Rowing World Cup moves to Poznan, Poland
Stage two of the 2006 Rowing World Cup takes place next week
in Poznan, Poland when teams from 35 nations continue their
journey to become the Rowing World Cup winners this season.
Over 600 athletes competing in 251 boats will make the trip
to the venue of the 2009 World Rowing Championships. The highest
number of boat entries comes from Australia. They will compete
in 21 boats including four entries in each of the men’s
and women’s pairs.
The men’s single sculls promises to be an exciting
confrontation between British single scull revelation Alan
Campbell who surprised all by dominating the single sculls
race at the first stage of the Rowing World Cup in Munich
last month. Campbell will be up against 2005 World Champion
Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand. The two friends have recently
trained together but have never had the opportunity of competing
against each other at a World Rowing event.
Australia’s Drew Ginn teams up with Duncan Free in
the men’s pair as one of four Australian crews in this
event. Free is better known as a sculler, but pairs up here
with the 2004 Olympic gold medallist in what may be a new
attempt at Australian pair domination in the lead up to the
next Olympics.
The Slovenian double Iztok Cop and Luka Spik did not start
in Munich and missed a very close final which saw the top
four boats crossing the line within less than two seconds
of each other. This time, Cop and Spik are back and will compete
with a very strong German crew of René Bertram and
Robert Sens gold medallists in Munich as well as the Hungarians
(silver in Munich) France’s Adrien Hardy and Jean-Baptiste
Macquet (bronze in Munich) and Great Britain Matthew Wells
and Stephen Rowbotham (fourth in Munich).
A strong looking German women’s quad will put Great
Britain’s 2005 World Champion crew under threat when
they appear for the first time this season on the international
scene.
The women’s eight features a large field of nine crews
including a French women’s eight and a New Zealand crew.
In the absence of Germany, the winning crew from the first
Rowing World Cup, the field is open to some good competition.
A record number of entries for the men’s eight promises
some good racing. Twelve crews, totalling 108 rowers, will
go for gold and try to beat current Rowing World Cup leader
Germany whose crew in Poznan is made up of five out of nine
of the Munich winning crew. Poland and Australia, runners
up at the first World Cup are also in this large attendance
field.
The Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland begins on Thursday
15 June and will go on for three days. Finals will be raced
on Saturday 17 June from 10 am CET. Full reports, live audio
streaming, live results and features are available on ww.worldrowing.com.
Live streaming will be available on www.eurosport.com in Europe
as well as on www.wcsn.com in the rest of the world.
The Rowing World Cup series was launched back in 1997 and
includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The overall Rowing World
Cup champions are determined after a series of three regattas.
This year, these are held in Munich, Germany (25 – 27
May), Poznan, Poland (15 – 17 June) and the final in
Lucerne, Switzerland (7 – 9 July).
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