21 crews through to world cup finals in Munich
GB Rowing has qualified 21 crews for the finals of this weekend’s World Cup due to finish here in Munich at lunchtime tomorrow (Sunday) – eleven of them booked their places through today’s semi-finals, of which GB won five, and repechages.
All four adaptive (Paralympic class) boats will have their finals later today – with Paralympic champion Tom Aggar amongst the favourites to take gold in the men’s single scull – as will Adam Freeman Pask in the non-Olympic lightweight men’s single scull.
The remaining 16 Olympic class boats will race tomorrow morning and much attention will be paid to the men’s pair of Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed who will race the New Zealanders who beat them in yesterday’s heats.
“I know we have a big challenge tomorrow, so it was nice to be able to get out and stretch our legs out today”, said Hodge today of his morning’s victory with fellow Olympic men’s four gold medallist Pete Reed in the men’s pair repechage.
Katherine Grainger, the three times Olympic silver medallist who is racing this year for the first time in a single scull, also laid some demons to rest overnight by winning today’s semi-final with a greater fluidity of style.
Impactful performances were produced by both the lightweight men’s double scull and the leading women’s equivalent. Both won their semi-finals with controlled racing and the women’s duo of Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking were impressive in beating the German combination who were winners of the last world cup.
The men’s four of Alex Partridge, Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory and Ric Egington dominated their semi-final as did Alan Campbell who faced a tough challenge in the men’s single scull from Czech Ondrej Synek.
Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham overcame a sluggish first half to ultimately take a qualifying place in today’s men’s double scull whilst the second-ranked GB women’s pair of Alice Freeman and Lindsey Maguire overcame a significant crab-cratching moment to reach the finals.
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RACE REPORTS
GB Rowing’s lightweight crews made a significant step up in this morning’s racing at the Munich world cup with semi-final victories for the lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls and five crews moving through to finals.
Paul Mattick and Rob Williams looked composed and controlled as they moved out into a lead with 600m gone of their semi-final of the lightweight men’s double scull from where they controlled the race despite a last-minute flurry of activity behind them in the final race past the grandstands.
Their counterparts Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking in the lightweight women’s double scull produced the morning’s most eye-catching performance. Facing the German winners of the last world cup, the British duo set up a good, smooth rhythm and edged into a lead at 500m and continued to counter each German push to take victory in 7:12.94. Behind the leaders Andrea Dennis and Laura Greenhalgh settled into third place and held it tenaciously to qualify for tomorrow’s final, too.
“Our aim today was to manage the race if we could manage it. The Germans were winners of the last world cup and therefore had some pedigree but we felt we countered each move and Sophie set up such a great rhythm that I just had to sit in and go with it”, said Goodsell after the race.
Earlier in the programme the lightweight men’s single sculler Adam Freeman-Pask demonstrated his growing confidence at world cup level. Today he started steadily before picking up the pace at 750m to tuck in behind Duncan Grant of New Zealand, the eventual winner, and stayed their to take second place in 7:14.97 and book his final place.
Britain’s newly-formed lightweight men’s four of Chris Boddy, Chris Bartley, Stephen Feeney and Bob Hewitt also put in a good performance to take second place in today’s repechage and move into tomorrow’s final. The quartet are all pretty much novices at this level. Today they were in the pack in the first half but then pressurised the leading Japanese crew throughout the second half whilst keeping a weather eye on the surge produced in the final 300m by the New Zealand crew.
Katherine Grainger is one of the more experienced rowers on the world cup circuit and overnight she drew fully on that knowledge, with the help of coach Paul Thompson, to put yesterday’s poor performance behind her and win today’s semi-final in a three-way, course-long battle with Emma Twigg of New Zealand and Julia Levina of Russia.
“I was disappointed with yesterday’s heat as I didn’t feel that I had done my best”, said Grainger. “I had 24 hours to turn it round and it’s hard to get back up again and get your confidence back”.
Earlier Lindsey Maguire and Alice Freeman qualified for the women’s pair final despite the former catching a crab at 1300m gone when the duo were leading. The interruption allowed the chasing Germans to take the lead but Maguire and Freeman recovered their composure to hold onto second place and qualify to join Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve in tomorrow’s final.
Olympic men’s four champions Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge are not accustomed to racing repechages. Today they recovered well from defeat in yesterday’s heats to row to a comfortable repechage win. Never troubled, Hodge later described the race as a chance to stretch out their legs before tomorrow’s final where the going will be somewhat tougher.
Alex Partridge, Alex Gregory, Matt Langridge and Ric Egington were similarly dominant in their men’s four semi-final. They emerged into the lead at the 500m mark and by 1100m had shaken off Belarus, one of their nearest challengers, and were controlling any threat from the Slovenians on their right. They went onto to win in 6:05.23.
