Four weeks into the summer season and already the third world cup regatta is here, the great and the good flocking to Lucerne to race on the Lake of the Gods for interesting pieces of art posing as trophies. Round three of the early season, this year apparently marred by a derisorily tiny entry to regatta two in Plovdiv a fortnight ago, but it has had the bonus that only one of the trophies is already decided (the men’s pair going to New Zealand), so plenty of stories still to be written.
One of those stories is in the women’s single, which has been turned upside down by the unexpected withdrawal of 2024 Olympic champion Karolien Florijn (NED) due to a back injury, a sad development after the Dutchwoman had capsized during the Seville heat last month. Florijn hopes to return at the world champs, so meanwhile the likes of Fiona Murtagh (IRL), Lauren Henry (GBR), Tara Rigney (AUS) and Alexandra Foester (GER) have to beat one another up without her or, it should be mentioned, Viktorija Senkute from the absent Lithuanian squad.
The women’s singles heats involved a bit of careful shadow-boxing from Murtagh and Henry, who look to have the best finishing speed. But in the heats both carefully kept that under wraps disguised as a sedate lower-rate stalk to the line. The main casualty of this tactic and the new no-reps system was AIN sculler Mariia Zhovner, whose late sprint and third place wasn’t quick enough in Henry’s leisurely heat to claim a place in the semis.
How to Watch World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne
The men also took it steadily, but for a better reason: the M1x is the only event in this year’s regatta with quarter-finals, giving them a double hit of Lucerne midday scorch. Former lightweight and M1x winner from Plovdiv Sam Melvin snapped up the quickest time, pushed hard by non-sprinting NED1 sculler Simon van Dorp, who is singling alongside M2x teammate Melvin Twellaar this weekend for a change of pace.
The biggest dogs in this contest are still Yauheni Zalaty (AIN) and Olympic and world champion Olli Zeidler, who positively dawdled to the line, Zeidler clearly with more in hand and the more obvious favourite unless one of the Dutchmen causes an upset. In the quarterfinals Zeidler had a comfortable six seconds in hand over the American, but Zalaty had to work hard to stay ahead of Swiss sculler Kai Schaetzle, while Twellaar and van Dorp were only 0.13 seconds apart, each winning their race in times which suggested they are more than capable of mixing things up in the final.
The women’s PR1 singles is a low-budget straight final here, but the PR1 men, though lacking 2025 runner-up Roman Polianskyi (UKR), will be a good fight. As well as the traditional clash between Ben Pritchard (GBR) and Erik Horrie (AUS), who won their heats, Shmuel Daniel (ISR) and Alexis Sanchez (FRA) were on strong form, and the new recruit to British PR1 sculling, Jake Woods, qualified comfortably over Germany and the second Netherlands sculler. Last year Horrie was the first PR1 man to win a Lucerne world cup gold medal, but Pritchard has a double motivation to match him. As well as potentially taking Britain’s first para-gold, he will be keen to show how far ahead he is of his new team-mate, a 2024 indoor PR1 world champion but quite new to water rowing.
Woods is effectively Britain’s answer to the Giacomo Perini story. Discontent emerged in the PR1 sculling world in 2022 when Perini, an Italian who had a right-leg amputation after finding an osteosarcoma (bone tumour), was permitted to race in the PR1 class which has typically been reserved for those with no leg action. The classifications are complex and opaque to most, and it’s still not clear how the loss of function due to a lost leg is calculated. Perini started winning races and had finished third at the Paris Paralympics before his phone was discovered in his shell at the finish, and he was placed last in the race since electronic communication with those outside the boat is banned during World Rowing races. At last year’s worlds he ended fourth, seeming to lack his previous competitive spirit.
Photo Paralympic champion Ben Pritchard of Great Britain
Four years after Perini’s operation Woods had the same one in Britain, for the exact same reason. A keen amateur sportsman, after rehab he tried several para-sports before being recruited by GB Rowing following his 2024 win, by 24 seconds over Zeelenberg. Now he’s quickly learning to row on water, and has openly stated his intention to go to the LA28 Games in the PR1 spot for Britain: the same slot in which Pritchard intends to defend his Paris title. Two years, given the speed with which Perini started to beat the scullers who lack leg function, may just be enough for Woods to challenge Pritchard.
Back to the Rotsee, and the women’s doubles, including two surprisingly closely matched Irish doubles, could have a very competitive final on Sunday after just over a second separated the top six from the heats. Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra (NED) were the most impressive, making no attempt to sprint, but the contest for minor medals could be a bunfight.
Photo Olympic medallist Melvin Twellaar of the Netherlands
Spain topped the M2x leaderboard, Rodrigo Conte Romero having found a bright new partner from last year’s Spanish quad, Caetano Xose Horta Pombo. The French top crew had to pull out after medical issues for Hugo Boucheron, but their deputies Victor Marcelot and Samuel Arque took the lead early in their heat and still had effort in hand as they beat the experienced Belgians, so will be worth looking out for.
The US team has sent 17 crews, from which they are most likely to score in the women’s sweep events. The USA eight was pipped to the post in the heat by the Australians, and were three seconds slower than other heat winners Britain, who duffed up the relaxed Dutch, but that may have been due to them doubling up. Both pairs (seats 5-2 in the eight) won their heats and the four (stern three of the eight plus expert bow-woman Molly Bruggemann) beat Britain’s four by five seconds and nabbed the best time of the event so far.
Day One: World Rowing Cup III in Pictures
Australia also won a fours heat, one of their few race wins on Friday. The team has quite a few changes since last year, and the Australia A squad, their development group, mostly graduates of the U23 programme now growing older than the category, have accompanied the senior squad to develop higher-level racing skills. Their W4- impressively led the whole way, well up on the experienced and competent Dutch quartet who had won in Seville but are now tinkering with the seating order. The Australian men’s eight failed to match their women’s win when Britain, with a point to prove after losing to the Dutch in Seville, hammered them the whole way up the course.
Meanwhile in the other heat, the Dutch remained comfortable with no need to sprint, but had to even-split ahead of a rapidly-improving German squad. The German revival is well under way now, their Seville champion quad heat winners in Lucerne alongside the British and Dutch in tight fields across the board. This could be one of the strongest and deepest men’s quads fields for several years. The Germans also had a large number of crews qualifying behind first place but with enough speed to be contending for medals.
Photo Olympic bronze medallist Zoi Fitsiou of Greece
Of course, not all the good and great bothered with visiting expensive Switzerland. With the European championships at the end of July and the world championships starting three weeks after that in Amsterdam, a few nations tactically stayed away.
These included Romania, who get very generous medal bonuses by tapering hard for the Europeans, the Kiwis, who wanted to put in a solid training block at home before returning to Europe for the worlds in under eight weeks time, and Italy. Not only are four of the top Italian crews (M8+, W8+, M4x and W2-) going to Henley Royal next week to provide some competition for the British squad, but they are also the hosts at the Europeans, which take place in Varese, and so decided to focus on that rather than Lucerne as their last pre-worlds regatta.
