Eleven crews progress in Lucerne

Eleven British crews progressed from their heats this morning at this season’s third and final world cup of the season in Lucerne. The men’s four, racing with a substitute, and the women’s quadruple scull, both sponsored by Camelot, were amongst nine heat winners putting the men through to a semi tomorrow and the women directly into the final on Sunday.

Alan Campbell, in the single scull, plus double scullers Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells, both boats backed by Siemens, were the other open weight Olympic class heat winners.

But the story of the morning came from the lightweight squad who won all three Olympic class boat classes,sponsored by Siemens here, for the first time ever.

"It’s been a pretty good morning all round", said GB Performance Director David Tanner.  "I’ve been particularly impressed with the lightweight group who can be very pleased with their performances".

Britain’s men’s eight also put in a solid performance to qualify for tomorrow’s semi-finals after their bronze in  Amsterdam, three weeks ago whilst Anna Bebginton, back from a knee injury, and Elise Laverick opened their racing campaign of the season by qualifying for tomorrow’s semi-finals of the Siemens-sponsored women’s double scull in second place.

Campbell will race a quarter-final later today and the men’s and women’s pairs and men’s quadruple scull and second men’s double all have second chances through repechages either today or tomorrow.

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RACE REPORTS

For a period of half an hour today on Lucerne’s Rotsee the British lightweight Olympic class boats grabbed the attention more than any others.

They clocked up three heat wins in a row in the men’s and women’s double scull and the lightweight men’s four – all crews sponsored by Siemens.

"I can’t remember any previous time when we have won heats in all three of the lightweight Olympic classes", said GB Performance Director, David Tanner.

Victories for Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell, alongside Mark Hunter and Zac Purhcase in the two doubles were followed by a good win by Richard Chambers, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and James Clarke in the lightweight men’s four.

The wins for the lightweights came in the middle of a run of six consecutive heat wins for Great Britain which began with the open men’s double and four and ended with the women’s quadruple scull.

Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham, in the Siemens-sponsored men’s double scull, showed continuing race maturity in winning their heat this morning in a time of 6:27.19.  They were third at 500m, second at the half-way point before moving into a lead which they maintained to move through to tomorrow’s semi-finals.

Bill Lucas and Charles Cousins, who will race for GB at the world U23 championships later this month, were fifth in the opposing heat which was won by Olympic medallists Luka Spik and Itzok Cop of Slovenia.

Alan Campbell, fresh from his Henley Royal Regatta win, made sure of his progress to the quarter-finals, scheduled for later this afternoon, with a comfortable victory in the morning heats in 7:11.79 in a race which he led throughout.

Great Britain’s Camelot-sponsored men’s four are racing here in Switzerland with Tom James as a substitute for the injured Alex Partridge. Today they won their heat from the front despite some late challenges from Slovenia.  Looking across the other heat results, the British quartet could face some tight racing with the Netherlands and New Zealand as the event progresses through tomorrow’s semi-final and Sunday’s final.

Despite losing Robin Bourne-Taylor, one of two representatives from the British Army in the men’s eight, to injury, the British men’s eight followed up their bronze medal in Amsterdam by qualifying in second place for tomorrow’s semi-finals. The Siemens-backed boat included James Orme in Bourne-Taylor’s place and was stroked by the Army’s Alastair Heathcote once more. They led briefly at the 1500m mark and were less than a second down on Germany at the finish.

The men’s quadruple scull of Ian Lawson, Alex Gregory,Simon Fieldhouse and Sam Townsend,  also Siemens-sponsored, were not far off qualifying for the semi-finals direct but now have a repechage to face later this evening after finishing third in 6:00.73 behind France and Germany. They hauled themselves back from fifth place at the halfway mark.

Colin Smith and Matt Langridge were slow in the first half and very quick in the final quarter of the men’s pair heats this morning.  Unlike in Linz, at the season’s opening world cup where the Siemens-backed duo won gold, the tactic was not enough to see them through to the semi-finals here so they will race a repechage late this afternoon, having finished third behind Poland and Croatia.

The Katherine Grainger-stroked GB women’s quadruple scull, sponsored by Camelot and winners in Linz but beaten in Amsterdam, stamped their authority on the morning’s heat by winning in 6:34.79 from Romania. Germany have a stengthened quad and won the other heat to set up a tantalising final on Sunday.

