A liking for the Rotsee
The British rowing squad has taken a liking to Lucerne’s Rotsee. Twelve months ago on this secluded lake in the mountains they bagged seven medals on what was called "Super Sunday" at the World Cup Finals. This year, in perfect conditions, they collected six including three golds and three silvers.
Significantly, not only were the medals of a higher calibre than twelve months ago but more of the medals this year were in the Olympic boat classes and brought with them four overall world cup series titles – in the men’s four, women’s quadruple scull, women’s double scull and men’s single scull.
The golds here came in the Camelot-sponsored women’s quadruple scull and the men’s four as well as the lightweight men’s single and the silvers were collected in the men’s pair and double and the women’s double.
Britain’s women’s eight came within a whisker of getting a bronze, beaten in a tense race for the line by Germany.
"That was a pretty good day", said the ARA’s International Manager David Tanner who in the next few days will work with his lead coaches to select the Great Britain team for this year’s World Championships at Eton and which will be announced at a press conference this Thursday (July 13th).
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RACE REPORTS
It was the finish of the men’s four race which told the complete story today. Britain, sponsored by Camelot, and the race leaders throughout, were being attacked by the Dutch but Alex Partridge, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andy Hodge moved up a gear, looked in control and took the verdict by over a second and a half.
Andy Hodge thumped the water in victory. He had been accused by the Dutch press of faking illness to avoid racing them at Henley last week. His answer was clear today.
"Today we went out like we had a challenge. We stepped up a gear, I feel. But, saying that, because of the illness and missing Henley we’ve had very poor race preparation for this regatta".
If the men’s four were comfortable, the women’s quadruple scull were little short of imperious. They looked smooth and controlled as they crossed the line over four seconds up on their perennial rivals, Germany in a race they dominated throughout.
"The Germans are normally very strong
in their mid-race pace so it was particularly
pleasing to beat them at their own game today",
said Grainger afterwards.
Despite the smooth outward appearance the pain of effort was clear on Debbie Flood’s face at the finish. Medals at this level do not come easily even if sometimes it might look so.
"This was the best we’ve raced as a team", said Sarah Winckless. "That was good today".
The men’s pair of Colin Smith and Tom James had never raced a world cup together before. Here they won their heat to qualify directly for the final and in the first 1000m today led the field which included world champions Nathan Tweddle and George Bridgwater of New Zealand.
By 1500m the New Zealanders had come through them to take back the lead and despite a gut-wrenching fight to the line held off to win by two-thirds of a length and take gold with Smith and James second.
It was Smith’s first world cup medal. "That was our first really tough race this season. We got a fairly good start but ran out of puff a bit towards the end", he said.
Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham followed up with their best result of the season at world cup level with a silver
in the men’s double scull.
The combination knew that Cop and Spik of Slovenia, whom they beat last week in match-racing at Henley, were the main target and it was the Slovenians who took an early and substantial lead.
Wells and Rowbotham launched an attack in the late stages of the race which was impressive but just not quite
enough. "It was a really good race and well executed. After the first 1000m I knew the Slovenians were ahead and we were just about level with the French. We just couldn’t get there at the end. Now we’ve got six week before Eton to get on with it", said Wells.
Alan Campbell knew he had a difficult job on his hands today when facing the Olympic and world champions in the men’s single scull final.
Using oars borrowed from the World Champion Mahe Drysdale, after his own were broken in transit to Lucerne, Campbell battled in the outside lane but eventually came home fourth in a race which featured a dramatic fight-back by Olaf Tufte of Norway in the final 100m to win by fifteen hundredths of a second from Drysdale.
The Campbell result was enough to give him the world cup overall series winner’s yellow jersey after his gold from Munich and silver from Poznan – Britain’s first ever overall win
in this category in a world cup series.
"I’m really pleased, it’s all gone better than expected. My target had been to reach the finals consistently this year.
Now the goals have changed. I’m a little bit disappointed with today. But credit to Mahe (Drysdale) by lending me
blades today he showed a lot of camaraderie", said Campbell afterwards.
Whilst the British men’s eight made the final here in Lucerne they never looked like having the edge to better the eventual
German winners nor many of the other medallists. In the final sprint they faded back to sixth in 5:55.76
Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington came close to pulling off the biggest win of their careers today when they came within half a canvas (0.14 of a second) of overhauling the world and Olympic Champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand.
The silver medal and the closeness of the margin were significant for the duo who are now the overall 2006 World Cup Champions.
