And so we get to the main purpose of the regatta - A finals and the serious business of winning medals and points. Starting at 10:50 am, the races moved from six minutes apart to fifteen, to allow for the medal ceremonies. First off was the W2- with USA in lanes 1 and 2. Munich winners New Zealand (Rebecca Scown and Emma-Jane Feathery) added another World Cup Gold to their collection, while the German pair found some extra speed in the last quarter of the race taking silver ahead of the British. The US weren't far behind and USA 2 (Shoop and Lind) will no doubt be fairly pleased with placing 4th ahead of USA 1 (Allen and Cafaro) who were 5th – to make the two US crews 1-1 against one another on the weekend.
The men's pair was again dominated by the New Zealanders Murray and Bond, with the field, including the British pair of Hodge and Reed and the US pair of Banks and Cole simply unable to get close to them. While GB tried desperately to close the gap on the leaders, things were afoot at the back of the pack, and as the race moved into the second 1000m, the US pair found their stride and started to move up the field, passing Portugal and Greece to take the bronze medal.
In the W2x, the US double of Kalmoe and Tomek had a really good start and took an early lead. By 1000m they were a length up on the competition, with Germany chasing in second place and Poland close behind in third. The US double's steady rhythm and power soon helped them to open up clear water. Approaching the finish the Poles put in a big push, but nothing was going to stop the US from getting gold (both oarswomen winning their first senior international medal). Poland took silver, and the Bulgarian double, which includes Olympic W1x champion Rumyana Neykova, took the bronze.
The first Canadian crew down the course was Vandor and Sylvester in the LM2x. They ended up battling it out for gold with the New Zealanders, Uru and Storm, over the first part of the race but NZ edged ahead and it became a frantic race with France for silver. The Canadians held the French crew off to cross the line 1/3 length ahead.
The last race before the lunch break was the W1x final, which like the M1x, is hotly contested this year. Triple Olympic medalist Katherine Grainger could only manage 4th place in a race that was dominated by the Czech Olympian, Mirka Knapkova. Xiuyun Zhang and Emma Twigg were both in contention for silver, the New Zealand sculler moving through into 2nd place in the last 250m and leaving China with the bronze.
During the lunch break, the 2009 Thomas Keller medal was awarded to four times Olympic gold medalist and eight times world champion Kathrin Boron of Germany. Boron won the first of her world championship titles aged just 19, in the women's double sculls during the 1989 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, and announced her retirement from international competition last year after the Beijing Olympics, where her quad won bronze, just six hundredths of a second ahead of Ukraine.
The FISA council has recommended that the 2013 World Champs be awarded to Chungju, Korea, while the Bosbaan in Amsterdam should host the 2014 champs. Rumor has it that the decision on 2013 was helped along by the Chungyu organizing committee offering to pay for the rowers travel and boat transportation, an offer that not many would turn down in current climes. Both decisions are subject to confirmation by the FISA congress in Poznan on 31st August but it is likely just to be a matter of rubber stamping the decision.
When racing resumed, the GBR double of Wells and Rowbotham had pulled out of the M2x A final this afternoon, citing illness. In what was an incredibly close race, Germany moved through Estonia and Slovenia to take the lead but nearly lost out to France in the last few meters. The Germans got their first gold of the regatta, France silver and Estonia bronze.
After a disappointing Olympics last summer Mahe Drysdale showed that he really is back on top form, picking up another gold for the New Zealand squad in the M1x final. The race lived up to expectations, Drysdale moving into an early lead and securing a length over Tim Maeyens and Olaf Tufte by 1000m. With 500 to go he maintained his lead as Olympic champion Tufte, in second place, left Maeyens behind in 3rd.
Despite missing out on the M8 B final this morning, Giuseppe Lanzone appeared to be back in the boat for the M4- A final this afternoon. The US crew in lane 2 faced stiff competition from the Germans and the new 4- combination that GB is sporting this year. It was the British crew who got the bit between their teeth and their bows ahead first, opening up clear water over Germany 1 and Slovenia, with the US in 4th. British supporters showed relief as the four got the first British gold of the regatta, after the GB squad had dominated the last World Cup. The Slovenians took their rate up to 39 to hold onto the silver and it was the US who stole bronze from under the German's nose in the last 10 strokes!