Anna Bebington and Elise Laverick raced for the first time this season here today in the Siemens-backed women’s double scull.  They will be pleased, as were the British supporters in the crowd, that they came through comfortably in second place to reach tomorrow’s semi-final. Bebington, a world cup winner with Annie Vernon in this event last year, has been battling a knee injury this season.

The GB women’s eight, like their male counterparts, have had their preparation here disrupted by injury. Rebecca Rowe was part of the crew here for the first time in today’s seeding race in which GB finished fourth.

Earlier in the day the lightweight men’s pair of Daniel Harte and Matt Beechey made light work of winning their heat to become the first GB crew through to a final here. They will race that on Saturday evening.

They were swiftly followed by the lightweight
men’s quadruple scull who emerged from a race-long contest with Germany to take the only qualifying slot. Andrea Dennis and Alasdair Leighton-Crawford, meanwhile, were third and sixth and went onto race in the late afternoon repechages of their events.

Finally, at the end of the opening session of racing the lightweight women’s quadruple scull won their seeding race and will now have the coveted "best lane" in tomorrow’s final.

 
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RESULTS

HEATS

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

Heat 1
1.  Megan Cooke/Anna Mickelson (USA)  7:22.14
2.  Natasha Howard/Natasha Page (GREAT BRITAIN)  7:27.33
3.  Nienkie Kingma/Helen Tanger (Netherlands) 7:28.42
4.  Lea Jacobsen/Fie Graugaard (Denmark) 7:34.56
5.  Simona Roccarina/Samanta Molina (Italy)  7:37.76
6.  Nina Wengert/Nadine Schmutzler (Germany 2)  7:43.27

Double scull

Heat 3
1.  Christiane Huth/Peggy Waleska (Germany 1)  7:06.84
2.  Elise Laverick/Anna Bebington (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:09.43
3.  Ana Maria Apechitei/Simona Musat (Rumania 1) 7:20.57
4.  Doina Ignat/Aurica Barascu (Rumania 2) 7:27.87

Quadruple scull

Heat 1
1.  Annie Vernon/Debbie Flood/Fran Houghton/Katherine
     Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:34.79
2.  Romania 6:37.20
3.  Belarus 6:51.93
4.  Switzerland 7:01.42

MEN

Pair

Heat 2
1.  Niksa & Sinisa Skelin (Croatia)  6:37.49
2.  Jaroslaw Godek/Piotr Hojka (Poland 2)  6:37.56
3.  Colin Smith/Matthew Langridge (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:39.64
4.  Andreas Penkner/Jochen Urban (Germany)  6:39.78
5.  Bart Sjenitzer/Willem de Graaf (Netherlands)  7:03.89
6.  Goran Jagar/Nikola Stojic (Serbia)  7:07.55

Four

Heat 1
1.  Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Tom James/Andy Hodge
     (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:01.76
2.  Slovenia 6:03.32
3.  Ireland 6:07.96
4.  Germany 6:10.67
5.  Australia 6:17.78
6.  Portugal 6:22.06

Eight

1.  Germany 5:37.04
2.  Tom Lucy/Tom Stallard/James Orme/Tom Solesbury/
     Josh West/Richard Egington/Tom Parker/Alastair
     Heathcote/Acer Nethercott (GREAT BRITAIN)  5:37.70
3.  Australia 5:39.15
4.  Belarus 5:51.48

Single scull

Heat 5
1.  Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:11.79
2.  Paul Rosenquist (Sweden 2) 7:15.08
3.  Christof Uhl (Austria 2)  7:18.88
4.  Pier Giorgio Negrini (Italy)  7:20.29

Double scull

Heat 2
1.  Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:27.19
2.  Matthew Trott/Nathan Cohen (New Zealand)  6:29.03
3.  Stijn Smulders/Christophe Raes (Belgium)  6:35.46
4.  Nikolay Spinev/Sergey Fedorovtsev (Russia) 6:36.42
5.  Joerg Lehnigk/Maneul Brehmer (Germany 2) 6:37.04
6.  Ioannis Tsamis/Ioannis Christou (Greece) 6:42.39