Third through much of the early part of the race the duo pushed past Belarus with a quarter of the race remaining before attacking the New Zealanders who had held over a length’s lead on them earlier.
"Every day of the two weeks since the Poznan world cup we’ve tried to take a second off our time", said Bebington afterwards. "The focus in the boat was amazing".
The narrowest of margins kept the British women’s eight off the rostrum in Lucerne. They paced their race well and were sitting in contention as the crews came towards the finish.
Elise Laverick moved up the stroke rate and the outfit looked close to catching the Germans. It was not to be. Romania were the race winners with the USA second and Germany third.
Mark Hunter and James Lindsay-Fynn knew that any repeat of their Poznan lightweight men’s double scull bronze medal
was a big challenge today given the strength of the field on offer.
They were within a second of the lead at the 500m mark and still seemed to be in with an outside chance of a podium place until the race began to move past the grandstands with 350m to go. They increased their stroke rate quite visibly.
Clearly the effort had been considerable as they slumped over their oars at the finish in sixth place in a time of 6:33.05.
Helen Casey and Jane Hall were sixth in the final of the lightweight women’s scull this afternoon. They never really made an impact on the leading pack but will have been pleased to make the final here for the second time in a row.
The lightweight men’s four were winners of their B Final this morning when they emerged from a very close struggle to the
line with Belgium.
The second Great Britain entry in the lightweight women’s double, Hester Goodsell and Lindsay Dick, raced hard in a bunched finish to take fourth in their B Final.
Jess Eddie has had a busy regatta here in Lucerne. She won the women’s pair B final today with Baz Moffat but for the
past two days has been doubling up in the women’s eight to replace a poorly Carla Ashford.
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GB ROWING CREW LISTS
ROWING WORLD CUP – LUCERNE
FINALS DAY
Sunday 9 JULY, 2006
(Crews bow to stroke – plus cox – clubs
in brackets)
FINALS
OPEN
WOMEN
Eight
1. Romania 6:12.32
2. USA 6:13.27
3. Germany 6:16.40
4. Beth Rodford/Alison Knowles/Vicki Etiebet/Jess Eddie/
Natasha Howard/Natasha Page/Katie Greves/Elise
Laverick/Caroline O’Connor (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:1649
5. New Zealand 6:24.38
6. Netherlands 6:25.83
Double scull
1. Georgina & Caroline Evers-Swindell (New Zealand) 6:58.01
2. Annie Vernon/Anna Bebington (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:58.42
3. Volha Berazniova/Yuliya Bichyk (Belaurs) 7:01.60
4. Jitka Antosova/Gabriela Varekova (Czech Republic) 7:01.72
5. Laura Schiavone/Elisabetta Sancassani (Italy) 7:08.39
6. Annekatrin Thiele/Jeannine Hennicke (Germany 1) 7:12.69
Quadruple scull
1. Debbie Flood/Sarah Winckless/Frances Houghton/Katherine
Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:31.27
2. Germany 6;35.66
3. Russia 6:38.46
4. USA 6:40.08
5. Denmark 6:42.28
6. Romania 6:47.19
MEN
Pair
1. Nathan Twaddle/George Bridgewater (New Zealand)
6:24.36
2. Colin Smith/Tom James (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:26.05
3. Jochen Urban/Andreas Penkner (Germany 1) 6:35.93
4. Francesco Gabriele/Lorenzo Porzio (Italy) 6:39.25
5. Olaf van Andel/Mitchel Steenman (Netherlands 1) 6:41.83
6. Niksa Skelin/Milan Razov (Croatia) 6:47.79
Four