“We’ve certainly made some really positive changes since Banyoles [the last world cup] and the speed’s there now”, said Egington of the crew coached this year by Mark Banks.
In the opposing semi-final GB’s second men’s four fought tenaciously to hold onto the main pack in the opening 1000m. At 1200m they were still in contention with the Dutch crew in fourth but could not sustain the pace in the final throes of the race, ultimately taking sixth place. They will race a B Final later today.
Alan Campbell took up the challenge of facing Ondrej Synek, a seasoned multi-former medallist, in today’s semi-finals of the men’s single scull with his usual gusto. He created a lead from early in the race and gradually stretched it out to take victory and pole position for tomorrow’s finals.
“It felt good today”, said Campbell after the race. “I think after a while Synek just settled for second place”. The Czech is renowned for his racing guile so may have more in store tomorrow in a race which will also include world champion Mahe Drysdale and Olympic champion, Olaf Tufte.
In the pack of race-following, bicycling coaches there was some consternation at the slow first 800m produced by Olympic bronze medallists Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells in today’s semi-final of the men’s double scull. There was also the feeling that this duo had the ability to haul themselves back into contention – which they duly did with a second half burst which placed them second and into tomorrow’s final in 6:24.80, just four tenths behind the winners from Germany.
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RESULTS
(Races featuring GB crews only. Full results
at www.worldrowing.com)
SEMI-FINALS
OPEN
WOMEN
Single Scull
Semifinal 2
1. Katherine Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:42.00
2. Emma Twigg (New Zealand) 7:43.66
3. Julia Levina (Russia) 7:45.10
4. Annick De Decker (Belgium) 8:01.10
5. Tine Schoeyen (Norway) 8:04.64
6. Ulla Varvio (Finland) 8:06.13
MEN
Four
Semifinal 1
1. Germany 2 6:04.65
2. Germany 1 6:06.20
3. Czech Republic 6:07.65
4. Netherlands 6:10.07
5. Croatia 2 6:16.63
6. Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnel/Peter Marsland/Thomas Broadway/James Foad (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 6:21.11
Semifinal 2
1. Alex Partridge/Richard Egington/Alex Gregory/Matthew Langridge (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 6:05.23
2. Slovenia 6:07.03
3. Belarus 6:09.31
4. Croatia 1 6:13.09
5. Poland 6:14.15
6. China 6:16.19
Single Scull
Semifinal 1
1. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:59.34
2. Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) 7:02.41
3. Mindaugas Griskonis (Lithuania 1) 7:04.01
4. Roel Braas (Netherlands) 7:10.01
5. Warren Anderson (USA) 7:16.86
Double Scull
Semifinal 1
1. Stephan Krueger/Eric Knittel (Germany 1) 6:24.48
2. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:24.80
3. Kaspar Taimsoo/Allar Raja (Estonia 1) 6:27.20
4. Bart Poelvoorde/Christophe Raes (Belgium 2) 6:30.36
5 Tim Maeyens/Hannes De Reu (Belgium 1) 6:39.65
6. Fan Li/Fei Li (China 1) 6:39.99
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Double Scull
Semifinal 1
1. Hester Goodsell/Sophie Hosking (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 7:12.94
2. Anja Noske/Marie-Louise Draeger (Germany) 7:14.83
3. Andrea Dennis/Laura Greenhalgh (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:18.28
4. Anna Alliquander/Zsuzsanna Hajdu (Hungary) 7:21.40
5. Emma Fredh/Karin Hoegberg (Sweden 1) 7:31.22
6. Gabriela Huerta Trillo/Lila Perez Rul (Mexico) 7:35.61
MEN
Single Scull
Semifinal A/B 1
1. Duncan Grant (New Zealand) 7:12.64
2. Adam Freeman-Pask (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:14.97
3. Florian Berg (Austria 1) 7:16.56
4. Felix Oevermann (Germany 3) 7:23.92
5. Lukas Babac (Slovakia) 7:39.55
6. Christoph Schwarzl (Austria 5) 7:41.47
Double Sculls
Semifinal A/B 1
1. Rob Williams/Paul Mattick (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 6:33.58
2. Robert Sycz/Lukasz Siemion (Poland 1) 6:35.66
3. Lars Wichert/Michael Wieler (Germany 1) 6:35.77
4. Tamas Varga/Peter Galambos (Hungary) 6:35.88
5. Hui Li/Tianfeng Dong (China 1) 6:41.54
6. Andreas Ramboel/Christian Nielsen (Denmark 3) 6:53.96
REPECHAGES
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Repechage 1
1. Kerstin Hartmann/Marlene Sinnig (Germany 1) 7:24.19
2. Alice Freeman/Lindsey Maguire (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:27.20
3. Liang Wang/Li Dai (China 2) 7:32.36
4. Wianca Van Dorp/Olivia van Rooijen (Netherlands) 7:32.52
5. Xiaojie Liu/Huan Zhang (China 4) 7:40.09
MEN
Pair
Repechage 1
1. Peter Reed/Andrew Triggs Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.56
2. Nikola Stojic/Goran Jagar (Serbia) 6:44.03
3. Jakub Makovicka/Vaclav Chalupa Jnr (Czech Republic) 6:45.84