Heat 3
1.  Luka Spik/Itzok Cop (Slovenia) 6:27.12
2.  Kestutis Keblys/Mindaugas Griskonis (Lithuania)  6:31.11
3.  Akos Haller/Tibor Peto (Hungary)  6:38.97
4.  Jean Smerghetto/Federico Gattinoni (Italy)  6:42.71
5.  Bill Lucas/Charles Cousins (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 6:50.20
6.  Rene Bertram/Robert Sens (Germany 1) 7:08.95

Quadruple scull

Heat 2
1.  France 5:53.89
2.  Germany 1 5:56.75
3.  Simon Fieldhouse/Sam Townsend/Alex Gregory/
    Ian Lawson (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:00.73
4.  Netherlands 6:02.12
5.  Italy 2  6:09.76

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull

Heat 2
1.  Michaela Taupe (Austria) 7:57.13
2.  Valentina Galmarini (Italy 1)  8:03.03
3.  Andrea Dennis (GREAT BRITAIN)  8:13.17
4.  Carola Tamboloni (Italy 2)  8:16.50
5.  Anna Alliquander (Hungary) 8:40.57

Double scull

Heat 3
1.  Helen Casey/Hester Goodsell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:17.24
2.  Wendy Tripician/Jana Heere (USA) 7:19.64
3.  Pamela Weisshaupt/Fabiane Albrecht (Switzerland) 7:22.66
4.  Sinead Jennings/Niamh Ni Cheilleacher (Ireland) 7:26.46
5.  Elena Lyakisheva/Anna Yuchenko (Russia) 7:27.13
6.  Monika Hrabankova/Klara Janakova (Czech Republic) 7:48.35

MEN

Pair

Heat 1
1.  Matt Beechey/Daniel Harte (GREAT BRITAIN)  6:52.25
2.  Ross Brown/Michael McBryde (Australia) 6:57.53
3.  Liolios Athanasios/Ioannis Tsahouhos (Greece 1) 6:59.67
4.  Apostolos Kourkoumpas/Evangelos Tsourtsoulas
     (Greece 2)  7:04.37
5.  Justin Gaevaert/Ek Olivier (Belgium)  7:05.02
6.  Marc Rippel/Stephan Schad (Germany 2)  7:23.35

Four

Heat 1
1.  Richard Chambers/James Lindsay-Fynn/Paul Mattick/
     James Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:07.02
2.  Egypt 1 6:09.62
3.  Canada 6:10.24
4.  Greece 6:13.26
5.  Denmark 6:16.61
6.  Czech Republic 6:33.26

Single scull

Heat 2
1.  Duncan Grant (New Zealand)  7:06.88
2.  Franco Sancassani (Italy) 7:11.68
3.  Lorenzo Bertini (Italy 3)  7:11.90
4.  Timothy Colson (Canada)  7:17.73
5.  Richard Coakley (Ireland)  7:22.58
6.  Alasdair Leighton-Crawford (Great Britain)  7:28.03

Double scull

Heat 2
1.  Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.86
2.  Zsolt Hirling/Tamas Varga (Hungary) 6:47.71
3.  Wouter Van der Fraenen/Kristof Dekeyser (Belgium) 6:52.38
4.  Dimitry Margolin/Vladimir Polomartchouk (Israel) 6:53.58
5.  Pekka Nieminen/Matti Jaeaeskelainen (Finland) 6:55.17

Quadruple scull

Heat 2
1. Simon Jones/Robert Williams/Chris Bartley/Dave Currie
     (GREAT BRITAIN)  6:06.78
2.  Germany 1  6:10.97
3.  Austria 6:30.35
4.  Switzerland 6:38.73  

RACE FOR LANES

WOMEN

Eight

1. USA  6:09.01
2. Germany 6:13.83
3.  Netherlands 6:15.96
4.  Baz Moffat/Carla Ashford/Georgina Menheneott/Rebecca
     Rowe/Beth Rodford/Jess Eddie/Katie Greves/Louisa Reeve
     (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:17.35
5.  Russia 6:20.22
6.  New Zealand 6:23.79

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Quadruple scull

1.  Sophie Hosking/Laura Greenhalgh/Mathilde Pauls/Jane
     Hall (GREAT BRITAIN)  6:43.59
2.  Netherlands 6:46.54
3.  Germany 2 6:51.01
4.  Italy 6:55.50
5.  Germany 1 6:56.50
6.  Switzerland 7:02.68

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GB CREWS FOR THIRD WORLD CUP OF 2007
(Lucerne, July 13-15 )
(NB – listed from bow to stroke with
athlete name followed by club, home town
and date of birth in brackets).

