NZ tops Lucerne medals table with 5 golds, 1 silver

LUCERNE: New Zealand topped the medals table and Germany the overall World Cup points table when the 2018 World Rowing Cup season ended in Lucerne yesterday.

The final World Cup regatta was, for many countries, the last chance to test their crews internationally before the world championships in September.

New Zealand’s medals came in six races and five of them were gold. The women’s pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler remain unbeaten since 2017. They raced from the front yesterday, ahead of Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens, of Canada.

The New Zealand women’s double sculls and women’s eight finished first, in both cases beating Canada.

Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue held off Gabrielle Smith and Andrea Proske, of Canada, in the double, and Canada chased New Zealand to the line in the women’s eight. The United States was third.

In the men’s single sculls, two New Zealand scullers took on two German scullers. Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale and Robbie Manson, of New Zealand, were racing each other to be the top sculler for their country; Tim Ole Naske and Oliver Zeidler were doing the same for Germany.

Manson dominated the second half of the race to finish first and take the mantle for his nation and Zeidler got silver.

Third place went to reigning world champion Ondrej Synek, of the Czech Republic.

Gold also went New Zealand’s way in the men’s pair. Tom Murray and Michael Brake held off France’s Onfroy brothers as well as Lukas Helesic and Jakub Podrazil, of the Czech Republic. These two boats took silver and bronze respectively.

In the lightweight women’s double, Poland came flying out at the start. Weronika Deresz and Joanna Dorociak had qualified through the heats on Saturday, giving them a day off. They were followed closely by Switzerland, which had to race in yesterday’s repechage.

Deresz and Dorociak held a 35 stroke rate to stay in the lead coming into the middle of the race. Meanwhile, New Zealand had moved up from fourth to overtake South Africa and get into a bronze medal position. New Zealanders Jackie Kiddle and Zoe McBride then overtook Switzerland to move into the silver spot.

Deresz and Dorociak realised they needed to keep the speed on in the final sprint with a 37 stroke rate. New Zealand, at 39, could not catch them.

In the final of the men’s eight, the Netherlands had the fastest time and world champion Germany the nextfastest. New Zealand took fifth place.

In the men’s quad B final, New Zealand won comfortably.

Germany scored 130 points in the series, from the Netherlands on 127 points and Great Britain on 104 points.