Saturday at Lucerne saw familiar and fresh names making waves in the small-boat finals. The annual Thomas Keller medal was awarded, as planned since November, to Richard Schmidt from the Deutschland Achter, in a now-familiar ceremony at the Rotsee boathouse, where each new medallist nowadays unveils their name engraved in metal letters on the wall. Schmidt was fortunately tall enough to reach his name, which is at the top of a new column: lucky that a shorter athlete wasn’t chosen this year.
The racing was as intense as the heat, the closest event — and rapidly becoming one of the most interesting — was the women’s doubles. France’s dynamic duo of Elodie Scaramozzino and Emma Lunatti made a huge effort to stay on terms with China’s Chen Yunxia and Zhang Ling, but the Varese champions two weeks ago weren’t having any of it, and underrated them throughout, deigning to lift to rate 41 in the last few strokes, but not before. The margin was tight but there was no doubt the Chinese have more in the tank.
Photo GBR2 W2x
Credit Benedict Tufnell
That they might need it became obvious in semi-final two, when Juliane Faralisch and Alexandra Foester demonstrated why they are fearsome single scullers, making a much better job of their second international race together. Foester hasn’t raced at world level in a crew boat since a JW4x in 2018, whilst Faralisch has only ever rowed crew sweep internationally, the last time being 2019. But both are intelligent racers, as became evident when they took charge of their race, leading throughout and keeping the ever-competitive Greeks firmly in second place. Behind them the US combination of Katheryn Flynn and Grace Joyce did an excellent job overhauling the Brits and Romanians before catching the Swiss with their very last stroke to bag the sixth place in the medal final. “We really focused up in that middle 1k so we were able to execute that sprint pretty well”, said Joyce. “We’re pretty stoked.”
The men’s fours didn’t offer anything quite as close, though Lithuania tried their best to overturn the stranglehold the Australians are starting to take on this event. Leading from the front, the Aussies went for a taking charge strategy and survived the race closing up on them as the Kiwis and French challenged Lithuania. France managed to hold on to third for the finals spot as the New Zealanders faded. In the other semi it was Croatia’s new combination, back in the fours since pairing in Varese, who led out, but then had to cope with a very strong assault from Romania, who accelerated steadily to rate 46 to clinch the win.
“It was still a very exhausting race”
Hermine Krumbein
Country-wise it was Romania’s day after their men’s and women’s pairs also won, setting best times in the process, and Maria Rusu with Simona Radis looking particularly unbeatable. With Florian Arheni and Florian Lehaci also winning comfortably in the men’s pairs, it is obvious that Romania is profiting from having recruited a stellar young cast eight years ago: they have a higher Olympian return rate than most of the large teams, which could see them top the medal table at the world championships.
The most varied event in the world cup this year is the men’s singles, with contenders from four continents at both regattas. Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) is undeniably the one to watch, but young Norwegian Jonas Juel is having a whale of a time back in the single for the first time since he took bronze at the 2019 under-23s. His winning time ahead of Lithuania’s Giedrius Bieliauskas was not as fast as Zalaty’s over Logan Ullrich (NZL), but the former Princeton captain’s luck seems to have turned since coming out of the double he rowed at the Europeans. Japan’s Ryuta Arakawa and German Marc Weber quietly took the last two places in the medal contest, while 2020 champion Stefanos Ntouskos had a bad day at the office and will have to row the B-final.
Photo JPN1 M1x
Credit Benedict Tufnell
The other intriguing event is the men’s doubles. This time Ireland had both its Olympic champions in the team, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donnell having returned as openweights but now rowing in separate doubles with younger athletes, who ended up in the same semi-final. It is starting to look as if Dominic Casey, the interim lead coach, might need to consider putting the two former lightweights together. While McCarthy finished first with new crewmate Konan Pazzaia, it was by the slenderest of margins, after Finn Hamill and Ben Mason started a major Kiwi charge which almost caught the Irish napping. Behind these two O’Donnell with his new partner Daire Lynch worked their way through to take third, while heat-winners Romania inexplicably faded to last. In the other semi the Slovenians were on strong form ahead of the Swiss.
Britain had two-thirds of a shocker, none of their men’s crews in action qualifying through to medal finals, nor the women’s doubles. The best men’s finish on Saturday was Aidan Thompson coming third in the men’s singles C-final for 15th place overall in a close sprint to the line. But Lauren Henry and the women’s pair made up for it, adding another pair of finals spots to the GB team’s existing three (both W4- and the M4x). Henry once again posted the quickest time in the women’s singles, Fiona Murtagh from Ireland winning the other semi, and the GB women’s pair of Eleanor Brinkhoff and Megan Slabbert led virtually the whole way before Czechs Anna Santruckova and Pavlina Flamikova showed their class by coming through at the end.
“We’re pretty stoked”
Grace Joyce
Henry, whose Henley Royal draw was confirmed while she was racing on the Rotsee (she has a bye to the quarter-finals), is already getting inside the heads of her rivals. After saying she wanted to win everything when she took the European title, her comment after racing in Lucerne was “I feel I have a lot more to give. There are definitely things we can improve on in training, and I don’t feel like I’ve peaked for the season”.
The day ended with finals, more gold for lightweights Kenia Lechuga (MEX LW1x) and Felipe Ferreira (URU LM1x). And success for the German second-string PR3 mixed double of Jan Helmich and Hermine Krumbein, after the first double, Valentin Luz and Katherine Marchand were unable to start for medical reasons. Helmich and Krumbein won in Varese and last year in Paris, so perhaps they are having to demonstrate that they are quicker than anyone else in the squad after a pause in training. “It was still a very exhausting race,” said Krumbein afterwards. “Australia were also very strong. We already raced them two weeks ago in Varese so we knew they would give us a hard time”.
With one day of racing to go there is a possibility that, although Britain is the best-scoring team at the Rotsee this weekend, they could be overtaken by any of Germany, Australia or the USA on world cup points. Three victories in the right events plus a couple of minor places might be enough, and since the trophies will be awarded this time after just two regattas, there is plenty to play for. Germany have the best chance, with top competitors in three events, but anything can happen when the starter says go.