More medical crew changes – Zsuszsanna (her official "FISA" name, although she goes as Susan to most of her US friends) Francia is being replaced by Kathleen Bertko in the US W8+ final.
GB didn't have to wait long for their next gold, as the LW2x race soon settled into two halves, Belgium and GB out at the front and Canada, Germany and Greece fighting it out for bronze. The GB boat (Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking) repeated their performance in Munich to take gold, Belgium had to settle for silver and it was the Canadians (Lindsay Jennerich & Sheryl Preston) who secured the bronze position, pushing Germany into 4th place.
The LM4- final was very close; Denmark and France rowing down the Czech Republic in the last 500 to take gold and silver respectively.
Having skipped the race for lanes yesterday, the USA W4x was in lane 6 for their final. Kalmoe and Tomek were back in the boat fresh from their gold in the 2x this morning, and sculling with them Stesha Carle and Jennifer Kaido. The US quad had a great start and soon had a decent lead over the rest of the field. As they continued to power away the race appeared to be for silver position between Germany and Belarus. Germany moved clear with 500 to go and started upping the pressure on the US quad. The Germans really threw everything they had at it, lifting their rating and increasing their speed as they approached the line. Unfortunately the US quad on the far side of the course failed to respond and had to make do with silver by just 0.55sec, while New Zealand collected another bronze to add to their collection.
The US M4x faired less well than the women in their final, though there were certain similarities in the last 10 strokes of both races.... The young GB quad went off hard but Germany soon took the lead. With 500 to go the US moved into 3rd place a fraction ahead of the Slovenians in the next lane. With nothing between the two crews, they were taking chunks out of each other racing for the line. Alas it was the US who came off worse, missing out on a medal by a measly 300ths of a second (that's gotta hurt).
The penultimate race of the day, and the last final for the USA squad, had the US women's eight in lane 6, again having missed the race for lanes earlier in the regatta. In what appeared to be a fairly evenly matched field the US took the lead off the start, just maintaining it over Romania at the 1000m point. As the Romanian and US eights moved away from the Dutch crew in 3rd place, the lead switched to Romania. They moved up a gear and pushed out their lead over the US to 1/2 length. Romania took gold, the US silver, just holding off a late challenge from the Netherlands who got bronze.
All in all not a bad day for the US - 4th in the medal table with one gold, two silvers and two bronze. New Zealand led the take, including four golds
Canada made it three out of three in the medals but failed to take home a gold in the M8. Along with Germany they were well ahead of the rest of the men's 8s in the last race of the day. An impressive German crew led from the start but the Canadians weren't letting them have it all their own way and pushed it back to 1/2 length in the last 250m. The German crew responded well and won by just under a length over the Canadians, with the Netherlands taking bronze.
