LAKE AIGUEBELETTE, France - Seventeen years after hosting the world championships, Lake Aiguebelette, France will again be the site of top international rowing when the 2014 World Rowing Cup II begins this weekend.
Among the more than 700 athletes from 46 countries to race will be 16 United States crews competing in the men’s and women’s eight, men’s four, lightweight men’s four, women’s quadruple sculls, women’s pair, women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls and men’s and women’s single sculls.
Located in the heart of the Rhone-Alps region of France, Lake Aiguebelette has been a major rowing venue since 1984 and was the site of the 1997 World Rowing Championships. This year, it will feature a new course and finish line tower, and next year it will be the site of the 2015 World Rowing Championships.
Of the crews scheduled to compete, five will have the chance to earn a spot on the team that will race in the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 24-31.
In the women’s pair, Kerry Simmonds (San Diego, Calif.) and two-time Olympian and London bronze medalist Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis.) won the event at National Selection Regatta 1 and can earn a place on the 2014 team with a top-four finish in their event. They will be racing in a field of 16 that will include three other U.S. crews.
Simmonds and Kalmoe will be racing as USA 1. Racing as USA 2 are Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Caroline Lind (Greensboro, N.C.). Vicky Opitz (Middleton, Wis.) and Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y.) are racing as USA 3, while Amanda Polk (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Lauren Schmetterling (Moorestown, N.J.) race as USA 4.
In addition to competition from their U.S. teammates, Simmonds and Kalmoe will be facing Britain’s 2012 Olympic champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning and New Zealand Olympians Rebecca Scown and Louise Trappitt. Scown won bronze in the event in London. Trappitt rowed in the women’s quad.
In the women’s double, NSR 1 winners Ellen Tomek (Flint, Mich.) and Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La.) can claim a spot on the Amsterdam team with a top-six finish in the field of 16 crews that will include 2014 European champions Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj of Poland and Olympic and world champions Ekaterina Karsten and Yulia Bichyk of Belarus.
Racing in the lightweight men’s double sculls will be NSR 2 winners Josh Konieczny (Millbury, Ohio) and Austin Meyer (Cohoes, N.Y.). They face a packed field of 30 crews that includes Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou of France, who won the European championships earlier this month, and world champions Kristoffer Brun and Are Standli of Norway.
Also able to qualify for the 2014 world championship team are NSR 2 winners in the lightweight women’s double, Devery Karz (Park City, Utah) and Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif.). They race against 21 crews.
Among their competition are New Zealand’s Lucy Strack and Julia Edwards, who finished fifth at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea. Rowing for Brazil is three-time Olympian and 2011 world champion in the lightweight single, Fabiana Beltrame. She is teamed up with Beatriz Cardoso who is new to senior level competition.
In the women’s single will be London Olympian Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass.). After taking a season off from international competition, Stone, who finished seventh in London, came back and won NSR 1 and now has a chance to return to the world championships with a top six finish.
Also racing in the event for the U.S. is four-time senior team athlete Stesha Carle (Long Beach, Calif.), who finished second at NSR 1. Stone and Carle are in a field of 21 that includes some of the world’s top female single scullers: London Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, New Zealand’s Emma Twigg, the silver-medalist at the 2013 world championships and Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig, who finished fourth in the event last summer.
The women’s squad will also see racing in the eight and quad events.
Five countries have entered the eight event and the defending world champion U.S. will send the crew of coxswain Katelin Snyder (Winter Park, Fla.), Lind, Optiz, Musnicki, Luczak, Schmetterling, Polk, Simmonds and Kalmoe. The U.S. is up against Canada, China, Great Britain and Germany. Eight of the crew return to the lineup from the boat that took gold at the 2013 world championships, including Snyder, Opitz, Luczak, Schmetterling, Polk, Simmonds and Olympic champions Lind and Musnicki.
The U.S. will boat two quads for the event. Racing as USA 1 are Grace Latz (Jackson, Mich.), Tracy Eisser (Fair Lawn, N.J.), Eleanor Logan (Boothbay Harbor, Maine) and Felice Mueller (Cleveland, Ohio). Logan, a two-time Olympic champion in the eight, finished fifth in the single last summer at the world championships.
Racing as USA 2 are Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y.), Heidi Robbins (Hanover, N.H.), Tessa Gobbo (Chesterfield, N.H.), and Adrienne Martelli (University Place, Wash.). Coffey and Gobbo won gold in the women’s four last summer. Martelli won a bronze medal in the event at the 2012 Olympics.
The two crews are among 11 entered. Germany, Canada and Poland finished first, second and third at the 2013 world championships. The U.S. finished fifth. Canada’s silver medal crew of Antje Von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, Carling Zeeman, Katharine Goodfellow and Emily Cameron are back to defend their podium finish.
On the men’s side the, U.S. will send the crew of coxswain Zach Vlahos (Piedmont, Calif.), Thomas Dethlefs (Lawrenceville, N.J.), Nareg Guregian (North Hills, Calif.), Matthew Miller (Springfield, Va.), Rob Munn (Redmond, Wash.), Ross James (Dekalb, Ill.), Steven Kasprzyk (Cinnaminson, N.J.), Ambrose Puttmann (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Thomas Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich.) to the line in the men’s eight.
Six other countries have entered to race including defending Olympic champion Germany, defending world champion Great Britain, along with China, Poland, France and Iran. The U.S. took bronze in the event at the 2013 World Rowing Championships and won gold at the Lucerne world cup stop last summer.
Seven of the crew were in the 2013 boat including London Olympians Vlahos, James and Kasprzyk, in addition to Dethlefs, Guregian, Puttman and Peszek. Munn rowed in the men’s pair with coxswain at the 2013 world championships and Miller rowed in the quad.
The bronze-medal winning men’s four crew of Michael Gennaro (Havertown, Pa.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.), Seth Weil (Menlo Park, Calif.) and Grant James (DeKalb, Ill.) are all back. In addition to winning a bronze medal last summer, Rummel won bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games, and James finished fourth in the eight.
The event will feature 10 crews including Great Britain and Australia. Australia edged the U.S. for second last summer, while Great Britain was fifth in the 2013 final.
After making the finals last summer in the lightweight men’s four, the U.S. is hoping to reach the podium this summer. The crew of Anthony Fahden (Lafayette, Calif.), William Daly (Vail, Colo.), Edward King (Ironton, Mo.) and Robin Prendes (Miami, Fla.) will take on a field of 10 other crews that include Denmark, France, Great Britain and New Zealand.
The Danish crew of Kasper Winther, Jacob Larsen, Jacob Barsoe and Morten Joergensen are the defending world champions. Of the U.S. crew, only King is new to the boat. Daly, a 2008 Olympian in the event, Fahden and Prendes, who both rowed in the event at the London Olympics, were in the boat last summer in South Korea.
In the men’s single sculls, two-time Olympian Ken Jurkowski (New Fairfield, Conn.) returns to international competition. Jurkowski did not compete last season. He finished second at NSR 1. He represented the U.S. in the event at both the London and Beijing Olympic Games.
Jurkowski rows in a field of 28 that includes both world and Olympic champions and medalists including current Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand, reigning world champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Germany’s Marcel Hacker who was third last summer at the world championships.
The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. For more information, timetable, results, live blogging, live race tracker and photo gallery visit www.worldrowing.com.
The World Cup II finals will be live-streamed on Sunday, June 22 at https://www.youtube.com/user/WorldRowingFISA.
Click here for 2014 U.S. athlete roster and bios.
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