Ten GB Boats in Lucerne finals

July 8, 2006

Great Britain has qualified ten boats for tomorrow’s World Cup Finals in Lucerne – five of which arrived at that stage unbeaten having won either their heat or their semi-final.
The men’s four and women’s quadruple scull, sponsored by Camelot, have both looked good whilst progressing.

Alan Campbell came through a tough semi-final today in the men’s single and the men’s double timed their finish to perfection to win their semi-final. Both British eights are also through to the final.

Zac Purchase, in the non-Olympic lightweight single scull class, contests his final later this evening on the Rotsee which today has been sunny and calm.

"I’m pleased with today", said ARA International Manager David Tanner today. "We have ten boats in the finals and we’ve seem some very strong performances".

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RACE REPORTS

The men’s four of Alex Partridge, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andy Hodge were back in action here today in Lucerne in the semi-finals of the men’s four. The quartet, backed by Camelot, had been forced to withdraw from Henley last weekend through illness.

Today they were pitched against the Dutch won won the Stewards’ Cup at Henley.

The British took an early lead and from there reacted to whatever came their way from the Dutch to win in 5;55.99. Neither crew was at full-power coming to the line and tomorrow could be another interesting tussle between the two.

Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells timed their finish well in calm but muggy conditions on the Rotsee this afternoon to win their semi-final in 6:20.56. The duo will now resume their battle with experienced Slovenians Luka Spik and Iztok Cop, who won the faster of the two semi-finals today, in tomorrow’s final.

Alan Campbell had a far from trouble-free semi-final this afternoon which included the Olympic champion Olaf Tufte who looked to be returning to form and who eventually won the race. Campbell led early but faded back to fourth at 1500m. He needed his trademark finishing sprint to haul himself back into third place and claim a place in tomorrow’s final in a time of 6:58.70. World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand won the opposing semi-final in 6:52.03.

The British men’s eight were involved in an entertaining final 500m of their repechage today, especially as their nearest rivals were the Swiss cheered on by lots of home support. GB’s men came through at the finish to win but the Swiss also qualified ahead of Russia.

The British women’s eight rowed a composed repechage today to book a place in tomorrow’s final. They took a narrow lead over Germany as the race passed in front of the grandstands and held on to take the verdict with the Dutch in
third.

Jess Eddie, who has doubled up here in the eight to replace a poorly Carla Ashford, and Baz Moffat were fifth in their women’s pair repechage looking somewhat off the pace as the grandstands approached. They will now race a B Final tomorrow.

The lightweight men’s double scull of James Lindsay-Fynn and Mark Hunter held off a finishing challenge from the Canadians in their semi-final to take third place and progress to tomorrow’s final. The race was won by Italy in 6:20.45 with Germany second.

Britain’s lightweight men’s four were kicking themselves as they crossed the line in fourth place in their semi-final. Daniel Harte, in the two seat, was angry enough to punch the water. Not surprising as the British had led for the first 1500m but then allowed the Eqyptians, the Dutch and the Greeks to come through.

Helen Casey and Jane Hall were involved in a close race today with the Americans and Irish. The British crew had held second place in the early part of the race which was led throughout by the Americans but Ireland just pipped them to second place in the closing stages. The result was good enough, though, to put them through to tomorrow’s final – their second in a row in a season.

Lindsay Dick and Hester Goodsell, competing in only their second world cup in the double, were fifth in their semi-final. Glaswegian Dick has decided to try her fortunes as a lightweight rower after several years competing in the open weight category.

Earlier in the day Zac Purchase won his semi- final comfortably in the lightweight men’s single and faces a final this evening.

Tim Male was not so fortunate in his semi-final. He was last and confessed to having "no energy at all".

Laura Ralston missed out on a place in the A final by less than a second in her semi-final of the equivalent women’s event in the morning and goes on to compete in this
evening’s B Final.

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GB ROWING CREW LISTS
ROWING WORLD CUP – LUCERNE/DAY TWO
Saturday 8 JULY, 2006
(Crews bow to stroke – plus cox – clubs
in brackets)

SEMI-FINALS

OPEN

MEN

Four
1. Alex Partrige/Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Andy
Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:55.99
2. Netherlands 5:57.69
3. Germany 1 5:59.45
4. Ireland 6:01.78
5. France 1 6:02.22
6. Poland 6:26.56

Single scull

Semi-final 1
1. Olaf Tufte (Norway) 6:49.91
2. Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) 6:51.08
3. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:53.12
4. Sjoerd Hamburger (Netherlands 1) 6:54.90
5. Christof Uhl (Austria 1) 7:03.77
6. Eric Knittel (Germany) 7:09.48

