Lucerne World Rowing Cup sets the stage for World Championships

The 2015 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland gave insight into crews that could perform well next month at the World Rowing Championships.

Medals were spread across 21 countries with New Zealand earning the top place on the medals table. The New Zealand team ended the regatta with 11 medals, six of them gold. The gold medal success included Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward in the lightweight women’s double sculls. The World Champion duo were silver medallists last month at World Rowing Cup II, but went one step better this time. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale won the men’s single sculls in commanding style over Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania. Olympic bronze medallist, Alan Campbell of Great Britain took third.

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray (NZL) recorded their 57th win at a World Rowing event. Bond and Murray finished first in the men’s pair ahead of Great Britain and Serbia. New Zealand showed strength in the women’s and men’s boat classes, finishing the day with medals in both the men’s and women’s eight.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S PAIR, HEAT 2, START, 2015 WORLD ROWING CUP III, LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND

Second on the medals table was Great Britain. The most consistent crew for the British this season has been Heather Stanning and Helen Glover. Stanning and Glover continued to be a class act in the women’s pair. The World Champion British men’s eight had a gold medal result when they held off Olympic Champions, Germany in the final sprint.

Germany showed dominance in the quadruple sculls by winning both the men’s and women’s race. Their two gold medals helped put them into third on the medals table just ahead of Australia in fourth. Australia also earned two golds. Kim Crow is the most successful rower currently on the Australian team. She has raced twice this season internationally, both times winning the women’s single scull by large margins. Taking the lesser medals behind Crow at Lucerne was Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic and Genevra Stone of the United States. Australia’s second gold came in the men’s four. The four outraced Italy to finish first with Romania taking bronze.

Lucerne marked the final regatta of the World Rowing Cup series for 2015. At the conclusion of the series of three, New Zealand had the highest number of World Rowing Cup points with 117. Germany was just behind in second with 115 and Great Britain rounded out the top three with 107 points.

LASSCHE, CURTIS RAPLEY (S), NEW ZEALAND, GOLD, KASPER WINTHER (B), JENS VILHELMSEN, JACOB BARSOE, JACOB LARSEN (S), DENMARK, BRONZE, LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S FOUR, 2015 WORLD ROWING CUP III, LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND

The next World Rowing regatta is the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. This takes place from 22-26 July 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The World Rowing Championships will then take place from 30 August until 6 September 2015 in Aiguebelette, France. It is also the qualification regatta for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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 included Bled, Slovenia (9-10 May), Varese, Italy (18-21 June) and Lucerne, Switzerland (10-12 July).

INSPIRED STARS RAISE THE WR TALLY TO 17

Alia Atkinson from Jamaica knew she was close to the victory and for some seconds looked at the scoreboard, perhaps waiting to see her name next to number 2. When she realised that in fact she was aligned with number 1, she couldn’t almost believe it: her expression after getting the gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke says everything about the surprising outcome of the race.

Swimming next to her, Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, the World Record (WR) holder in 1:02.36 and fastest of the semis in a Championships Record (CR) of 1:02.43, seemed to have the race under control, but gliding in excess in the last stroke, she allowed the triumph of the Jamaican star.

In an equalled WR of 1:02.36, Atkinson won the first gold medal ever in the history of three Championships for her country, while Meilutyte got the silver in 1:02.46. On Day 2, the 50m breaststroke had finished in the reverse order, with the Lithuanian earning gold and Atkinson finishing second.

On the fourth day of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Doha, this was one of the highlights of the evening session, which registered four other World Records: after getting the gold and the best world mark in the 50m free, Florent Manaudou (FRA) was again imperial in the 50m backstroke, stopping the clock in 22.22, much faster than the 22.61 established by Peter Marhsall (USA) in 2009.

The French champion, also surprised with his time, didn’t have much time to rest, qualifying some minutes later for the final of the 100m free with the third fastest time of the semis (behind Cesar Cielo and Joao de Lucca, from Brazil).

Alia Atkinson of Jamaica couldn’t almost believe it after getting the gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke

Katinka Hosszu (HUN) continued to impress, getting her fourth gold, accompanied by WR performance. After the 100m and 200m backstroke, and the 100m IM, the Magyar champion dominated the field in the 200m IM, touching home in a new global best of 2:01.86, improving her own WR (2:02.13) set in August 31 in Dubai (UAE) during the FINA/MASTBANK Swimming World Cup. With her two silver medals in the 200m butterfly and 400m IM, Hosszu is now the best female swimmer in Doha, confirming her status as dominator of the current short-course season, crowned by the recent award of FINA Best Female Swimmer of 2014.

