ROWING: The second day of World Rowing Cup 3 in Lucerne, Switzerland saw Australia win two World Rowing Cup medals, a gold in the Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Scull and a silver in the Men’s Coxed Pair.
In addition to the two medals, the Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Scull also set a new World Cup best time of 6.26.32, some two seconds faster than the previous record which was set in 2008.
Australia also secured three additional A-Finals, with the Women’s Double Scull, Women’s Pair and second Women’s Quadruple Scull crews all securing places in the A-Finals.
Australia now has six crews qualified for five A-Finals tomorrow – the Women’s Four, the Women’s Pair, the Women’s Double Scull, the Men’s Eight and the two crews in the Women’s Quadruple Scull.
In addition to these A-Finals, Australia’s Men’s Double Scull and Men’s Four will contest B-Finals on Sunday in Switzerland.
In the A-Final of the Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Scull, Amy James, Alice Arch, Georgia Miansarow and Georgia Nesbitt took on Japan and Great Britain. The young crew looked the picture of synchronicity with the fastest start and pushed away from Great Britain in second. As the race progressed, the Australians increased their lead and remained out in front to take home the country’s first gold of the regatta and a new World Cup Best Time.
Post-race, Miansarow commented that race had been fast from the start: “It was a good race, we had a good start and then we held and listened to the calls. Today was a bit of “bang, bang, bang” as this morning we qualified for the heavyweight Women’s Quad A-Final. Tomorrow we are going to fly out and try to hold on.”
Earlier in the afternoon, the crew raced the Open Women’s Quadruple Scull repechage, in a bid to make Sunday’s A-Final. Needing a top four finish, the young crew took advantage of calm conditions and paced their race well to finish in fourth place and book a spot in the A-Finals alongside Australia’s Open Women’s Quadruple Scull in tomorrow’s A-Final.
In the first A-Final of the day, the Men’s Coxed Pair, Ben Coombs, Nathan Bowden and coxswain James Rook finished in second place to claim a silver medal. The crew took on competition from Spain and Germany and it was the young German crew who got away fastest, and maintained their speed throughout the race. Despite a valiant effort from the Australians in the final 200 metres, it was Germany’s win, with Australia second and Spain third.
Post-race, coxswain James Rook said the crew gave it their all: “I didn’t know what to expect during the race, but it was really good to come out and try and win. There was really great communication through the guys today, we threw the kitchen sink at it and really went for it.”
Earlier in the day, Coombs and Bowden had raced the C-Final of the Men’s Pair, finishing in first place. The crew put on a strong display at the finish, upping their rating to 42, to sprint past Germany at the line and take the C-Final win.
The Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Scull of Hamish Parry, Redmond Matthews, James Kerr and Sean Murphy finished in fifth place in their A-Final, having qualified for the final earlier in the day after finishing second in their repechage.
The crew powered out the start, with a speed of 21 kmph, with only a matter of seconds separating the top five boats as the raced down the Rotsee. However, as they reached the halfway mark, the Czech Republic, Italy and France pulled away from the pack and the Australians dropped back to fourth. As the crews approached the finish, the Australians upped their stroke rate and battled with Germany and The Netherlands at the line for the minor placings, with Australia crossing the line in fifth.
Lucy Stephan and Katrina Werry took to the water in the Women’s Pair repechage and alongside New Zealand’s second crew booked a place in the A-Final tomorrow. The Victorian duo led their repechage from start to finish and will double-up and race the Women’s Four A-Final tomorrow morning with Molly Goodman and Sarah Hawe, before racing the Women’s Pair A-Final at lunchtime.
In the lunchtime sunshine, Olympia Aldersey and Madeleine Edmunds finished third in their semi-final to book a place in the A-Final of Women’s Double Scull tomorrow. The two Olympians led their race for the first half, but the race favourites, New Zealand, made their move in the middle portion of the race to win the semi-final, followed by USA and Australia.
Meanwhile, their male counterparts, David Watts and Luke Letcher, finished in sixth in their Men’s Double Scull semi-final, meaning they will race the B-Final tomorrow morning.
In the Men’s Four semi-final, the new look crew of Darcy Wruck, Simon Keenan, Campbell Watts and Angus Widdicombe, needed a top three finish to make the A-Final. The crew were going to face stiff competition from race favourites Great Britain, as well as South Africa and France. The Australians had a good start but were up against experienced competitors at this venue and ultimately finished in sixth place, with, as predicted, Great Britain, South Africa and France progressing to the A-Final.
In the D-Final of the Lightweight Men’s Single Scull, Cameron Fowler finished in third place.
Race Times for Australian crews at World Rowing Cup 3 on Sunday 9 July
Men’s Double Scull (Letcher and D Watts) – B-Final, 09:15 local time (17:15 AEST)
Men’s Four (Wruck, Keenan, C Watts and Widdicombe) – B-Final, 09:20 local time (17:20 AEST)
Women’s Four (Stephan, Werry, Hawe and Goodman) – A-Final, 10:18 local time (18:18 AEST)
Women’s Pair (Werry and Stephan) – A-Final, 13:33 local time (21:33 AEST)
Women’s Quadruple Scull (Crew 1 - Saunders, Horton, Meredith and Cronin; Crew 2 – James, Arch, Miansarow and Nesbitt) – A-Final 13:48 local time (21:48 AEST)
Women’s Double Scull (Aldersey and Edmunds) – A-Final, 14:18 local time (22:18 AEST)
Men’s Eight (Moore, Hicks, Playfair, Masters, Turrin, Purnell, Hargreaves, Hill and Rook) – A-Final 15:03 local time (23:03 AEST)
Rowing Australia