Four enjoy close contest
Athens Olympic gold medallist Steve Williams said that his crew "had enjoyed" today’s win in the semi-final of the BearingPoint world cup in Lucerne despite it being one of the closest finishes yet at his level for this season’s British four.
"It was another step on in testing us as a crew. It’s important that we won. We did some things well and there are some things we can improve on", he said.
In tomorrow’s final the Camelot-sponsored quartet could face strong opposition from the Dutch and Canadians.
Overall Britain has now qualified eleven crews for tomorrow’s finals. These include the current world cup leaders in the women’s quadruple scull who qualified directly by winning outright yesterday’s heat.
"We’ve had a good day today with seven Olympic class finalists and four international class boats qualifying. And, with seven heading their fields, we have the basis from which to make some good medal challenges in tomorrow’s finals", said David Tanner, the British Team Manager.
"Tomorrow, in those finals, our crews will race with black ribbons on their uniform – a reflection of our team’s strong feeling of support and sympathy for those who suffered in the bomb outrage two days ago at home", he added.
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RACE REPORTS
The British men’s four, current world cup leaders, won their semi-final today from a Dutch crew who were fourth when Britain won gold in this event at the Eton leg of the World Cup in May.
From the grandstand it looked like a workmanlike rather than outstanding performance from the Camelot-sponsored GB crew. However, their coach Jurgen Grobler was not perturbed.
"It was a semi-final today at the World Cup Finals. You can’t expect to always win by lengths and lengths. The Dutch crew are an experienced crew who had several silver medallists on board.
"As a young crew everything has come quickly to this British four and now there is a level of expectation outside. But it’s good to get the experience of having other crews around them at the end of the race. They learn to deal with the pressure and the stress in the race", said Grobler today.
"To be honest, we all enjoyed the race today. It was the closest race we’ve had so far. It was another step on in testing us as a crew. It’s important that we won. We did some things well and there are some things we can improve", added Steve Williams, the sole survivor of Britain’s Athens Olympic gold four.
Later in the afternoon there was again an encouraging performance from the young British quadruple scull. They took their semi-final by the scruff of the neck to win in 5:48.59.
Leaders at the 500m mark, they were overhauled at the half-way point by France but held their composure to come back in the final 500m.
Afterwards Matthew Wells said: "It’s coming together race by race and piece by piece and we’re building confidence as a crew. There’s more to come".
You don’t have to be called West to be involved with the British men’s pair this season but it helps. On the water today Kieran and Josh West, who are not related, pleased their coach John West (also unrelated) by qualifying for tomorrow’s final of the men’s pair.
"The lads feel that was a good, solid, comfortable row and puts them in a good qualifying position", said West afterwards.
They were third in their semi-final in 6:41.00. The race was won by the Skelins of Croatia, who are related – they are brothers who have already won world cup gold and silver this years. Germany, the early race leaders, were second.
There will also be a British men’s eight in the final of this World Cup. In one of the most exciting tussles of the day as the race passed the grandstand, the British crew held onto third place to qualify in 5:39.15 from today’s repechage.
Poland won the race with the Dutch in second.
In the women’s double scull repechage Elise Laverick and Debbie Flood produced the "step on" in form demanded of them by their coach Mark Banks after yesterday’s heats. They won the repechage by almost a length from Schiavone and Sancassini of Italy in a time of 6:59.02.
"We feel we’ve still got to get into each other’s minds", said Debbie Flood afterwards of the combination which is racing here for the first time together.
"It’s bizarre", added Laverick. "We’ve been part of the same team for years and have probably been in every other combination but not together. So we’re still defining our "calls" in the boat so that we know exactly what we mean and both respond in the same way. We feel that this is our "Eton". Most of the British crews here raced together for the first time there and we’ve got a very steep learning curve still".
The British duo took the race from the front and by the halfway mark had a lead of almost four seconds on the Italians. Whilst the gap closed in the second half, the British never looked anything but comfortable.
Katie Greves and Carla Ashford will race in their first World Cup final tomorrow. They won their women’s pair repechage today from the front. The duo were clearly delighted as they crossed the line.
In the very next race on the course, U23 pairing of Jessica Eddie and Anna Bebington tried hard to join their team-mates but, in the end, had to settle for third place and race in tomorrow’s B Finals.
Today was a day of contrasts for the British lightweight squad. The day started with a fizz when both the lightweight single scullers and the lightweight pair qualified for tomorrow’s finals. But the day was dampened when neither of the Olympic class boats quite made the cut.
The lightweight men’s four, drawn in a difficult semi, found the strength of the field much tougher here than in Munich. They were fourth in a race won by Ireland.
The lightweight men’s double scull, finalists in Munich, missed out by just three tenths of a second on a place in the final when they Tim Male, a bronze medallist at Eton and winner of the B Final in Munich, was third as his lightweight men’s single scull semi-final today moved past the boathouses around 1500m down the course. Ingo Euler of Germany, world cup winner in Munich last month, moved into a commanding lead at that point whilst Male overhauled Miani of Italy to ensure a place in tomorrow’s final by finishing second in 7:10.33.
Jo Hammond, who lost out on a place in the lightweight double scull here after internal GB Trials post-Munich, will have been pleased with her performance today in the single scull. She won her semi-final by clearwater from the woman who must take the prize for the longest name in the World Cup – Teresa Mas de Xaxars Rivero of Spain.
Marit Van Eupen of the Netherlands, a lightweight women’s double scull finalist in Munich, won the opposing semi-final.
Paul Mattick and Daniel Harte, bronze medallists at the last World Cup, were never out of the top three in their lightweight men’s semi-final today. They were tucked in behind Denmark at the line to take second place ahead of Italy in 6:40.56.
