Six crews into A Finals as World Rowing Cup III gets underway
A further six boats have advanced to the semi finals in Lucerne, Switzerland
Credit: Benedict Tufnell
In the shadows of Mount Pilatus, Jake Woods was the first British athlete in action on the Lake of the Gods. Woods was racing in heat 1 of the PR1 Men’s Single Scull, competing against Australia’s Erik Horrie and France’s Alexis Sanchez, both of whom were finalists at the Paris Paralympics and last year’s World Rowing Championships.
Woods was third through halfway, and his position remained unchanged at the finish, but his time of 09:31.11 was quick enough to book himself a spot in Sunday’s A Final.
Joining Woods in the A Final is Benjamin Pritchard. The European, World, and Paralympic Champion set the fastest time of the day as he led out Israel’s Shmuel Daniel and Spain’s Javier Garcia Martinez in the second heat, Pritchard led at every marker as he cruised into Sunday’s A Final.
“It started to get very hot very quickly as the effort levels started to come up,” explained the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year.
“Luckily, we had the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, which was extremely hot, so we’ve learned some coping mechanisms, which is why I’ve got some ice down my jacket, and we’re doing a few other things. You have to take confidence from winning the heat, but it’s another game on Sunday. I’ll go home, reassess and see what I have to do for Sunday.”
The early racing continued with the heats of the Women’s Single Sculls. After winning World Rowing Cup I in Seville, Lauren Henry opened her account in Lucerne in fine form. The 2024 Olympic Champion won her first race ahead of Switzerland’s Aurelia-Maxima Katharina Janzen, who blasted out of the blocks in the opening 250. By 500m gone, Henry’s bowball had hit the front, and then the Leicester RC sculler took care of business in the rest of the race. Her time of 07:41.91 was the second fastest across the four heats, behind Ireland’s Fiona Murtagh, who took bronze at the first World Rowing Cup of the year.
“It was good. There was a little headwind, but I did what I had to, and it was well controlled. I’ve been trying to enjoy my rowing, my racing, and my rhythm, and I thought I did that today. It was a good tick of the box, and I’m ready to step on tomorrow,” said Henry.
As the mercury rose, racing throughout the morning delivered some razor-thin margins. Crews fought for automatic qualification through to the semi-finals, or tried to finish with a time quick enough to advance in the remaining places. In their first race together, Cam Nyland and Sarah McKay placed fourth, but their time of 07:13.83 was quick enough to advance to the semi-finals.
“It was really fun to race together,” explained 2025 World silver medallist Sarah McKay.
“We came onto the team together last year, and we were meant to do April Trials together, but that didn’t happen, so it was great to have the opportunity today, and we’re excited to see how we progress over the weekend.”
“We wanted to keep this one internal. The aim was to build on our work, focus on our technical goals, and we wanted the race around us to do it’s own thing and we’d do ours. Now that we know how we stand, we can react to other people’s moves,” added Nyland.
There was barely time to draw breath as the Men’s Double Sculls hurtled down the track in the following race. Following the withdrawal of the French combination, the field was reduced to 24, and the afternoon’s quarter-finals were cancelled. Great Britain’s new-look duo of Matt Haywood and Josh Knight won their heat and, in the process, beat Serbia’s established combination of Martin Mackovic and Nikolaj Pimenov, who took bronze in Seville. In the second heat, GBR 2, made up of James Cartwright and Jamie Gare, placed sixth and will race in Final C tomorrow.
“It’s been a bit of a challenging morning, of course, originally we were supposed to be in a heat and a quarter today,” said Haywood, who won silver in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls at last year’s World Championships.
“Things change, you’ve got to roll with it, roll with the punches a bit. I think we took it in our stride. It’s our first race together on a senior international stage; we’ve had about three weeks together, so I think it was a really good run-out to start. Something we can build on and keep moving forward.”
Next to race on the Rotsee was the Men’s Pair of Matt Aldridge and Fergus Woolnough. The duo, who raced in the Men’s Eight in Seville, traded blows with the United States of America all the way down the course before the USA pulled away in the closing stages. After pulling away from Brazil and Korea, the British had already done enough to finish in the top two and book their spot in the semi-finals.
