World Rowing Cup II - Day Three
The 2018 World Rowing season continued with World Rowing Cup II in Linz-Ottensheim, Austria. The venue for the 2019 World Rowing Championships and first qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the event was an important test for teams and the event organisers. The regatta saw medals spread among 21 countries with New Zealand, in their first showing of the 2018 World Rowing season, winning three golds including the women’s pair and double sculls, and the men’s single sculls.
The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Belgrade, SRB (1-3 June), Linz-Ottensheim, AUT (22-24 June) and Lucerne, SUI (13-15 July). New Zealand crews compete in World Rowing Cup II and III only.
Flat calm water with no wind and cool temperatures created the conditions at the Linz-Ottensheim regatta course in Austria for final races in World Rowing Cup II. This was the day to go after medals and rowers gave it their all for World Cup points.
Women’s Pair (W2-) – Final
New Zealand and Great Britain One took the early lead. Both boats took off at 45 and settled into a 37 pace with New Zealand’s Prendergast and Kerri Gowler the reigning World Champions. Oh no, a disaster in the Great Britain One boat. A bad stroke stopped the boat at about 750m. Could Girling and Merlott Chitty come back from that? Prendergast and Gowler now took off at the head of the field with Great Britain Two and Italy One fighting it out for second. Italy’s Alessandra Pattelli and Sara Bertolasi had taken 2017 off from competing and they were truly back with Great Britain Two of McKeller and Taylor looking a bit tired.
Rating 36 New Zealand looked great at the head of the field as Merlott Chitty and Girling tried to work their way back.
Results: NZL, ITA1, GBR2, GBR1, ITA2, UKR
Kerri Gowler, New Zealand, gold
“Race was good considering this was our first one in Europe this year. We hope to see more of this and potentially step it up with our training camps on the way to the World Rowing Championships.”
Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Final
The big Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba got away at 50 strokes per minute with Germany Two of Tim Ole Naske at 47 and leading the way. The new German, Oliver Zeidler was having a little problem with steering but was fast enough to be in second by the 500m mark. Now Robbie Manson of New Zealand began to move up. Manson has been the fastest qualifier through the earlier rounds of racing and this is his first international regatta for 2018 after an A-final finish in 2017. Then Manson went to 38 and closed on Zeidler. Meanwhile nothing was touching Naske who now had nearly a boat length lead.
The top three boats had broken away from the rest of the field through the third 500 leaving Kjetil Borch of Norway in fourth and in not a good position to challenge for the medals. Naske then went to 39 in the final sprint and Manson went to 42 and closed on Naske. Manson and Naske were neck and neck in the final 200 metres. There was nothing in it with Manson perhaps moving just a fraction faster as Naske could only manage a 40 against Manson’s 42. Manson had won.
Results: NZL1, GER2, GER1, NOR, DEN, CUB
Robbie Manson, New Zealand, gold
“That was really hard work and I feel pretty tired right now. Towards the end I was just putting in strokes and I managed to get past Tim and Oli. It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of nerves leading up to this so it feels pretty special.”
Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) - Final
The first to the 500m mark was Germany Two of Olympic medallist (women’s quad) Carina Baer and her partner Michaela Staelberg. But they were up against the World Champions, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Both of these crews got to miss the repechage and came to this final directly from the heats. The Netherlands crew of Karolein Florijn and Roos de Jong then moved out in front. The Dutch have been mixing up their boats and they must be using this race as a selection race. Then the slow-starting Brooke Donoghue and Olivia Loe of New Zealand picked up the pace and going into the second half of the race they did a big push that put them into the lead.
Loe and Donoghue had rowed the perfect race, getting faster as they went down the course. They took the gold with the Netherlands in second and Germany Two holding on to third.
Results: NZL, NED, GER2, GRE, SUI, GER1
Olivia Loe, New Zealand, gold
“That was great as we wanted to just do our own race. We had a steady first 1000 meters and then pushed. Everyone is going to keep stepping it up so we will need to do the same.”