Quick quotes from FISA:
Women's Pair:
Emma-Jane Feathery, Rebecca Scown (NZL) – Gold
"It was definitely a good race. We feel we’ve moved on since the last regatta. It’s good to race with new crews so we can see where we’re at. Until Poznan we’re going to a training camp in Aegeri, 40 minutes away from here." Emma-Jane Feathery
Kerstin Hartmann, Marlene Sinnig (GER) – Silver
"This is incredible. We wanted to race well. The plan was to be in the field for the first 1,000m and then give it all on the second half and it worked out. I hope this will be enough to be able to stay in the pair. We now proved that we can do it." Marlene Sinnig
Olivia Whitlam, Louisa Reeve (GBR) – Bronze
"I feel we underperformed at the first World Cup and now we’ve stepped up and definitely raced better than the last World CUp. We feel we are racing better and better" Olivia Whitlam
Men's Pair:
Eric Murray, Hamish Bond (NZL) – Gold
"It was a very good race. We came out in front already from the first strokes and it was good to do that. There are no big tricks, we just make sure we make no mistakes. There was a bit of a headwind, just enough to slow you down a bit and the usual Lucerne waves, but it went well." Hamish Bond
Peter Reed, Andrew Triggs Hodge (GBR) – Silver
"We knew the race would be tough against the Kiwis. We came here to enjoy the regatta, but we never give up on our ambitions, so we will continue training in the next few weeks and hope we can change things around." Peter Reed
David Banks, Charles Cole (USA) – Bronze
"This was a lot better than the first Rowing World Cup. Since then we worked on our speed and it seems to work out. Not sure if we are satisfied, but I guess we are pleased. We’ll continue to work on our speed and would like to stay in the pair, but this will be on our coaches to decide. "Charles Cole
Women's 2x:
Megan Kalmoe, Ellen Tomek (USA) - Gold
"It was a good race, we had to go out hard already in the first strokes in order to keep up with these other great crews. It will be up to the coaches whether we stay together for Poznan." Ellen Tomek
Magdalena Fularczyk, Julia Michalska (POL) – Silver
"It was a very, very hard race, mainly because I have had problems this whole week-end with a sore throat. It was very hard, but it is a big pleasure for us to row with the girls who have been at the Olympics and to be actually on the podium with them." Julia Michalska
Rumyana Neykova, Miglena Markova (BUL) – Bronze
"It was a good race. Good water, no wind – conditions I like." Rumyana Neykova
Light men's double:
Storm Uru, Peter Taylor (NZL) – Gold
"It was a hard race. We stuck to our race plan to move away on the second half, which worked well. But the Canadians and the French stuck with us a long way, so we needed extra gas at the end. It will be a hard race at the World Rowing Championships, but it’s still six weeks to go until then and we’ll train hard until then." Storm Uru.
Douglas Vandor, Cameron Sylvester (CAN) – Silver
"It was a good race. And considering the two of us haven’t got a lot of racing experience together, I am sure we will still get better." Douglas Vandor
Frederic Dufour, Jeremie Azou (FRA) – Bronze
"It was a hard race, we didn’t start very fast so that made a difference in the end but we are staying together for Poznan as we feel very good together and have a good coordination so we hope that in the next few weeks we can gain those few seconds that we need to make the difference" Frederic Dufour
Women's single:
Mirka Knapkova (CZE) – Gold
"I’m very very happy to finally win this regatta. It was my dream since I was a child because my father rowed here in a pair."
Emma Twigg (NZL) – Silver
"The race went really well, I was behind from the beginning so I didn’t think I would win but I still gave a little push at the end. I’m happy with the result."
Men's Double
Stephan Krueger, Eric Knittel (GER1) – Gold
"This was great. We now really know that we are good and hope we can prove this again at the World Championships. That would be the best reward for the season. In our double everything has worked out well from the first stroke and we have a lot of fun rowing together." Eric Knittel
Cedric Berrest, Julien Bahain (FRA) – Silver
"We had a good race, the plan was to stay with the rest of the boats until the end and give it a push in the last part of the race which is what we did. It was a little difficult for us to stay with the others in the middle of the race but it went well and we are happy with the result. We are only aiming for gold at the World Rowing Championships and are happy that by now this double is confirmed." Cedric Berrest
"There is a very good feeling in the boat, the race went according to plan and we just hope to make the gold in Poznan." Julien Bahain
Allar Raja, Kaspar Taimsoo (EST) – Bronze
"We are very happy. We had a good race and managed to keep a good pace. We are a young crew which has only rowed together since two months. This season we will stay together for sure – hopefully even longer, the best until 2012." Kaspar Taimsoo
Men's Single
Mahe Drysdale (NZL) – Gold
"It’s been a hard four weeks, but also very enjoyable. In these fields you always have to battle until the end, but I feel strong, even after this race. Tufte really threw it down on me on the second half of the race, but I was able to respond to any challenge. After Beijing it’s really good to be back on track. Olaf will be the guy to watch at Poznan, he is always in strong form at the final competition of the season. Then there is also Alan and Ondrej. I reckon we will be guys to share the medals."
