SEVEN GOLDS FOR SEVEN COUNTRIES – LAST DAY AT THE 2015 WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The last day of the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France ended with a bang as seven different countries won World Championship titles.

The blue riband women’s eight from the United States won the World Championship title and extended their winning streak to a total of ten consecutive World and Olympic titles. New Zealand’s women’s eight won their first ever medal (silver) in this boat class. Canada took bronze. The men’s eight ended in a stunning victory for Great Britain who made it three World Championship titles in a row. Olympic Champion Germany nearly overtook the British in the last couple of strokes of the race. The Netherlands followed Germany into third. “We just executed our race plan,” said Great Britain’s Matthew Gotrel. “It was the best row we’ve ever had. We had a lot of pressure, but it is the best job I’ve ever had.”

photo credit Detlef Seyb/myrowingphotos.com

The men’s single sculls came down to a stunning two-way duel between Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand and World Champion, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Synek won in the last three metres of the race. Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis took bronze. The women’s single sculls went to Kim Crow of Australia, extending her unbeaten season. Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic was second and Jingli Duan of China was third.

Croatia’s rowing heroes Valent and Martin Sinkovic successfully defended their World Championship title in the men’s double sculls. The Sinkovic’s were pushed so hard by silver medallists, Lithuania and bronze medallists, New Zealand that they nearly broke their own World Best Time. The women’s double sculls was won for a second year in a row by New Zealand. The crew of Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane took gold ahead of Greece and Germany.

Switzerland won an impressive gold in the lightweight men’s four, dominating a boat class field that is usually known for being incredibly close. Behind the Swiss, 2014 World Champions Denmark, won silver and France took bronze.

Topping the overall medals table for the 2015 World Rowing Championships was Great Britain with a total of 15 medals, five of them gold. Last year’s overall winners New Zealand finished second with nine medals, five of them gold. Germany was third winning three gold medals and a total of nine.

photo credit Detlef Seyb/myrowingphotos.com

Earlier in the day the B-finals concluded the qualifying places for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Overall 32 countries qualified boats for the Olympic Games along with 16 for the Paralympic Games. Great Britain has qualified the most getting 12 spots out of the 14 boat classes that will be raced at the Olympics. The United States have qualified ten boats including all six of the women’s boat classes. Germany and New Zealand both qualified nine boats. Doing the best for Latin America was Cuba with two boats qualified for Rio.

There will be further Olympic qualification chances at the continental qualification regattas as well as the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May 2016.

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).

42 NATIONAL ROWING TEAMS ENTERED FOR WORLD ROWING CUP II, VARESE, ITALY

Entries are in with 42 national rowing teams and over 750 rowers racing at the second stage of the 2015 World Rowing Cup to be held in Varese, Italy.

The men’s single sculls has the largest number of entries including a full field of the best in the world of single sculling. Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand will make his first international appearance for 2015 and will, for the first time, face the winner of the European Rowing Championships Damir Martin of Croatia. In winning the European Championships, Martin beat World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and Synek is back looking to reclaim the top spot. Also in the mix is the great Cuban sculler Angel Rodriguez Fournier, winner of the first World Cup in Bled and the current World Cup leader.

The Italian team is using Varese for their 2015 international debut. With 30 boats entered, Italy has the largest team at the regatta. Their prominent crew is the men’s double sculls featuring world silver medallists Romano Battisti and Francesco Fossi. They will face 2014 World Champions Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia and European Champions Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger of Germany. Lightweight single sculling World Champion Marcello Miani is also a top medal contender for Italy.

The women’s double sculls will feature the new combination from New Zealand of Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane who will meet European Champions Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj of Poland along with European bronze medallists Katherine Grainger and new partner Victoria Thornley of Great Britain.

