Lightweights Feature on Opening Morning of Munich World Cup

June 17, 2005

GB Rowing’s lightweight squad, sometimes in the doldrums in recent years, featured well in the opening session of heats at the BearingPoint World Cup which began today in Munich and finishes on Sunday.

News
The first four lightweight crews on the course today qualified direct to tomorrow’s semi-finals, three of them by winning their heats outright.

And the Olympic-class lightweight men’s double of James Lindsay-Fynn and Mark Hunter later joined them by taking second place in their heat.

Britain’s only other outright heat win came, almost inevitably, from the men’ s open weight four featuring Olympic gold medallist Steve Williams.

The crew, stroked by Andy Hodge, led from the outset and never looked troubled even by the Slovenians who were twice world cup bronze medallists last year.

"We’re pretty happy. It was a solid start. There were key areas to our race that we’re working on this weekend and I think we’re doing pretty well", said Williams.

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RACE REPORTS

Wallingford club’s Jennifer Goldsack, who has moved up from the U23 squad this season, won the first heat of the day in the lightweight women’s scull in a time 7:48.24 despite a delay caused by a fault with the automatic start system being used here.

She will be joined in tomorrow’s semi-finals by Naomi Hoogesteger, second in her heat.

In the lightweight men’s single both Zac Purchase, just 19, of Marlow RC, and originally from Gloucester, as well as Olympian Tim Male won their heats of the lightweight men’s
single in style.

Male and Purchase’s form means that competition for seats in the lightweight men’s double, an Olympic class boat, could be intense this year.

"Both the men won their heats which is good because, given the field, they should have done. The contest will get much stiffer in the semi-finals", said Male’s coach Alan Inns.

"I was pleased with the race today and to get the result", added Purchase. "But there is still work to do".

The current seat-holders in the lightweight men’s double, Mark Hunter and James Lindsay-Fynn led their heat until mere metres before the 1750m course marker when the eventual Italian winners pulled past them.

The lightweight men’s four, two lightweight men’s pairs and the lightweight women’s double all face repechages tomorrow afternoon.

In the open weight classes Josh West and his unrelated namesake Kieran West, a 2000 Olympic gold medallist in the men’s eight, were unlucky not to qualify for the semi-finals. They were edged out by an emerging former U23 German crew at the line in a heat won by the Skelin brothers of Croatia.

The men’s four, by contrast, put their qualification beyond doubt almost from the outset. In the style of so many crews coached by Jurgen Grobler, they blasted out from the start and maintained control through the remainder of the race.

Slovenia were the main contenders whilst the expected challenge from the Italians never came because they broke a rigger in the early part of the race and eventually limped across the line in a time of over ten minutes.

Britain has experienced somewhat of a renaissance in men’s sculling in the past two seasons. This year GB Rowing is fielding two young crews in the double and quadruple sculls.

Colin Smith, of Oxford, and Alex Gregory, from Reading, were third in the double this morning and now face a repechage later this afternoon.

The men’s quadruple scull were in the pack all the way down the course chasing the eventual winners and early leaders from the Czech Republic.

Despite a shout from the boat urging the crew to make up the gap of "only half a length", the GB quad, coached by Tim Foster, tailed off slightly at the end to finish in fifth. They also have a repechage but tomorrow afternoon rather than today.

Olympic quadruple scull medallist Debbie Flood, 25, of Leander Club, who has just finished University exams, missed out on a semi-final place in a tough heat of the women’s single scull which was won by Olympic silver medallist Ekaterina Karsten. She will now contest this afternoon’s repechages.

Annie Vernon and Elise Laverick came home third in the women’s double scull in a race won by a strong German duo.

In total 15 GB crews raced this morning. Six reached semi finals and nine have a second chance through repechages either today or tomorrow.

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GB RESULTS – MORNING SESSION, DAY ONE
BearingPoint World Cup
Munich, 17-19 June
(crews from bow to stroke plus cox)
[club in brackets]

HEATS

OPEN

WOMEN

Single scull
Heat 2
1. Ekaterina Karsten (Belarus) 7:26.51
2. Peggy Waleska (Germany 1) 7:30.44
3. Debbie Flood (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:34.84
4. Anet-Jacqueline Buschmann (Bulgaria) 7:50.17
5. Tine Schoeyen (Norway) 7:58.74
6. Elsie Schoeyen (Singapore) 8:11.84

