late to battle NZL for the last medal position, but the Kiwis had too much in hand and the Americans had to settle for fourth.
W8+
In a race that was eerily similar to Lucerne last year, the Canadians set the pace for the first 1500 meters only to see the Americans sprint through to get the win. The margin was a bit tighter this year, with the USA never down by more than a deck or so, and having perhaps a slight margin over Canada in the second half. With FISA's GPS technology having fits all day Sunday, the race on the video stream--and on the water--seemed much closer throughout than the data suggested. Nonetheless, the US had to work hard for the win, and it was a fine effort from another Canada eight intent on completing a return to the form we could expect from the Canadian women of a decade ago.
The line-up for the USA crew has been in constant flux with fully five different rowers from the eight that won the week before in Henley. Erin Cafaro was back in, following an injury, along with four of the quad scullers from Henley lineups: Caryn Davies, Kara Kohler, Elle Logan, and Ali Cox.
Kohler, coming off her sophomore year at Cal, was racing her first regatta at the senior team level. “That race was a wild ride to say the least, but a good first go,” she said, following the win. “There’s always a bit of nerves at the start but I try to brush it off and not let it get to me.” Here, Caryn Davies interjected: "Bears don’t get nervous, GRRRR!" Kohler continued on to say, “We were a few seats down through most of the race, but were able to pull back through.”
Seven-seat Jamie Redman was equally fired up after the race, "It was so exciting, all I did was follow Kady and listen to Mary's voice. I love racing, it's so different than training and I'm reminded today of how much I love it. I like to go to the starting line and suit up in those American colors and just go. The adrenaline and endorphins just cannot be matched."
Yes indeed.
W1x
The women’s single scull final saw Kiwi Emma Twigg break through for her first win on the senior level circuit. Twigg lead wire to wire over China’s Xiuyun Zhang, who took silver, and Mirka Knapkova of Czech Republic. The scullers raced into an increasing head wind and rain and the times reflected the deteriorating conditions as racing wrapped up, with Twigg finishing with a time of 8:03.
M1x
Czech single sculler Ondrej Synek continued to show why he is now the world’s dominate single sculler. Synek rowed down rival Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand in the second half of the race as both men moved well clear of the field. Synek powered through Drysdale to win by three seconds. Swede Lassi Karonen finished in third in front of American Ken Jurkowski.
Jurkowski, who won his semi outright on Saturday and lined up in lane four, continues to show improvement after finishing 11th in Beijing and 12th at Karapiro. Canadian Malcolm Howard also looks to be on the rise, finishing a close fifth to Jurkowski. The event was billed in advance as the one of the best World Cup singles fields of all time, but lost some of that clout when GBR’s Alan Campbell and GER’s Marcel Hacker withdrew prior to the regatta starting on Friday.
M8+
Two time world champion Germany left no doubt that they are still the team to beat in the men’s eight, storming out to a half-length lead after 500 meters and never being challenged the rest of the way down the Rotsee. The race behind them was fierce though, with the improving USA eight running in second place until literally the last stroke of the race, where they got nosed out at the line by both the Dutch and Brits. The final margin between second and fourth was less than a quarter of a second.
SUNDAY B FINALS
Four American crews raced in the B Finals early on Sunday. The women’s double of Sarah Trowbridge and Kate Bertko fought the whole way down the course to finish second. The Men's double also missed the A Final, but Will Miller and Glenn Ochal raced to fifth in the B Final. The USA2 entry in the men’s four raced a strong second thousand to finish third, just a tenth of a second behind second place France. The Abby Broughton and Ursula Grobler USA2 entry in the LW2x raced a consistent race in their B Final to finish in third.
SATURDAY FINALS
The only North American crew racing in Saturday’s A-Finals was the Canadian LM2- of Rares Crisan and Matt Jensen. The bronze medalists from Karapiro overcame a slow start (partly due to a collision with a duck) to win the silver medal, just 0.9 seconds behind the Germans.
Three American crews raced in C-Finals on Saturday, with both the M4x and Gevvie Stone in the W1x winning the third level final and the USA1 entry in the M2- finishing fourth in a tight race. Two US crews had to withdraw due to injury on Saturday: the Winklevii pair (Tyler) and the LM4- (Ryan Fox).
NOTES
-The weather on Sunday afternoon deteriorated quite rapidly, so much so that the race centers were shortened to get the races in under the weather. This turned out to be a good decision as the strong storm cell moved over the regatta during the final medal ceremony and actually forced the men's eights to wait over 45 minutes before being able to row back to the boatyard. The GBR crew didn’t feel like waiting, so they pulled their boat out of the water and de-rigged under the grandstand. Though another 30 minutes later it was blue skies and glass condtions as row2k shut down the press center.
-There was a rumor circulating in the press area on Saturday that Canada was going to enter a last minute entry into the M2+. Canadian alternate Kevin Light was going to team up with assistant coaches Jeff Powell (stroke of the Athens eight) and Mark Laidlaw (cox of the ’09 and ’10 eights), but row2k was sad to not see the Canadian lead sled make a run down the course Saturday evening.
-That wraps our coverage of the Lucerne World Cup, see you in Bled!
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