“It was good, our first proper 2km piece,” explained Aldridge.
“Despite a ropey start, it went well, and we got into a really strong rhythm in the middle. We were going well with the US, stepped well at halfway before starting to wind down. We were moving back on the Americans, but they had a good wind into the line, so we kept holding pace, saving the legs for the semi tomorrow.”
After Sarah Marshall, Holly Youd, and Angharad Broughton made their senior team debuts in Seville, the trio were back in action with Eleanor Brinkhoff in Lucerne. The British were second in their heat, seven seconds back on the United States, a crew which returns three athletes from the 2025 World Champion unit.
“We’ve had a good block of training since Seville, so we’re looking to step on. I think we can hopefully learn some lessons for the final, tighten up a few things tomorrow and hopefully build into Sunday,” said Brinkhoff.
The British Men’s Four looked sublime as they glided into the semi-finals. The reigning World Champions, Dan Graham, James Robson, Douwe De Graff, and George Bourne were untouchable in their heat.
Bourne explained, “It’s nice to be back racing and epic to be here. It was a good race, the right first step, and we’re excited to see how we progress through the regatta. The standard is so high that anything can happen, so we had to stay on our game, and there were some great crews behind us.”
Great Britain rounded out the first block of racing with two wins from two in the Men’s and Women’s Quadruple Sculls.
Following her return from injury, 2024 Olympic Champion Imogen Grant stroked the Women’s Quad to a heat win in Lucerne. Finn Stratton, Lola Anderson, and Hannah Scott are all back in the boat after winning silver in Seville, and their time of 06:19.75 was the fastest across the two heats as they head straight into the A Final.
“We executed as a new crew what we’ve been trying to do in training, and it’s really good for us to get a first run down the course,” said 2024 Olympic Champion Hannah Scott.
“We’re proud and happy with a solid performance to start Lucerne. We were in an outside lane, so we felt we had more control of what was around. Conditions were a little tricky, being next to the warm-up area, but it gave us a chance to execute what we’ve been planning in training, and it was a matter of showing it today.”
Much like the women, the quartet of Cedol Dafydd, Callum Dixon, Tobias Schröder, and Rory Harris won their heat. After Poland led through the opening 500m, the British were leading by halfway and never looked back as they beat the Individual Neutral Athletes combination and Poland into second and third place, respectively.
The day’s racing was rounded off by the heats for the Women’s and Men’s Eights. Great Britain stormed out to an early lead over the Netherlands and Australia 2 with China trailing a little. Lizzie Witt, Jade Lindo, Amelia Standing, Katherine George, Lauren Irwin, Annie Campbell-Orde, Heidi Long, Megan Slabbert, and Cox Jack Tottem continued to stretch away from the Netherlands to win by just over six seconds.
“We went home after Seville and did some really good work on our rhythm,” said Megan Slabbert, who stroked the crew to the fastest time across the two heats.
“I think that was a nice, solid piece, and we felt everything we worked on, and we’re looking forward to the final. It felt very composed, and we kept moving away.”
Two changes were made to the Men’s Eight between racing in Lucerne and Plovdiv. Will Stewart and Matt Rowe are back in the crew for the first time since winning silver at last year’s World Rowing Championships in Shanghai. The new bow pair were first across the line in their heat and clocked 05:25.10, beating Australia into second place and posting the quickest time across the two heats.
“It was the first race in a slightly new combination,” explained David Bewicke-Copely.
“We’ve taken it back to basics in training, and we feel like we’ve had a really good first outing. We’re trying to build through the regatta, but there’s a lot to learn ahead of Sunday. Tom did a very good job of letting us know where we were, but we always go into every race expecting it to be bowball to bowball, and that’s how we treated it going down the track.”
“Today was a superb start for the team here in Lucerne,” said Interim Performance Director Tom Dyson.
“Some of the recent training and testing has indicated progression since Seville and the rowers have shown that in today’s racing. Twelve crews progressing and 8 heat wins gets us rolling. The obvious opportunity now is to build momentum across the weekend starting with tomorrow’s important semi finals.”
Racing continues on Saturday from 08:45 BST with the minor finals.