1. Alex Partridge/Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Andy
Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:58.70
2. Netherlands 6:00.19
3. Germany 1 6:01.88
4. Slovenia 6:02.46
5. New Zealand 6:02.95
6. Czech Republic 6:11.03
Eight
1. Germany 5;47.11
2. Italy 5:47.40
3. Poland 5:48.88
4. Switzerland 5:50.66
5. Netherlands 5:53.31
6. Jonno Devlin/Tom Stallard/Matt Langridge/Tom
Solesbury/Josh West/Hugo Lee/Toby Garbett/
Kieran West/Acer Nethercott (GREAT BRITAIN)
Single scull
1. Olaf Tufte (Norway) 6:47.65
2. Mahe Drysdale (New Zealand) 6:47.80
3. Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) 6:52.29
4. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.46
5. Andre Vonarburg (Switzerland) 6:56.62
6. Lassi Karonen (Sweden) 6:57.90
Double scull
1. Luka Spik/Iztok Cop (Slovenia) 6:19.89
2. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN)
6:21.62
3. Jean Baptiste Macquet/Adrien Hardy (France) 6:22.42
4. Rene Bertram/Robert Sens (Germany) 6:25.18
5. Akos Haller/Tibor Peto (Hungary) 6:31.37
6. Allar Raja/Igor Kuzmin (Estonia) 6:36.90
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Double scull
1. Mara Jones/Tracy Cameron (Canada) 7:11.62
2. Sanna Sten/Minna Nieminen (Finland) 7:13.60
3. Renee Hykel/Julia Nichols (USA) 7:16.63
4. Sinead Jennings/Niamh Ni Cheilleachair (Ireland) 7:16.88
5. Marguerite Houston/Amber Halliday (Australia) 7:18.46
6. Jane Hall/Helen Casey (Great Britain 1) 7:22.65
MEN
Double scull
1. Marcello Miani/Elia Luini (Italy) 6:23.91
2. Mads Rasmussen/Rasmus Quist (Denmark) 6:24.67
3. Vasileios Polymeros/Dimitros Mougios (Greece) 6:28.37
4. Zsolt Hirling/Tamas Varga (Hungary) 6:31.69
5. Joerg Lehnigk/Manuel Brehmer (Germany 1) 6:32.26
6. James Lindsay-Fynn/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:33.06
B FINALS
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
1. Baz Moffat/Jess Eddie (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:34.59
2. Jacobine Veenhoven/Reina Sikkema (Netherlands 2)
7:37.30
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Double scull
1. Berit Carow/Marie-Louise Draeger (Germany1) 7:09.67
2. Elena Lyakisheva/Anna Yuchenko (Russia) 7:13.34
3. Chrysi Biskitzi/Alexandra Tsiavou (Greece) 7:18.06
4. Francesca Gallo/Luara Milani (Italy) 7:20.84
5. Coralie Simon/Benedicte Dorfman (France) 7:22.03
MEN
Four
1. Matt Beechey/Daniel Harte/Paul Mattick/James
Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:07.21
2. Belgium 6:07.37
3. Canada 6:09.29
4. South Africa 6:11.69
5. Poland 6:11.76
6. Italy 6:12.03
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GB ROWING SQUADS = HOME TOWNS LIST
BRITISH ROWING SQUADS
NAME D.O.B/PLACEofBIRTH/HOMETOWN/LIVING/ROWING CLUB
Carla Ashford 13.3.79/Northallerton, N.Yorks/Masham, N.Yorks/Brentford/
Chris Bartley 2.284/Farndon, Cheshire/Nottingham/Notts Uni
Marcus Bateman 16.9.82/Bermuda/Torquay/Henley on Thames/Reading Uni
Anna Bebington 13.2.83/Leek, Staffs/Leek/Crowthorne, Berks/Leander
Matt Beechey 3.4.77/Worcester/Worcester/Henley on Thames/Leander
Nick Brodie 6.8.96/Oxford /Oxford/Oxford/OUBC
Alan Campbell 5.9.83/Coleraine/Coleraine/Mortlake/Tideway Scullers
Helen Casey 6.2.74/Stockport/Oxford/Oxford/Wallingford
Richard Chambers 10.6.85/??/??/Oxford/Oxford Brookes
James Clarke 13.12.84/London/London/Durham/Durham Uni
Ryan Davies 16.2.85/??/Henley on Thames/Oxford Brookes
Jonno Devlin 17.3.76/South Africa/Oxford/Putney/Oxford Brookes
Lindsay Dick 27.7.71/Strathaven/??/??Glasgow RC
Jess Eddie 7.10.84/Durham/Durham/Chiswick/Uni of London