Olaf Tufte (NOR1) – Silver
"The start was good, but it was bit reserved. I wanted to stress Mahe in the first 1,000m, but it was the last 1000 that were good. I just let it go from 900m to go and I think I was even split with Mahe. I now go back to Norway to get some more sleep."
Tim Maeyens (BEL) – Bronze
"I am very happy with the result. It wouldn’t be possible to beat these two, but I still hope to do better in Poznan. The first half went okay, but the third 500m were pretty difficult."
Men's Four
Alex Partridge, Richard Egington, Alex Gregory, Matthew Langridge (GBR) - Gold
"We had a good race. Basically a good start and then we held a strong rhythm. It was a good row and a flat race. It was important for us to win. All we have to do until Poznan is basic, very simple, hard training." Alex Partridge
"This certainly felt good. It’s nice to be in front and control the field. We were really disappointed in Munich and today it was nice to make a mend." Matthew Langridge
Tomaz Pirih, Rok Rozman, Rok Kolander, Miha Pirih (SLO) – Silver
"We had exactly the race we planned with our coach. We did a much better race than in the heats, which got us a medal. We are very much looking forward to Poznan." Rok Kolander
"I thought I wouldn’t make the podium in Lucerne, but here I am." Miha Pirih
Cameron Winklevoss, Steve Coppola Jr., Giuseppe Lanzone, Brett Newlin (USA) – Bronze
"We are very pleased! Our three seat was ill here in Lucerne, so with Giuseppe we got a new guy in and we just had to wait and see where we could get to with this new line-up. We are very happy to be on the podium. We are not sure yet if we will stay together – you will have to wait and see, we won’t show all our cards yet." Brett Newlin
Light Women's Double
Hester Goodsell, Sophie Hosking (GBR) – Gold
"We went out really fast and when the field was tight we didn’t loose faith. It was really good." Sophie Hosking
"With all the work we have done, we knew the win in Munich wasn’t a one-off. But what we really focus on is the World Rowing Championships. We have been working very consistently all season and also during the winter and this result shows it. The target always is the gold medal – also for the World Rowing Championships." Hester Goodsell
Jo Hammond, Evi Geentjens (BEL) – Silver
"We are not the fastest crew so we just need to keep our confidence throughout the race and believe we can make it." Jo Hammond
Lindsay Jennerich, Sheryl Preston (CAN) – Bronze
"It was a good fight. We knew it would be a tight race. We had a solid plan and executed it. We were very focused on ourselves, not looking right or left and we are very happy about the result." Sheryl Preston
Light Men's Four
Christian Pedersen, Jens Vilhelmsen, Kasper Winther, Morten Joergensen (DEN) – Gold
"Yesterday we had a bit of trouble, today we raced to redeem ourselves. We had a good start and were able to control the field. As usual they came back so we really pushed down on the last 500m. This race has got a bit of a heritage for Denmark and the win today is especially special, since it is the first time in ten years that Denmark wins all three World Cups in this event. For Poznan, of course we also aim for the podium." Christian Pedersen
Frank Solforosi, Guillaume Raineau, Fabrice Moreau, Vincent Faucheux (FRA) – Silver
"It’s our second World Cup together, we just changed the positions in the boat since Banyoles and it seems to work better. We had a three-week training camp before this World Cup and we came here feeling strong. We gave all we had in the Final and are very happy to have gotten the silver. We are probably staying in those seats for Poznan." Fabrice Moreau
Jan Vetesnik, Ondrej Vetesnik, Jiri Kopac, Miroslav Vrastil Jr. (CZE) – Bronze
"On the last 300m we lost our forces. But we are very happy. It’s the first medal for this crew." Ondrej Vetesnik
Women's Quad
Sophie Dunsing, Peggy Waleska, Tina Manker, Stephanie Schiller (GER) – Gold