Double scull

Semi-final 2
1. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN)
6:20.56
2. Allar Raja/Igor Kuzmin (Estonia) 6:21.29
3. Rene Bertram/Robert Sens (Germany) 6:21.53
4. Luca Ghezzi/Federico Gattinoni (Italy) 6:22.71
5. Ante Kusurin/Mario Vekic (Croatia 1) 6:26.75
6. Reto Niedermann/Florian Stofer (Switzerland) 6:33.41

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single sculls

Semi-final 1
1. Sonia Boubeta (Spain 2) 8:02.06
2. Pamela Weisshaupt (Switzerland 2) 8:02.75
3. Teresa Mas de Xaxars (Spain 1) 8:04.72
4. Laura Ralston (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:05.00
5. Michaela Taupe (Austria) 8:07.82
6. Hilde Gudem (Norway) 8:22.15

Double scull

Semi-final 1
1. Mara Jones/Tracy Cameron (Canada) 7:01.81
2. Sanna Sten/Minna Nieminen (Finland) 7:03.36
3. Marguerite Houston/Amber Halliday (Australia) 7:03.62
4. Berit Carow/Marie-Louise Draeger (Germany 1) 7:05.80
5. Lindsay Dick/Hester Goodsell (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:10.82
6. Francesca Gallo/Luara Milani (Italy) 7:19.19

Semi-final 2
1. Renee Hykel/Julia Nichols (USA) 7:04.93
2. Sinead Jennings/Niamh Ni Cheilleachair (Ireland) 7:07.37
3. Jane Hall/Helen Casey (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:07.74
4. Chrysi Biskitzi/Alexandra Tsiavou (Greece) 7:09.55
5. Elena Lyakisheva/Anna Yuchenko (Russia) 7:11.38
6. Coralie Simon/Benedicte Dorfman (France) 7:14.22

MEN

Single scull

Semi-final 1
1. Zac Purchase (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:13.70
2. Juan Zunzunegui Guimerans (Spain 1) 7:16.78
3. Jonathan Koch (Germany 1) 7:17.54
4. Jeff Bujas (Canada) 7:17.66
5. Remi Di Girolamo (France) 7:17.71
6. Jiri Kopac (Czech Republic) 7:56.76

Semi-final 2
1. Douglas Vandor (Canada) 7:14.93
2. Gerard van der Linden (Netherlands) 7:15.11
3. Michael Wieler (Germany 2) 7:15.99
4. Elias Pappas (Greece) 7:16.51
5. Bine Pislar (Slovenia) 7:33.74
6. Tim Male (GREAT BRITAIN) 9:00.02

Double scull

Semi-final 1
1. Marcello Miani/Elia Luina (Italy) 6:20.45
2. Joerg Lehnigk/Manuel Brehmer (Germany 1) 6:21.14
3. James Lindsay-Fynn/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:22.03
4. Matt Jensen/Daniel Parsons (Canada) 6:22.40
5. Maros Sloboda/Lubos Podstupka (Slovakia) 6:33.07
6. Michal Vabrousek/Ondrej Vetesnik (Czech Republic) 6:45.26

Four

Semi-final 2
1. Egypt 6:00.29
2. Netherlands 6:00.85
3. Greece 6:01.31
4. Matt Beechey/Daniel Harte/Paul Mattick/James
Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:01.85
5. Belgium 6:02.56
6. Canada 6:07.83

REPECHAGES

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair
1. Megan Cooke/Anna Mickleson (USA) 7:14.36
2. Nicky Coles/Juliette Haigh (New Zealand) 7:17.36
3. Tamara Samakhvalava/Natallia Helakh (Belarus) 7:25.85
4. Annabelle Fago/Silke Guenther (Germany 2) 7:29.78
5. Baz Moffat/Jess Eddie (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:33.47
6. Jacobine Veenhoven/Reina Sikkema (Netherlands 2) 7:33.82

Eight
1. Beth Rodford/Alison Knowles/Vicki Etiebet/Jessica
Eddie/Natasha Howard/Natasha Page/Katie Greves/
Elise Laverick/Caroline O’Connor (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:17.47
2. Germany 6:17.60
3. New Zealand 6;20.82
4. Netherlands 6:23.34
5. France 6:26.27

MEN

Eight
1. Jonno Devlin/Tom Stallard/Matt Langridge/Tom
     Solesbury/Josh West/Hugo Lee/Toby Garbett/
     Kieran West/Acer Nethercott (GREAT BRITAIN)
     5:35.86
2. Switzerland 5:36.02
3. Russia 5:38.70