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The preliminary race yesterday indicated that the World Champion German crew were still on form but they were pushed hard by the Netherlands and Poland. Not to be worried by the World Championship label, Poland jumped out into the lead at the start. But it didn’t take long before Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Marie-Catherine Aarnold and Lisa Schmidla of Germany took over in the lead. Poland, however, did not give up and they remained in touch with the Germans. Germany has owned the women’s quad for a number of years with only a few hiccups in their winning form. This hiccup included the London Olympics when Ukraine won. Ukraine are currently out of the quad picture and Germany has again been dominating.

In the final sprint the Netherlands gave it their all to not only challenge Poland, but also overtake the Germans. They ran out of water. Germany had won gold, Poland had retained silver and the Netherlands had earned bronze.

Results: GER, POL, NED, CHN, CZE

Gold – Annekatrin Thiele – Germany

We are happy to win but it’s only the first World Cup. The level will already be higher at the Eruopeans and then the girls from overseas will join the season which will be very long.

Silver – Joanna Leszczynska – Poland1

We feel strong. It was a very fast race but we did it. We look forward to start in our own country for the Europeans. Now we go on training camp in Poland.

Bronze – Inge Janssen – Netherlands 

We had very good winter training. The quad was put together in January. Now it’s all about the Europeans. Here it was only practice.