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.4.85)
Natasha Howard (Tideway Scullers/West Runton/3.9.80)

Four

Rebecca Rowe (Rebecca/Bridgend/16.5.81)/Vicki Etiebet (Auriol Kensington/Ottowa, Canada/12.2.79)/Vicky Myers/Alice Freeman

Eight

Baz Moffat (Thames RC/Bradford/8.4.78)/Carla Ashford (Thames
RC/Northallerton/13.3.79)/Georgina Menheneott (Mortlake,
Anglian & Alpha RC/North Bradley, Wilts /18.12.79)/
Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/7.10.84)/Beth Rodford (Thames
RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/Rebecca Rowe (Rebecca/Bridgend/16.5.81)/Katie Greves (Uni of London/Oxford/2.9.82)/Louisa Reeve (Leander/London/16.05.84)/Caroline O’Connor
(Oxford Brookes/Ealing/25.4.83)

Double scull

Elise Laverick (Thames RC/Poling, W.Sussex/27.7.75)/
Anna Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.2.83)

Quadruple scull

Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Leeds/27.2.80)/Annie Vernon
(Thames RC/Wadebridge/1.9.82)/Fran Houghton
(Uni of London/Oxford/19.9.80)/Katherine Grainger
(St Andrews BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

MEN

Pair

Colin Smith (Leander/Henley on Thames/23.9.83)/Matt Langridge
(Leander Club/Northwich/20.5.83)

Four

Steve Williams (Leander Club/Cheltenham/15.4.76)/Peter
Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.7.81)/Tom James
(CUBC/Wrexham/11.3.84)/Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/3.3.79)

Eight

Tom Parker (OUBC/Winchester/24.10.82)
Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.9.80)
Tom Lucy (Oxford Brookes/Monmouth/1.5.88)
Tom Stallard (Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.9.78)
Josh West (Leander/Santa Fe/25.3.77)
Richard Egington (Leander/Knutsford/26.2.79)
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/1.4.84)
Alastair Heathcote (Army RC/London/18.8.77)
Acer Nethercott (OUBC/Harlow/28.11.77)

Single Scull

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/9.5.83)

Double Scull – two boats

Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.4.79)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)

Second boat – see U23 section below

Quadruple scull

Simon Fieldhouse (Molesey/Thames Ditton/4.9.76)/Sam Townsend
(Reading Uni/Reading/26.11.85)/Alex Gregory (Reading Uni/
Wormington/11.3.84)/Ian Lawson (Leander/Otley, W.Yorks/4.3.77)

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull

Andrea Dennis (Wallingford RC/Oxford/03.01.82)

Double scull

Helen Casey (Wallingford RC/Oxford/6.2.74)/
Hester Goodsell (Rob Roy/Cambridge/27.6.84)

Quadruple scull

Laura Greenhalgh/Jane Hall (Leander/Caversham/
20.10.73), Mathilde Pauls (Imperial College BC/Berlin &
Putney/26.09.83)/ Sophie Hosking (Durham Uni/
Wimbledon/25.01.86)

MEN

Pair

Matt Beechey (Leander/Worcester/3.4.77)/Daniel
Harte (London/Edinburgh/12.12.75)

Four

Richard Chambers (Oxford Brookes/Coleraine/10.6.85)/
James Lindsay-Fynn (London/Trim/29.9.75)/Paul Mattick
(Wallingford/Oxford/25.4.78)/James Clarke (London RC/
London/13.12.84)

Single scull

Alasdair Leighton-Crawford (Tideway
Scullers/Richmond-upon-Thames/09.12.81)

Double scull

Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/2.5.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/1.7.78)

Quadruple scull
Chris Bartley/Simon Jones/Rob Williams/Dave Currie

UNDER-23 CREWS

OPEN

MEN

Double scull – competing in senior open event

Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.9.87)/Charles Cousins
(Rob Roy/Willingham, Cambs/13.12.88)