Galambos steps up in final at Rowing World Cup

These lightweight singles had already raced this morning in the semifinals. Out of these semis Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany had shown the top speed for the lightweight women’s single sculls and World Champion Duncan Grant of New Zealand was the man to beat in the lightweight men’s single sculls. Could they do it again this afternoon?

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LW1x)

A-Final

Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany is the most accomplished rower in this field and she made the home crowd very happy by leading the first A-final at the Rowing World Cup in Munich. Draeger has spent the majority of her international career in her country’s double, but this season she is in the single and out to show her worth.

Draeger already had open-water with just a quarter of the race rowed and she continued to extend that lead through the body of the race in a show of absolute class. This left the five other boats to race for second. A close battle between Sara Karlsson of Sweden and Switzerland’s Eliane Waser pushed these two scullers ahead of the rest of the field. The three medallists had been decided, but in which order? A huge finishing push by Waser gave her the silver. Karlsson takes bronze. At the medals ceremony Draeger was presented with the Winners Cup.

Results: GER, SUI1, SWE1, SWE2, JPN3, JPN2

Marie-Louise Draeger (GER) – Gold
“The race went pretty well until the 1000 meter mark. But in the end I almost didn´t have enough power left. Luckily I was leading enough to win the race. ”

Eliane Waser (SUI1) – Silver
“I am very happy that I could beat Sara Karlsson this time. Now I only need to catch up with Marie-Luise Draeger. We´ll see if this is going to happen in Lucerne.”

Sara Karlsson (SWE1) – Bronze
“I wish I could have pushed more at the end. But all in all I am happy with the result of this race. It´s a great day for Sweden anyway. I watched the royal wedding on TV. But I had to go and get ready for the race before the vows. But I am sure there will be plenty of pictures to see.”

B-Final

It took Mexico’s Lila Perez Rul until the last 100m of the race to find the lead, but she did it. Despite underrating Stefanie Borzacchini of Austria coming into the finish, Perez Rul had just that bit more desire and energy to cross the line first and finish this regatta seventh overall. Borzacchini, who had led for nearly the whole race, had to settle for eighth overall.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S SINGLE SCULLS (LM1x)

A-Final

Duncan Grant of New Zealand arrived in Europe about a week ago and has been acclimatising to the German time and temperatures. Today he lined up in his third race over two days to aim for a medal in this event. Grant took off in the lead but there was very little between the entire field of six boats. By the half-way point Grant still had the lead and a slight margin over Peter Galambos of Hungary and Germany’s Jonathan Koch. Then going through the 1200, Galambos stepped on the gas and moved on the New Zealand World Champion.

Galambos, 23, has medalled at the under-23 level and raced for his country at the senior level last year in the lightweight double. Today Galambos showed his finishing pace. His piece through the 1200m had brought him closer to Grant and he could smell gold. Grant tried to hold on but coming into the final sprint Grant found himself under threat also from Are Strandli of Norway. This was going to be a close finish. Grant rated 39, Galambos sat on 35, Strandli was at 37. Galambos wins.

Results: HUN, NZL, NOR, GER2, FRA, GBR

Peter Galambos (HUN) – Gold
“I am so happy and satisfied with the race. Especially the second half was really good. I will race at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne as well. But I don´t know yet if it will be in the single or in the double.”

B-Final

On his home waters Christian Hochbruck of Germany earned the lead at the start and never gave it up. This was despite a full-on battle between the two Bulgarian scullers, Vassil Vitanov and Zlatko Karaivanov. Karaiavanov, rating 37 at the end, prevailed finishing second to Hochbruck and ahead of Vitanov.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN’S PAIR (LM2-)

A-Final

Switzerland has split their lightweight four into two boats swapping out Mario Gyr for Raphael Jeanneret. Today Switzerland Two of Simon Schuerch and Jeanneret led from the start with Great Britain and Chile being the closest challengers. In the stroke seat for Chile was Miguel Cerda Silva. Silva, 40, hit the international scene 20 years ago at the World Rowing Championships in Tasmania, Australia. He has been away from the international scene since 2007 and today, paired up with Fabian Ouyarzun Zbinden, 19 years his junior, Silva showed he was back and aiming for another Southern Hemisphere World Rowing Championships later this year.

For this race Schuerch and Jeanneret remained in the lead doing just enough to stay ahead of Chile, now in second. With the final sprint looming Schuerch and Jeanneret took their stroke rate to 39 to hold off Chile at 35 with Switzerland One of Lucas Tramer and Simon Niepmann taking on Great Britain. At the finish two Swiss boats had medalled and a young gun and rowing stalwart from Chile. The winners’ podium turned into a truly family affair.

Results: SUI2, CHI, SUI1, GBR, DEN, HKG

Simon Schuerch (SUI2) – Gold
“We had a very good rhythm. I think that’s why we won the race. This is actually quite surprising because Raphael Jeanneret and I only rowed four or five times together.  But we are still focused on the lightweight four which we will race in Lucerne again.”

Miguel Cerda Silva (CHI) – Silver
“It was a really hard race for us. We had a bad start. It became better after the first 500 meters. But it was not enough to win the race.”

B-Final

The two boats, Japan and Austria spent the first half of the race reasonably tightly together with Austria having a bit of a leader’s margin. But better stamina by the Austrians meant they were able to pull away from the Japanese in the second half of the race. At the line Michael Stichauner and Alexander Chernikov of Austria cross first.