An unusually small Lucerne World Cup began with Thursday thunderstorms which turned into sunnier weather on Friday for a curtailed programme hit by a combination of low entries, withdrawals and also the new no-repechages system. A slimmed-down group took to the beautiful waters of the Rotsee from an entry list boasting only a vestigial Dutch entry, one lone Italian and several countries still in the early stages of rebuilding post-Olympics so without full squads.
Then several crews withdrew before the draw. This included the British men’s eight, which might have had something to do with them preparing to race the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, but had the knock-on effect of turning the event into a straight final. As a result of all these factors, the first day of racing was finished before 3pm local time.
A diary clash has become more likely now that the second World Cup is just days before the start of Henley Royal Regatta in the UK. (It’s the second World Rowing event which has moved in the calendar, not HRR). This caused an issue for Brian Colsh, Tristan Vandenbussche and Filip-Matej Pfeifer, who were racing in the Irish M4x, Belgian second M1x and Slovenian M1x respectively in Switzerland a few hours before they were expected at the HRR qualifiers for the Diamond Challenge Sculls. The result: all three withdrew from the Royal Regatta and put their efforts into Lucerne. Over in Switzerland Pfeifer beat Vandenbussche by a sliver while both were relegated to the C-final, and Colsh’s quad finished an ignominious last with no repechage option to get back onto the medal pathway.
By means of some kind of silent agreement the lightweight women are out in force at this summer’s regattas, leading to a 14-strong entry, while the lightweight men held heats — from which Uruguay’s Felipe Kluver Ferreira was quickest — in a tamer event for just nine scullers. Amongst the LW1x queens of the day were Lara Tiefenthaler (AUT) and Kenia Lechuga Alanis (MEX) who won their semis after leading all the way. Tiefenthaler was a smidge quicker than Lechuga, but the Austrian had to work harder for the win, so it should be a very good final.
One reason why the LM1x world appears depleted is that Ferreira’s former colleagues and rivals have been bigging it up in the open M1x and M2x events. Bruno Cetraro Berriolo (URU) did himself no harm in his third season as an openweight single sculler, winning his quarter-final by passing early leader Aleksandr Kovalskii (AIN) and then holding off a sustained charge from Mihai Chiruta (ROU) and Tom Barras (GBR).
Most impressive in the M1x however was Giedrius Bieliauskas (LTU1), who not only won his heat and quarter-final, beating the feisty Norwegian Jonas Juel in the latter, but also posted the best time of the day, beating even the man on form, Yauheni Zalaty (AIN), reigning European champion and World Cup leader. Clearly having Dovydas Nemeravicius (LTU2) as a rival is doing Bieliauskas no end of good, though it would be a reasonable bet they will probably end up in a double together, since the Lithuanian team hates to waste good scullers.
Talking of which, Irishwoman Fiona Murtagh and Brit Lauren Henry resumed hostilities at a distance, each winning their heat in the two quickest times. The draw will keep them apart until the final, so Henry gets to face Anna Prakatan (UZB) again in the semi alongside Canada’s Katie Clark, whilst Murtagh will have to deal once more with returning Dane Frida Nielsen, who was hot on her heels at the Europeans.
Back to ex-lightweights, and the men’s doubles has become the place for them to be seen: in many cases (New Zealand, Greece and Ireland) teamed up with openweights. Thus five of the six medallists in the last ever LM2x Olympic final in Paris ended up in the M2x in Lucerne. In Ireland’s battle of the new doubles both crews earned second places in remarkably similar times, whilst Greece’s pair of crews had mixed fortunes, one qualifying in third and the other dropped down to sixth. It was New Zealand, featuring former lightweight Finn Hamill, who beat Ireland 2, whilst Raphael Ahumada of Switzerland ended up second to the chipper Slovenian pairing of Martin Mackovic and Nikolaj Pimenov.
In the women’s doubles it should be no surprise that Elodie Ravera Scaramozzino and Emma Lunatti kept France at the front of the field just ahead of China, the Paris finalists back in their favourite boat type after the French quad they anchored in Plovdiv came sixth. Expect the semi-finals to be highly contested, with all twelve boats within a few seconds of one another. One intriguing combination is that of Juliane Faralisch and Alexandra Foester, two strong-minded single scullers trying the double out for a change. They were lucky to qualify after a middling heat, but every race together is likely to make them more effective.
The women’s fours is a small but competitive group, the final featuring both American combinations, both British fours and the Kiwis and Aussies. The US women looked best, while it was Australia’s men who carried off the honours in the other fours event, stroke Alex Hill clearly keen to capitalise on their Varese win and bursting through a classic fly-and-die from Lithuania to stay ahead of the quickest heat.
The US women are playing a complex doubling-up game, one four plus half the other making up an eight with the women’s pair, whilst Australia is doing something comparable and Romania has simply wedged both fours into the big boat. Romania, featuring five of the Olympic champion crew plus its cox, did a stylish job of staying ahead of the American octet in the preliminary race, while the rest were a distant memory.
The situation was different in the men’s eight, where whilst the USA and China were well back, the top three, led home by Germany, were close together all the way and even sprinted. This might be the first time a female cox has guided the US men’s eight at a senior World Rowing competition: their crew, made up of the quad and four, is steered by Nina Castagna, the Olympic W8+ cox.
Saturday sees lower finals and semi-finals take to the water, and will be done before 2pm, leaving crews plenty of time to sight-see up Mount Pilatus if they want to.