Richard Egington 26.2.79/Knutsford/n/a/Henley on Thames/Leander
Robin Ejsmond-Frey 14.3.86/London/Hammersmith/Oxford/OUBC
Nick English 11.5.78/Coventry/Whitley Bay/Nottingham/Notts&Union
Simon Fieldhouse 4.9.76 n/a/n/a/Thames Ditton, Sy/Molesey
Debbie Flood 27.2.80/Harrogate/Leeds/Henley on Thames/Leander
Toby Garbett 14.11.76/Chertsey, Sy/West Byfleet/Ascot, Berks/Leander
Hester Goodsell 27.6.84/London/London/Cambridge/Rob Roy
Katherine Grainger 11.12.75/Glasgow/Aberdeen/Bisham, Bucks/St Andrew
Alex Gregory 11.3.84n/a/Wormington/Reading/Reading Uni
Katie Greves 2.9.82/London/Oxford/Mortlake/Uni of London
Joanna Hammond 28.1.80/Leamington Spa/Leamington/Cambridge/Leander
Daniel Harte 12.12.75n/a/n/a/Putney/London
Mike Hennessy 24.12.76/London/Deptford/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers
Rob Hollis 14.2.84/Wendover/Monmouth/Cowley/Oxford Brookes
Naomi Hoogesteger 22.5.81n/a/Wells/Spennymoor/Durham Uni
Frances Houghton 19.9.80/Oxford/Oxford/Putney/Uni of London
Natasha Howard 3.9.80/Harare, Zimbabwe/West Runton/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers
Mark Hunter 1.7.78/Forest Gate, London/Romford/Cadmore End, Bucks/Leander
Tom James 3.11.84/Cardiff/Wrexham/Cambridge/CUBC
Simon Jones 8.6.78n/a/n/a/Cropwell Butler/Leander
Alison Knowles 27.3.82/Bournemouth/Bournemouth/Putney, London/Thames Matthew Langridge 20.5.83/Northwich, Cheshire/Northwich/Henley on Thames/Leander
Elise Laverick 27.7.75/Rustington, Sx/Poling, W Sx/Putney/Thames
Ian Lawson 4.3.77/Bradford/Otley, W.Yks/Henley on Thames/Leander
Hugo Lee 5.3.84/Guildford/Jeburgh, Scottish Border/Oxford/Oxford Brookes
James Lindsay-Fynn 29.9.75/Dublin/Trim, Ireland/London/London
Rachel Loveridge 7.5.80/Swindon/Hayling Island/Putney/Thames
Tim Male 9.7.75/Yeovil, So/Yeovil/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers
Paul Mattick 25.4.78n/a/Oxford/Wallingford
Acer Nethercott 28.11.77/Newmarket/Harlow, Ex/Oxford/OUBC
Lorna Norris 23.12.75n/a/na/a/Mortlake/Mortlake Anglian
Caroline O’Connor 25.4.83Ealing/Ealing/Ealing/Oxford Brookes
Natasha Page 30.4.85n/a/Hartpury/Reading/Reading Uni
Charlie Palmer 25.10.78/Melbourne Hagley, Tasmania/Cambridge/CUBC
Tom Parker 24.10.82/Hammersmith/Winchester/Oxford/OUBC
Alex Partridge 25.1.81/San Francisco/Alton, Hants/East Sheen/Leander
Seb Pearce 10/5/82/?/Bromsgrove/Oxford/OUBC
Zac Purchase
Peter Reed 27.7.81/Seattle, USA/Nailsworth/Oxford/Leander
Beth Rodford 28.12.82/Burton/Trent/Gloucester/Cowley/Thames
Steve Rowbotham 11.11.81n/a/Winscombe/West Molesey/Leander
Rebecca Rowe 16.5.81/Bridgend/Cardiff/Cardiff/Rebecca
Phil Simmons 6.2.75/Wimbledon/Thames Ditton/Thames Ditton/Molesey
Colin Smith 3.9.83/ Harare, Zimbabwe/Henley on Thames/Oxford/OUBC
Tom Stallard 11.9.78/London/Welwyn, Herts/London/Leander
James Stephenson 4.4.77/n/aChipstead/Thames Ditton /Molesey
Florence Temple 11.3.79/Harlow/Northampton/Putney/Thames
Sam Townsend n/a/ Reading/Reading/Reading/Reading Uni
Andrew Triggs Hodge 3.8.79/Aylesbury/Hebden, Skipton/East Molesey/Molesey
Matt Tucker 5.1.85/??/Winkfield, Nr Windsor/Oxford Brookes
Antonia van Deventer 23.7.78/?/London/Rob Roy
Annie Vernon 1.9.82n/a/Wadebridge, Cornwall/Marlow, Bucks/Thames
Matthew Wells 19.4.79/Bradford/Hexham, Northumberland/East Sheen/Uni of London
Josh West 25.3.77/Santa Fe, USA/Santa Fe/Oxford/Leander
Kieran West MBE 18.9.77/Kingston-upon-Thames/W. Byfleet/Mortlake/CUBC
Steve Williams 15.4.76/Warwick/Cheltenham/Henley/Leander
Sarah Winckless 18.10.73/Reading/Hurley, Bucks/Marlow, Bucks/Walbrook