Double scull
Heat 1
1. Christiane Huth/Britta Oppelt (Germany) 6:55.27
2. Amber Bradley/Sally Kehoe (Australia) 6:58.08
3. Elise Laverick /Annie Vernon (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:00.61
4. Marianne Nordahl/Heidi Veeser (Norway) 7:04.41
5. Laura Schiavone/Elisabetta Sancassani (Italy 1) 7:04.63
6. Nadzeya Snapkouskaya/Alina Makhneva (Belarus 2) 7:25.66

MEN

Pair
1. Sinisa & Niksa Skelin (Croatia) 6:32.65
2. Gregor Hauffe/Toni Seifert (Germany 2) 6:34.27
3. Josh & Kieran West (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:35.09
4. Mohamed Gomaa/El Bakry Yehia (Egypt) 6:54.97
5. Oleg Polyanin/Anton Tchermashentsev (Russia) 6:58.37

Four
1. Steve Williams/Peter Reed
Alex Partridge/Andy Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:00.97
2. Slovenia 6:06.49
3. Germany 3 6:10.34
4. Egypt 6:29.63
5. Italy 1 10.13.91

Double scull
1. Ivo & Martin Yankiev (Bulgaria) 6:19.61
2. Luca Ghezzi/Federico Gattinoni (Italy) 6:20.49
3. Dmitro Porkopenko/Vlodomir Pavlovskij (Ukraine) 6:22.63
4. Alex Gregory/Colin Smith (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:27.34
5. Steffen Petz/Stefen Blaettermann (Germany 2) 6:35.76
6. Mostafa Barakat/Mohamed El Tohami (Egypt) 6:45.68

Quadruple scull
1. Czech Republic 5:48.56
2. France 5:50.62
3. Belarus 5:50.96
4. Australia 5:52.86
5. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham/Alan
Campbell/Matthew Langridge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:53.29
6. Ukraine 5:53.69

LIGHTWEIGHTS

WOMEN

Single scull
Heat 1
1. Jennifer Goldsack (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:48.24
2. Lea Fluri (Switzerland) 7:50.28
3. Daniela Nachazelova (Czech Republic) 7:50.32
4. Hilde Gudem (Norway) 8:06.62
5. Milka Kraljev (Argentina) 8:16.54

Heat 3
1. Michaela Taupe (Austria) 7:53.33
2. Naomi Hoogesteger (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:02.20
3. Lena Kersten (Germany) 8:04.64
4. Ilona Hiltunen (Finland) 8:12.71

Double scull
1. Magdalena Kemnitz/Ilona Mokronowska (Poland) 7:07.51
2. Berit Carow/Laura Tasch (Germany2) 7:10.24
3. Valentina Galmarini/Laura Milani (Italy) 7:12.06
4. Niamh Ni Cheilleacher/Heather Boyle (Ireland) 7:13.52
5. Lena & Sara Karlsson (Sweden) 7:16.36
6. Jo Hammond/Helen Casey 7:16.61

MEN

Pair
Heat 1
1. Felipe Leal Atero/Miguel Cerda Silva (Chile) 6:38.80
2. Paul Mattick/Daniel Harte (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:44.41
3. Alexander Bernhardt/Stefan Locher (Germany 1) 6:49.92
4. Matthew Beechey/Nick Wakefield (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:51.43
5. Simon Stellmer/Mark Rippel (Germany 4) 6:52.39

Four
1. Ireland 6:04.56
2. Poland 1 6:09.30
3. Nick English/Dave Currie/Mike Hennessy/
Simon Jones (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:09.84
4. Poland 2 6:14.24
5. Italy 2 6:15.59

Single scull
Heat 1
1. Tim Male (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:05.68
2. Frederic Hanselmann (Switzerland) 7:10.88
3. Christoph Affenzeller (Austria) 7:23.59
4. Mohamed M’Henni (Tunisia 2) 7:25.08
5. Sahbi Khardeni (Tunisia 1) 7:38.48

Heat 4
1. Zac Purchase (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:12.01
2. Rolandas Zazlauskas (Hong Kong 2) 7:15.61
3. Hiu Fung Law (Hong Kong 1) 7:25.52
4. Kostadin Kolimechkov (Bulgaria) 7:30.55
5. Mohamed Abd El Moaty (Egypt) 7:34.75

Double scull
1. Elia Luini/Bruno Mascharenas (Italy 1) 6:34.83
2. Mark Hunter/James Lindsay-Fynn (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:37.44
3. Ting Wai Lo/Sau Wah So (Hong Kong 1) 6:41.11
4. Igor Ronchi/Mitja Trkov (Slovenia) 6:52.45