Rowing World Cup II - Munich (GER) - Who to Watch
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The second stage of the 2010 Rowing World Cup will begin tomorrow morning, Friday 18 June, in Munich, Germany.
Following the first stage of the Rowing World Cup series which was held in Bled, Slovenia, end of May, which are the crews to look out for this coming weekend?
Can Great Britain maintain the momentum they built up after dominating at last month's first Rowing World Cup for 2010 in Bled, Slovenia? Great Britain is known for sending big teams and hitting the start of the season with a roar. They will be led by Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins who will race in the women's double and quad.
The large Chinese team returns to this Rowing World Cup with a more refined crew line up, while Australia and New Zealand arrive with crews that were selected months ago.
Women's Pair (W2-)
- Romania returns to defend their Olympic Champion status.
- China may prevail again after winning at the first Rowing World Cup last month. Twin sisters, Tong and Meng Li, 21, are looking solid.
- New Zealanders Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown arrive and Australia's Sarah Tait and Sarah Cook, are racing for the first time this season.
Men's Pair (M2-)
- New Zealand's Eric Murray and Hamish Bond haven't lost a race since they came together in 2009.
- Will top contenders from Great Britain, Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge, manage to challenge and overcome the Kiwis?
Women's Double Sculls (W2x)
- Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger of Great Britain won last month at the first Rowing World Cup. Grainger's status continues to grow as Great Britain's most successful woman rower. Watkins and Grainger will also race in the women's quad.
- Liang Tian and Yangyang Zhang of China are both Olympians with Zhang a 2008 Olympic Champion in the quad. They won silver in Bled and will challenge Watkins and Grainger.
Men's Double Sculls (M2x)
- Great Britain's Marcus Bateman and Matthew Wells will meet 2009 world silver medallists, Cedric Berrest and Julien Bahain (FRA), but will miss racing 2009 World Champions Germany as Eric Knittel is injured.
- Expect a stacked final with fierce competition including Estonia, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
Men's Four (M4-)
- In recent years this event has been practically owned by Great Britain. The British looked comfortable in Bled but in Munich will meet Olympic silver medallist crew, Australia.
- Germany has three crews entered as coach Hartmut Buschbacher continues to look for his ideal line up for the World Champs later this year.
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (LW2x)
- Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking (GBR) are likely to be the frontrunners in the absence of the Americans who won in Bled.
- Former top British sculler Jo Hammond is now rowing for Belgium and has made a fast combination with Evi Geentjens.
- New Chinese line up of Jing Liu, 22, and Wenyi Huang, 19, may show surprise speed.
Lightweight Men's Double Sculls (LM2x)
- Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter (GBR) are back together after a post-Olympic break. Expect a showdown between current World Champions, New Zealand (Storm Uru and Peter Taylor) and current Olympic Champions Great Britain (Purchase and Hunter) in the first time since 2008 that they have raced each other.
- Young upstarts may excel from Germany. Lars Hartig and Linus Lichtschlag come through from under-23 success.
Lightweight Men's Four (LM4-)
- Great Britain were visibly disappointed to come second to Denmark in Bled. Munich is likely to be a British - Danish fight at the head of the field.
- Last year's World Champions, Germany, have not looked so good this season so have a lot to prove.
Women's Quadruple Sculls (W4x)
- Great Britain looked comfortable in Bled. Annie Vernon and Beth Rodford join their country's double, Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger, to retain their World Cup leaders' jersey.
- Ukraine are the reigning World Champions but will have to find more boat speed to beat the British.
Men's Quadruple Sculls (M4x)
- Dominated by Poland since 2005, it looks like new countries are coming through to challenge.
- Croatia is young and gutsy and beat Poland in Bled.
- Australia has built their boat around 2008 Olympic Champion from the double, David Crawshay.
- New Zealand arrives with Olympic medallist from the pair, Nathan Twaddle, returning after a break following Beijing.
Women's Eight (W8+)
- This is Romania's prize event. They finished second last year and return in 2010 with the same line up.
- Great Britain won at Bled (in the absence of Romania) and have new confidence and drive to try to retain the World Cup leaders' jersey.
Women's Single Sculls (W1x)
- Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch is a hero in Belarus and queen of the single. She has been racing almost exclusively in her single for 20 years and has a finishing sprint that is hard to beat.
- Mirka Knapkova, 29, (CZE) is racing for the first time in 2010 after illness kept her away from Bled. Knapkova faces the ever-improving Emma Twigg, 23, of New Zealand.
- China's Bin Tang is an Olympic Champion in the quad and in Bled showed a smooth transition to racing the single. Watch out Karsten.
Men's Single Sculls (M1x)
- The final in Bled saw a skillfully mastered race by Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. He will again face stiff competition from Alan Campbell (GBR) and Marcel Hacker (GER).
- Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte (NOR) returns to the single but is sometimes slow in early season races.
- Current World Champion Mahe Drysdale (NZL) may race in Munich but is in check due to a back injury.
Men's Eight (M8+)
- Great Britain, with the return of 1992 Olympic Champion Greg Searle in six seat, won in Bled but will face World Champions, the Germans in Munich.
- In front of their home crowd, Germany will have the odds in their favour.
- Poland has a 2012 Olympic medal in mind and continues to improve, making it to the podium in Bled.
Follow the racing live on www.worldrowing.com thanks to the Live Race Viewer. The event finals will be video streamed live on Sunday 20 June and can be accessed through the www.worldrowing.com website.
The Rowing World Cup series was launched in 1997, and includes all 14 Olympic boat classes. The overall Rowing World Cup winners are determined after a series of three regattas. Germany has dominated the series since its beginning ten years ago, with Great Britain upsetting the usual trend by finishing 68 points ahead of Germany in 2009. This year, the three stages of the series are held in Bled, Slovenia (27-30 May), Munich, Germany (18-20 June); and the final in Lucerne, Switzerland (9-11 July).
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