New Zealand shines at third World Rowing Cup
The 2018 World Rowing Cup season concluded in Lucerne, Switzerland with New Zealand topping the medals table and Germany the overall World Cup points table in a show of rowing competence.
This was the final World Cup in the three-regatta series and for many countries, the last chance to test their crews internationally before the World Rowing Championships in September. New Zealand’s medals came in six races with five of them gold medals. This included the Women’s Pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler who remain unbeaten since 2017. Prendergast and Gowler raced from the front ahead of Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens of Canada.
The New Zealand Women’s Double Sculls and Women’s Eight finished first and in both cases, Canada was in second. Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue held off Gabrielle Smith and Andrea Proske of Canada in the double with Canada chasing New Zealand to the line in the women’s eight. The United States finished third.
But perhaps the most anticipated race was the Men’s Single Sculls with two New Zealand scullers taking on two German scullers. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale and Robbie Manson of New Zealand were racing each other to be the top sculler for their country; Tim Ole Naske and Oliver Zeidler were doing the same for Germany. Manson dominated the second half of the race to finish first and take the mantle for his nation with Zeidler getting silver. Third place went to reigning World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic.
Gold also went New Zealand’s way in the Men’s Pair. The duo of Tom Murray and Michael Brake managed to hold off France’s Onfroy brothers as well as Lukas Helesic and Jakub Podrazil of the Czech Republic. These two boats took silver and bronze respectively.
In the Lightweight Women’s Double, Poland came flying out at the start of this final. The Poles of Weronika Deresz and Joanna Dorociak had qualified for this final through the heats on Friday, giving them a day off. They were followed closely by Switzerland who had to race in yesterday’s repechage. Deresz and Dorociak held a 35 stroke rate to stay in the lead coming into the middle of the race. Meanwhile New Zealand, the 2017 silver medallists, had moved up from fourth to overtake South Africa and get into a bronze medal position. Jackie Kiddle and Zoe McBride of New Zealand looked like they had a strong second half as they then overtook Switzerland to move into the silver spot. Deresz and Dorociak realised they needed to keep the speed on and coming into the final sprint the Polish duo kept in control with a 37 stroke rate. New Zealand, at 39, could not catch them. “I didn’t realise until now that we were second. It was really close but I love it here as there are world class crews. We still have some improvements but we’ll make these for the World Rowing Championships.” – Jackie Kiddle.
In the final of the Men’s Eight, the Netherlands had the fastest time with the World Champions Germany the next fastest. Canada and New Zealand raced in the repechage yesterday and sat in the outside lanes, with New Zealand taking fifth place.
In the Men’s Quad B final, New Zealand came storming out and they got an edge over the rest of the field that made a virtual line. Hallows, Crampton, Parry and Flannery continued to lead holding a 38 stroke rate pace and broke away from the field. The race was now very spread out, New Zealand comfortably taking the win.
The Women’s Four saw a tight race in the B final with Canada stamping their mark in it with a fast start and a high stroke rate to stay in front. Could they keep it up? New Zealand in second went to 40 in the final sprint and then to 41 and then to 42. But the Canadians reacted back and crossed the line in first.
In the Men's Double Sculls, John Storey and Chris Harris took fourth place, narrowly missing out on a medal to Switzerland in third place.
Ben van Dalen and Matthew Dunham took sixth place in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls.
James Lassche took fifth place in the Lightweight Men's Single Sculls B final.
Hannah Osborne took fourth place in the Women's Single Sculls B final, with Kirstyn Goodger taking a narrow second place in the D final.
Martyn O’Leary and Charlie Rogerson took fourth in the C final of the Men’s Pair.
Germany had a successful regatta earning eight medals, four of them gold. Their win in the men’s eight came after a close battle with Australia for the full 2000m race. The Netherlands came through in third. Germany finished second overall on the points table for the Lucerne leg of the World Rowing Cup but it was enough to win the overall 2018 World Cup series. Germany finished the series with 130 points just ahead of the Netherlands on 127 points and Great Britain on 104 points.
Host nation Switzerland had saw gold medal success in both the women’s single sculls and lightweight men’s single sculls. World Champion Jeannine Gmelin rounded out the World Cup season as the top women’s single sculler with this regatta seeing her battle against Sanita Purspure of Ireland who took silver and Carling Zeeman of Canada who took bronze.
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 were Belgrade, SRB (1-3 June), Linz-Ottensheim, AUT (22-24 June) and Lucerne, SUI (13-15 July). New Zealand traditionally attends World Rowing Cup II and III.
New Zealand’s next major event is the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from the 9-16 September.