In the first event of the day, the team of Russia improved their own WR (1:23.36) from 2013 in the men’s 4x50m free relay, touching home in 1:22.60. Thanks to a very fast start from Vladimir Morozov (21.01), the Russian quartet always controlled the pace of the race, and his teammates – Evgeny Sedov, Oleg Tikhobaev and Sergei Fesikov – were very regular, never losing the first place. The minor medals in this new event at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) went to USA (silver) and Italy (bronze). In the mixed 4x50m free relay, also a premiere, the United States (Josh Schneider, Matt Grevers, Madison Kennedy and Abbey Weitzeil) also improved the WR of this recent event, earning gold in 1:28.57 and leaving the previous WR holders, Russia, with the silver.

Source:FINA

Meet The APB’s Light Welterweight Boxers

AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) has announced the light welterweight category for the upcoming APB competition, confirming a stellar line-up of established professionals, Olympians and international multi-medallists

The Olympic bronze medallist, prodigal Lithuanian Evaldas Petrauskas who rocked last season in the WSB Ukraine Otamans team, will be one of the boxers to make up a deeply talented field of fighters at 64kg.

Speaking ahead of the APB competition, Petrauskas said: “This competition format is really unique. Finally AIBA has offered boxers the optimal way to become pro within the APB gradual competition structure.

For the first time in the history of boxing we have the chance to make the step up from three round competitions to six, eight and then 10 rounds, but not jump all of sudden to 12 round fights.

This process is extremely difficult and not all boxers hoping to turn professional managed to adapt to it and develop their career. I find AIBA’s innovative process to turn pro a really good move for boxers and boxing in general.”

The Lithuanian boxer will be joined by EUBC European Cup winner Vyacheslav Kyslytsyn from Ukraine, British-based Bulgarian professional and Olympic bronze medallist Boris Georgiev and battle-weary Algerian and All-Africa Games gold medalist Abderkader Chadi.

Argentine knockout artist Carlos ‘El Terrible’ Aquino adds spark to a weight division also featuring Mexican sensation, the World Series of Boxing Season II Individual Champion Juan Pablo Romero.

Russian southpaw stylist Armen Zakaryan and last year’s European Boxing Championships bronze medallist Artem Harutyunyan from Germany conclude the lineup, completing a pool of hungry fighters looking to put everything on the line to qualify for Rio 2016 through a glittering group of mercurial boxing talent at 64kg.

A 23-NATION MEDAL SPREAD AT 2014 WORLD ROWING UNDER 23 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2014 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Varese, Italy began with a large and enthusiastic field of 800 athletes and ended with the new 2014 under-23 World Champions being crowned. The performances showed why these are the best under-23 athletes in the world.

At the end of two days of finals gold medals were spread among 23 nations, with both New Zealand and the United States earning three golds each. For New Zealand they came in the lightweight women’s double sculls, men’s eight and women’s pair. The women’s pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler completely dominated their final and set a new under-23 World Best Time – the only one set at this regatta.

The United States had gold medal success with Andrew Campbell in the lightweight men’s single sculls, the women’s eight and the women’s four. Campbell’s win saw him defend his 2013 title with the women’s eight also successfully defending their title.

The women’s single sculls had senior World Champion from the women’s double sculls, Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania, dominating her race and finishing just a fraction of a second outside of the under-23 World Best Time. Former junior, Sara Magnaghi of Italy, was the popular silver medallist with Germany’s Anne Beenken earning bronze.

Spain and Turkey both had medal success. Spain earned a gold medal in the lightweight men’s four, beating Great Britain and the 2013 under-23 World Champions, Italy, to the line while Turkey’s Enes Kusku earned silver in the lightweight men’s single sculls.

A number of these athletes will now join their nation’s senior team in preparation for the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam (NED) at the end of August. These include Ilse Paulis of the Netherlands who won the lightweight women’s single sculls.

Overall New Zealand topped the medals table with a total count of six from the 21 boat classes. The United States was second with five total medals and Italy came through in third with seven medals, two of them gold.

The next World Rowing event will be the World Rowing Junior Championships to be held in Hamburg (GER) starting 6 August 2014.

To relive the World Rowing Under 23 Championships action visit http://www.worldrowing.com for full results, race reports and photos.