Women’s Eight (W8+) – Final
Romania came out at 49 with New Zealand and Australia at 46. But it was Australia who got an early leading margin. The lead was not enough though as the Netherlands came through with only a second separating the top five boats. Only China was off the pace. The top boat on paper must be the World and European Champions Romania. The Netherlands, however, took gold at the World Rowing Cup I earlier this month. And with that the Dutch took the lead and started to move away. Australia held on to second as New Zealand moved into third.
Romania was still at 39 strokes per minute and in fifth but very much on the pace. New Zealand, led by coxswain Sam Bosworth, did a piece and overtook Australia with the Netherlands now in their sights. The Dutch stayed at 39 as Australia started to close on New Zealand. The Dutch had won with the Kiwis in second.
Results: NED, NZL, AUS, GBR, ROU, CHN
Kelsey Bevan, New Zealand, silver
“We felt like we executed our plan which we have been practicing so it’s a good starting point leading to Lucerne. We’ll take a couple of weeks of good training.”
Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Final
The World Champions, New Zealand sat in an outside lane after not doing so well in the semifinals yesterday. Instead it looked like Switzerland and Great Britain were the crews to beat. At the start Germany was the fastest and they got half a length early on. Timo Piontek and Lars Hartig of Germany finished third at World Rowing Cup I at the start of the month and they were trying to lead from the front. Great Britain’s Groom and Beaumont followed closely in second.
Going through the middle of the race former lightweight rower Hartig and partner Piontek remained in front. Then Groom and Beaumont upped their speed and closed on the Germans. The British now had the lead, Germany was in second with Switzerland and New Zealand neck-and-neck. Switzerland’s new double of Stahlberg and Roeoesli had beaten the World Champions by half a second.
Results: GBR, GER, SUI, NZL, FRA, ITA1
Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Final
It was a fast start across the board with Italy One going from a very fast rating down into their race pace in a short space of time. Italy’s Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta got a slight lead. This duo finished with silver at last year’s World Rowing Championships. They were having to work hard to stay in front and were rating 37. Norway’s Ari Strandli and Kristoffer Brun followed closely in second. Strandli and Brun are the Olympic bronze medallists and they finished sixth at the first World Rowing Cup at the start of the month.
Behind them it was very close between France One, Belgium, Poland and New Zealand. The sprint was on as Italy continued to lead rating 39. Norway was at 37 in second. The bronze could go any way. Belgium – Tim Brys and Niels van Zandweghe - went to 42 and got the bronze.
Results: ITA1, NOR, BEL, FRA1, POL, NZL
Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Final
This field was made up of mainly new combinations with only Germany a proven line up. The Germans finished second at the World Cup earlier this month. Less than a length separated the field at the first 500m marker with Germany having a very small lead. Then Italy picked up the pace with Giacomo Gentili in stroke seat taking their crew to the front of the field. The margins through the entire field were still tight with the lead swapping yet again as Olympian Stephan Krueger taking his German boat into the front.
Italy then took their stroke rate up to 40 strokes per minute, then 43. Italy took the gold. The Dutch and Germans charged. The Netherlands snatched the silver and Germany took the bronze, with New Zealand’s crew taking fifth place, behind fourth place Australia.
Results: ITA, NED, GER, AUS, NZL, POL
Men’s Eight (M8+) – B-final
Two boats went head to head down the 2000m course with New Zealand getting an early lead. By the middle of the race they had nearly a boat length over Poland and they proceeded to increase that lead. The winner had been decided.
Results: NZL, POL
Women’s Four (W4-) – B-final
After missing out on qualifying for the A-final, New Zealand’s Women’s Four took fifth place in an incredibly tight with barely a canvas separating the crews. China Two was lagging at the start, but then they pulled themselves up into the bunch. At the front only just was Netherlands One. It was still very, very tight and would come down to the final sprint. Romania went to 41, then 43 and they won this B-final. Netherlands Two just took second.
Results: ROU, NED2, CHN, NED1, NZL, POL
Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – B-final
Last year Hannah Osborne of New Zealand became the World Champion at the under-23 level and she battled with Diana Dymchenko of Ukraine. These two boats moved away from the rest of the field with Italy slotting into third. Osborne went to 42 to try and beat Dymchenko. There was only 0.38 of a second in it at the end. Dymchenko had held off Osborne.
Results: UKR, NZL, ITA, SWE, GBR2, BRA