The British women’s four made sure of a good lane draw for tomorrow’s final when they raced for lanes today. They were a close second to a Chinese crew who looked slightly stronger at the line.
Newly-paired Helen Casey and Jennifer Goldsack made up for some of yesterday’s disappointment at missing out in far the fastest repechage of the lightweight women’s double scull by winning the consolation final.
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LUCERNE WORLD CUP FINALS
RESULTS – Day Two
(crews from bow to stroke).
SEMI-FINALS
OPEN
MEN
Pair
1. Sinisa & Niksa Skelin (Croatia) 6:36.35
2. Tobias Kuehne/Jan Herzog (Germany) 6:37.73
3. Kieran West/Josh West (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.00
4. Benjamin Rondeau/Germain Chardin (France) 6:45.02
5. Donatas Buivydas/Giedrius Zadeika (Lithuania) 6:54.45
6. Oscar Vasquez/Jorge Rodriguez (Chile) 6:54.69
Four
1. Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Alex Partridge/Andy Hodge
(GREAT BRITAIN) 5:48.88
2. Netherlands 5:55.55
3. Denmark 5:57.37
4. Switzerland 6:03.00
5. Poland 6:07.24
6. Slovenia 6:11.41
LIGHTWEIGHTS
WOMEN
Single scull
Semi-final 1
1. Jo Hammond (GREAT BRTAIN) 8:00.64
2. Teresa Mas de Xaxars Rivero (Spain) 8:04.17
3. Lea Fluri (Switzerland 1) 8:06.53
4. Daniela Nachazelova (Czech Republic) 8:19.16
5. Hilde Gudem (Norway) 8:20.79
6. Lara De Stefano (Italy) 8:23.30
MEN
Pair
1. Bo Helleberg/Thomas Ebert (Denmark) 6:35.88
2. Paul Mattick/Daniel Harte (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:37.01
3. Catello Amarante/Salvatore Amitrano (Italy) 6:40.56
4. Bjoern Steinfurth/Alexander Bernhardt (Germany 2) 6:44.33
5. Damien Margat/Vincent Faucheux (France) 6:46.95
6. Ralf Baltasar/Jost Schoemann-Fink (Germany 4) 7:04.92
Four
Semi-final 1
1. Ireland 6:05.74
2. Netherlands 6:07.97
3. Spain 6:08.72
4. Nick English/Simon Jones/Dave Currie/Mike Hennessy
(GREAT BRITAIN) 6:11.50
5. Denmark 6:12.14
6. Japan 6:14.95
Single scull
Semi-final 2
1. Ingo Euler (Germany) 7:07.27
2. Tim Male (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:10.33
3. Marcello Miani (Italy 1) 7:13.94
4. Frederic Hanselmann (Switzerland 1) 7:21.64
5. Dimitrios Mougios (Greece 1) 7:35.07
6. Jose Czcy (Czech Republic) 8:03.20
REPECHAGES
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Repechage 1
1. Katie Greves/Carla Ashford (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:15.59
2. Majbrit Nielsen/Fie Udby (Denmark) 7:18.91
3. Vera Pochitaeva/Valerya Starodubrovskaya (Russia) 7:20.46
4. Sassi McCarthy/Alice King (Australia) 7:45.47
Repechage 2
1. Christina Gerking (Germany)/Johanna Roenfeldt (Germany) 7:20.45
2. Celia Foulon/Marie Le Nepvou (France) 7:30.84
3. Jessica Eddie/Anna Bebington (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:36.94
Double scull
Repechage 2
1. Elise Laverick/Debbie Flood (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:59.02
2. Laura Schiavone/Elisabetta Sancassani (Italy) 7:01.24
3. Jane Rumball/Rachelle de Jong (Canada 1) 7:05.12
4. Tara Kelly/Anna McRae (Australia) 7:08.94
MEN
Eight
1. Poland 5:36.91
2. Netherlands 5:38.64
3. Toby Wallace/Phil Simmons/Tom Parker/Tom Stallard/
Jonno Devlin/Richard Egington/Simon Fieldhouse/
Henry Bailhache-Webb/Acer Nethercott (cox) 5:39.15
4. France 5:39.28
5. Croatia 5:39.65
6. Australia 5:48.84
Quadruple scull
Repechage 1
1. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham/Alan Campbell/
Matthew Langridge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:48.59
2. Ukraine 5:48.97
3. France 5:51.77
4. Brazil 5:54.79
5. Germany2 5:58.99
LIGHTWEIGHT
MEN
Double scull
1. Jan & Ondrej Vetesnik (Czech Republic) 6:27.52
2. Maros Sloboda/Lubos Podstupka (Slovakia) 6:28.39
3. Mark Hunter/James Lindsay-Fynn (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:28.62
4. Ronaldo Vargas/Thiago Gomes (Brazil) 6:39.61
5. Ruben Alvarez Hoyos/Juan Zunzunegui Guimeras (Spain) 6:44.98
RACE FOR LANES
Women’s Four
1. China 6:55.79
2. Natasha Page/Beth Rodford/Natasha Howard/
Alison Knowles (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.92
3. Germany 7:02.62
4. France 7:09.00
5. Australia 7:12.41
C FINAL
Lightweight Women’s Double Scull
1. Helen Casey/Jennifer Goldsack 7:25.82
2. Misaki Kumakura/Ayako Horibata (Japan 2) 7:28.96
3. Lena & Sara Karlsson (Sweden) 7:30.15
4. Nagisa Morimoto/Kahori Uchiyama (Japan 1) 7:35.21
5. Alice McNamara/Jessica Huston (Australia) 7:37.90
Catherine Shaw/Alexandra White (South Africa) DNS
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CONTACT DETAILS
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