Tenth Rowing World Cup season ends next week-end in Lucerne,
Switzerland
The third and final stage of this year’s Rowing World
Cup takes place next week-end, 13 to 15 July 2007, at the
Swiss rowing Mecca, the Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland.
In total, 330 crews, from 41 countries have entered with
a breakdown of 216 men’s crews and 114 women’s
crews. With a massive entry of 876 athletes (over 100 more
than entered in the second stage in Amsterdam earlier this
month), the regatta will provide an extremely competitive
field for any team fine tuning their line-ups or making decisions
about selection for the pinnacle event of the season, the
2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich at the end of August.
Following years of European domination in the Rowing World
Cup, China created quite a stir, when they snatched 10 medals
while acquiring 58 World Cup points in Amsterdam. This time,
however, China have only entered one boat, the women’s
single, so it will be back to current overall leader Great
Britain (102 points) and Germany (79 points) to battle for
the highly sought after Overall World Cup crystal trophy.
Germany has 21 boats entered in World Cup events, where Great
Britain only has 16, so competition looks to be tight.
The men’s single will be the race to watch after reigning
World Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand got beaten out
of the medals last month. He will be back to reestablish his
dominance but will have to contend with an ever-improving
field. Australia’s finest, Drew Ginn and Duncan Free
are due to get their 2007 season going in the men’s
pair and they will be looking to topple winners of the second
World Cup, New Zealand’s Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater.
Also in Lucerne next week-end, the Thomas Keller Medal will
be awarded to one of five finalists selected by the Thomas
Keller Medal committee. The selected finalists are France’s
Jean-Christophe Rolland, Mike McKay of Australia, Constantina
Burcica of Romania, New Zealand’s Rob Waddell and Katrin
Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany.
The “Thomi” is the highest medal awarded in rowing
and goes to recently retired rowers, recognising an exceptional
rowing career as well as exemplary sportsmanship.
The 18-carat gold Thomas Keller medal will be presented by
Denis Oswald and Dominik Keller, son of the late Thomas Keller
around 13:00 on Sunday 15 July on the medal ceremony podium
at the Rotsee regatta course.
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