World Rowing Championships
WRJC 2014 Hamburg
photo credit: Jahr des Wassersports
https://www.flickr.com/photos/123560028@N05/14906765763/in/photolist-fHQ8PJ-fHxAJx-fHxAV8-fHQ9P1-arod4R-arohQk-oDts6S-oHg7FX-op1waf-oDts47-op1Rdy-oFhEhU-arqTiC-arogkH-op1Cmx-oFhPYC-op2aec-oFttKC-oFtpk5-op1ETY-oHg57P-oDtvqh-op1xts-oFeEge-oFvbRX-oFtCdj-oFeFC2-oFhLVU-op1D32-op1VyY-op25qz-oHgbQP-oDtkbQ-oFeJAX-oFv8fi-oHfQvv-op1Lh2-oFtvL1-oFhBFG-op2aV2-oHgauT-oDtwdQ-oFtHtQ-oHgag6-op1AtV-oFtoyq-oFuX5P-oHgdUD-op1rhE-oFeNJB

Nineteen countries are racing in the lightweight women’s double sculls with European Champions from Great Britain Katherine Copeland and Charlotte Taylor leading the way. They will face the World Champions from New Zealand Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie as well as last year’s silver medallists Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee of Canada.

Para-rowing races will take place in four boat classes with the para AS men’s single sculls attracting entries from 13 nations. This entry includes the current World Champion Erik Horrie of Australia. Horrie will face world silver and bronze medallists from last year Tom Aggar of Great Britain and Alexey Chuvashev of Russia.

Racing commences on the afternoon of 18 June 2015 with the para-rowing heats. It will then progress through repechages and semifinals with finals being held on 21 June starting at 11:00 CET. There will be a World Rowing television host production for the final races that can be viewed live on http://www.worldrowing.com throughout the world.

PARMIGIANI SPIRIT AWARD PRESENTED TO ZURICH UNIVERSITY ROWER FRANZ GRAVENHORST

German rower Franz Gravenhorst was presented with the second annual Parmigiani Spirit Award at a ceremony with representatives from FISA, the World Rowing Federation and Parmigiani Fleurier in Zurich today (Thursday).

As a doctorate student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), rower Franz Gravenhorst has excelled at both academics and rowing. In addition he has donated countless hours to improving and developing the sport and encouraging university rowing in Zurich and around the world.

Gravenhorst will soon defend his dual doctorate thesis on the use of electrical sensors both to improve rowing technique and applied to improve health care for individuals suffering from mental disorders. Besides his extensive academic projects, Gravenhorst has also dedicated his time to coaching, organising and promoting the university rowing programme which has allowed hundreds of Zurich university students to participate in the sport. Inspired by the inclusiveness of the rowing community that he has found worldwide, Gravenhorst is keen to open this community to as many people as possible.

Today, Franz Gravenhorst was presented with a Parmigiani Fleurier “Tondo 1950” watch by Parmigiani CEO Jean-Marc Jacot at the Widder Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Gravenhorst’s university rowing club will receive a custom-built top-of-the-range Filippi racing eight built in Italy.

Also present at the Award presentation were FISA President, Olympic gold medalist Jean-Christophe Rolland, and Olympian and World Champion Lenka Wech, who formed the Award judging panel along with Jacot and Mahe Drysdale, Olympic and World Champion single sculler. Members of Gravenhorst’s family and representatives of the Swiss Rowing Federation, the Swiss University Sports Federation and the Zurich University Sports Federation and ETHZ were also present for the ceremony.

“We decided to create this award to celebrate a rower who has achieved something very special in his or her life. This award is very important to thank these young people who have worked so hard. Franz is a person who gives so much to the sport and at the same time is achieving so much for society and the health of society. He is a worthy winner of the second Parmigiani Spirit Award,” said Jacot.

“We had many excellent and worthy candidates this year, it was quite difficult to choose. But the winner, Franz, demonstrated the core values of rowing and thus fits the criteria of the award perfectly,” said Rolland. “The sport of rowing demands tremendous dedication, it is essential that we recognize these fantastic individuals who dedicate their lives not only to academics and to rowing, but also to helping others.”

“Usually if I do something, I try to make it not about me. My first thought with this award is how it will be beneficial for the others, my whole team will benefit from it,” said Gravenhorst. “I am not used to receiving awards, but it is a great honour for me.”

The day concluded with a private celebration dinner for Gravenhorst, his family and Parmigiani and FISA representatives.

The Parmigiani Spirit Award was open to university rowers worldwide who demonstrated the core values of rowing in his/her social, academic and sporting life and, through those values, also enabled or inspired exceptional success in other people’s lives – for example in education, business, sports or charity. Rowing’s core values are: Teamwork, Fairness, Natural, Inclusive and Enduring.