"The plan had been to be in front right from the start as in Munich, and that didn’t work here. But our catch-up race went really well. I looked over to the Americans once at the 1,000m mark and was confident that we could still get them. We never lost faith." Stephanie Schiller
Megan Walsh, Stesha Carle, Jennifer Kaido, Kathleen Bertko (USA) – Silver
"We are very happy with the result and I think we handled the race pretty well given that the girls from the double who won gold this morning jumped in the boat at the last minute - one of our crew members was sick and the other had to replace someone in the eight. We don’t know if we will be in Poznan in this configuration yet." Jennifer Kaido
Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappitt, Sarah Barnes, Harriet Austin (NZL) – Bronze
"Bloody hard race, the USA took off but we managed to hold GB at the start." Harriet Austin
"Good to prove to ourselves that we can do it." Louise Trappitt
"Hopefully we can move on from here, improve and back it up in Poland." Genevieve Armstrong
Men's Quad
Tim Grohmann, Karsten Brodowski, Marcel Hacker, Tim Bartels (GER) - Gold
"This victory was very special to us. It’s always very special to win, but this was also the first win for the German quad at an international event in five years." Karsten Brodowski
Charles Cousins, Marcus Bateman, William Lucas, Sam Townsend (GBR) – Silver
"It was really bad timing to be ill in Munich, but you always have to concentrate on the next race. We wanted to step up after each event this season and this was our best race this season so far." William Lucas
Janez Zupanc, Gasper Fistravec, Janez Jurse, Iztok Cop (SLO) – Bronze
"The race was not as we expected. We were hoping to take the lead in the first half, but we didn’t do what we are capable of doing. I think if we hadn’t been so quick in the last 500 we wouldn’t have made a medal. We expect to do better in Poznan." Janez Zupanc
Women's Eight
Roxana Cogianu, Ionelia Neacsu, Maria Diana Bursuc, Ioana Craciun, Adelina Cojocariu, Nicoleta Albu, Camelia Lupascu, Eniko Barabas, Teodora Stoica (ROU) – Gold
"It was a hard race, but good. We are a young team with lots of hope and we get a lot of support of former eight members such as Viorica Susanu." Teodora Stoica
Erin Cafaro, Lindsay Shoop, Esther Lofgren, Mara Allen, Anna Goodale, Katherine Glessner, Caroline Lind, Zsuzsanna Francia, Katlin Snyder (USA) – Silver
"The race went well. We just came together as a crew a couple of days ago so we’re trying to make it more coherent between the old and new crew members. We have a month of training before Poznan and the configuration isn’t definite yet." Erin Cafaro
Nienke Groen, Claudia Belderbos, Jacobine Veenhoven, Systke de Groot, Chantal Achterberg, Nienke Kingma, Carline Bouw, Femke Dekker, Anne Schellekens (NED) – Bronze
"We didn’t have a good start, but we had a strong and good middle. We were moving into the Americans and I thought we had them, it got very close, but seems like we were a split second behind." Claudia Belderbos
Men's Eight
Urs Kaeufer, Gregor Hauffe, Florian Mennigen, Kristof Wilke, Richard Schmidt, Philip Adamski, Toni Seifert, Sebastian Schmidt, Martin Sauer (GER) – Gold
"This worked out great. Our coach Holtmeyer prepared us very well for the race and we were self-confident. We wanted to row our race and entirely focus on ourselves for the first 1,000m and then face the competition. We were very focused and aggressive and it worked. This is great." Sebastian Schmidt
Steven Vanknotsenburg, Gabriel Bergen, Robert Gibson, Douglas Csima, Malcolm Howard, Andrew Byrnes, James Dunaway, Derek O’Farrell, Mark Laidlaw (CAN) – Silver
"We are disappointed because we were really hoping to win this but we now know exactly what we've got to do in the next few weeks until Poznan." Mark Laidlaw
Meindert Klem, Robert Luecken, David Kuiper, Jozef Klaassen, Olivier Siegelaar, Mitchel Steenman, Olaf van Andel, Diederik Simon, Peter Wiersum (NED) – Bronze
"We are looking forward to Poznan." Jozef Klaasen
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