Zurich City Sprints made for speed

The 2012 ZURICH City Sprints is a 450m race that will be held right in the centre of Zurich on the Limmat River. Perfect for spectator watching, the race course goes through the historical Old Town between two famous bridges, the Quaibrücke and the Rathausbrücke.
Racing

will be in four boat classes, the men’s and women’s single sculls, the lightweight men’s four and the men’s quadruple sculls. There will also be a showcase of university crews racing in the men’s and women’s eights.

The Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) features Marcel Hacker of Germany. Hacker comes to Zurich from a sprint racing showcase in Slovenia where he raced against the likes of Slovenia’s greatest rower, Iztok Cop. Hacker also featured well at the London Olympic Games where he raced in the final. Up against competition from three other countries, Hacker may find stiff competition from Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands. Steenman comes from his country’s Olympic eight but has also spent time in the single. David Jirka of the Czech Republic and David Aregger of Switzerland round out the racing line up.

Olympic Champion, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic is the star attraction in the Women’s Single Sculls (W1x). But being the fastest woman in the world over 2000m does not necessarily mean 450m is her forte. Knapkova will face stiff competition from 20-year-old Julia Lier of Germany. Lier is the reigning world under-23 champion.  From the Netherlands Chantal Achterberg is used to going fast as a member of her country’s Olympic eight. In the single she will no doubt harness that same raw power she uses to go fast in the eight. Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin is also competing.

The Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-) has entries from the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Both Switzerland and the Netherlands competed in the final at the London Olympic Games – the Swiss finished fifth and the Dutch were sixth. This bodes well for some very tight competition especially as the Czech Republic also raced in London finishing eleventh overall.

Switzerland is the only crew that has retained their entire London line up and it is also the same crew since 2010. On the back of such good Olympic results and with the home crowd support, this is likely the crew to beat.

Germany is boating a new line up comprised mainly of top under-23 rowers. Despite being their first international race together, they all know each other well as they were part of the selection mix for the Olympic lightweight four.

In the Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) it will be hard to look past Germany. This crew is a bounty of talent with their top double scullers, Eric Knittel and Stefan Krueger, straight from the London Olympics, in the boat. Added to the talented mix are Hans Gruhne and Mathias Rocher who have both been part of national team selection for the double. Switzerland, however, will definitely be challengers to the Germans. Just back from racing the quad at the London Olympics, the Swiss boat is led by Andre Vonarburg who has been Switzerland’s best single sculler for the past decade.

The Czech Republic is boating a crew that contains mainly a talented bunch of under-23 rowers while the Netherlands has put together a new line up for Zurich which also contains some top under-23 athletes.

Racing will begin at 13:00 (CET).

For more information see http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2012-zurich-sprints