4. Adrian Juhasz/Bela Simon Jnr (Hungary) 6:48.69
5. Andrei Tatarchuk/Siarhei Danilau (Belarus) 6:58.34
LIGHTWEIGHT
MEN
Four
Repechage
1. Japan 6:10.15
2. Chris Bartley/Chris Boddy/Stephen Feeney/Bob Hewitt (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:11.42
3. New Zealand 6:14.95
4. Belgium 6:16.14
5. China 2 6:17.62
6. Poland 6:17.67
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CREW LISTS
WORLD CUP, MUNICH, GERMANY
JUNE 19-21, 2009
(Listed as bow to stroke plus cox)
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair – two boats
GBR 1
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft/Warrington/16.09.85)/Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)
GBR 2
Alice Freeman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/06.09.78)/
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford/Edinburgh/15.01.82)
Eight
Jo Cook (Leander/Nottingham/22.03.84)/
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford/Edinburgh/15.01.82)/
Tina Stiller (Leander Club/Yarm/23.06.87)/
Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)/
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft/Warrington/16.09.85)/
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)/
Natasha Page (Reading Uni BC/Hartpury/30.04.85)/
Jess Eddie (Uni of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Ealing/25.04.83) (cox)
Single scull
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)
Double scull
Annabel Vernon (Marlow RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/Anna
Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)
Quadruple scull
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/
Sarah Cowburn (Durham Uni BC/Redditch/01.02.89)/
Rosamund Bradbury (Westminster School BC/Banstead/17.12.88)/
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/
MEN
Pair
Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)/Andy Triggs Hodge
(Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/03.03.79)
Four – two boats
GBR 1
Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/Richard
Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)/Alex Gregory (Reading
Uni BC/Wormington/11.03.84)/Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)
GBR 2
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Uni of London/Durham/13.04.88)
Peter Marsland (Cambridge Uni BC/Hampton, Mx/06.03.85)/
Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)/
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/
Eight
Tom Wilkinson (Leander Club/Reading/04.07.85)/
Dan Ritchie (Reading Uni BC/Herne Bay/06.01.87)/
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/01.04.84)/
Tom Burton (Leander Club/Barton-le-Clay, Beds/24.05.80)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Tom Solesbury (Isis BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.09.80)/
Tom Ransley (Cambridge University BC/ Ashford, Kent/06.09.85)/
James Clarke (London RC/London/31.12.84)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)
Single scull
GBR 1
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)
Double scull
Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)
Quadruple Scull
Charles Cousins (Reading Univ BC/Cambridge/13.12.88)/
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)/
Bill Lucas (Reading Univ BC/Kingswear/13.09.87)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.11.85)
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Double scull – two boats
GBR 1
Hester Goodsell (Reading Uni/Cambridge/27.06.84)/
Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86)
GBR 2
Andrea Dennis (London RC/Oxford/03.01.82)/
Laura Greenhalgh (London RC/Oxford/02.09.85)
MEN
Single scull
Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85)
Double scull – two boats
GBR 1
Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)/Paul Mattick
(Leander Club/Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)
GBR 2 – U23 boat
Ben Rowe (Tees RC/Middlesbrough, N.Yorks/05.11.88)/
John Preston (Reading Uni BC/Durham/16.04.89)
Four
Bob Hewitt (Tees RC/Scarborough/27.04.87)/
Chris Boddy (Tees RC/Stockton-on-Tees/16.11.87)/
Stephen Feeney (London RC/Coleraine/12.05.85)/
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
ADAPTIVE CREWS
Men’s Arms-only Single Scull
Two boats
Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/Barnet, London/24.05.1984)
Andy Houghton (Maidenhead RC/Newbury/06.04.1981)
Trunk and Arms Double Scull
James Roberts (City of Swansea RC/Swansea/11.05.1986)/
Samantha Scowen (Dorney BC/Wokingham/29.10.1987)
Legs, Trunk and Arms Coxed Four
Vicki Hansford (University of Surrey BC/Farnborough/31.10.79)/
James Roe (Stratford-upon-Avon BC//Stratford-upon-Avon/
28.03.1988)/Dave Smith (Reading University BC/Aviemore/21.04.78) /Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow, London 15.06.1983)/Rhiannon Jones
(Reading Uni) (cox)
