Germany leads the Rowing World Cup series

After three days of racing the finals days saw Germany rebound from a comparatively slow 2005 season to lead the World Cup points table. In the 14 races that count towards the World Cup points, Germany scored in all but two of the events and medalled in 10 of them. This puts them at the head of the table by a substantial 26-point margin.

The results are particularly pleasing for German men’s coach Dieter Grahn who has seen his eight and four go through mixed results over the last couple of years.

Germany’s Elke Hipler and Christina Gerking added the most points for their country by taking silver in the women’s pair and then returning later in the day to be part of the winning eight. The more experienced Hipler is back after a post-Olympic break while partner, Gerking, 22, has been very successful at the under-23 level. Germany also scored gold in the men’s double and lightweight men’s four.

Coming in at second on the points table Great Britain sits just ahead of Australia in third. The Czech Republic follows in fourth.

Great Britain’s most touted performance went to men’s single winner Alan Campbell. Campbell’s international career only goes back three years but includes racing at the Athens Olympics in the men’s quad. Campbell surprised his Olympic and World Champion competition by starting off fast and sustaining it, even pulling out an impressive sprint in the last 200 metres.

Newcomer to the medal table ranks is China that brought a large team of 80 athletes to the event and stepped in at fifth position ahead of Russia. China’s best success was in the lightweight women’s double where they picked up gold. Both rowers, Dongxiang Xu and Hua Yu, also raced in the non-points event, the lightweight women’s single with Xu also medaling in this event.

Usually sitting towards the top of the table, Italy was noticeable in their slow start to the season. A number of their top boats did not make it through to the final including last year’s silver medal winners, the men’s eight who struggled to find their footing in the b-final.

Twenty-seven countries, of the 49 entered, earned World Cup points.

Points are awarded in the 14 World Cup events (Olympic events) going in a descending order starting with eight points for a win. The country with the most points at the end of the three World Cups is awarded the overall World Cup trophy. This will be decided after the third Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland from 7 – 9 July, 2006.

The next Rowing World Cup will take place from 15 – 17 June in Poznan, Poland.