WORLD CUP ROUND-UP 2014 World Cup II
Aiguebelette, France 20-22 June 2014
WORDS RACHEL QUARRELL // PHOTOGRAPHY ROWING AUSTRALIA N 42
ew Zealand began their 2014 European campaign with a bang in June, claiming a quartet of World Cup gold medals in Aiguebelette
with their eight top athletes, in a manner reminiscent of the 2005 world championships when they won four small-boat titles inside an hour. Great Britain won the regatta trophy with nine Olympic-class medals, and the USA were second on points for the weekend, but the impact of the New Zealand team was dramatic. Victory for Eric Murray and Hamish Bond is never a surprise: the Kiwi duo’s legendary ability to maintain speed while others change into a steadier mid- race pace put them lengths ahead of the field once again. Since it’s difficult to see anyone challenging them this season, a sixth unbeaten year looks probable. New Zealand’s 2013 silver-medal lightweight four turned the tables impressively on Denmark after defeat in the heat, ripping a clear-water lead out of the Danes before 500m to go and giving the European champions too much to do, while Britain had to go full throttle merely to maintain third. The other Kiwi powers were single scullers Emma Twigg and Mahe Drysdale. Twigg, in the absence of Australian world champion and Sydney runner-up, Kim Crow, dismissed pressure
from China’s Guo Jing Li to scull to a confident gold. Drysdale came to France aiming merely to make the A-final, but discovered that his off-season training had been well spent, when he was able to beat world and European champion Ondrej Synek not only in the less intense semi-final but also in the final, with a powerful row-through in the last 700m. “Not my usual style”, Drysdale
tweeted afterwards, but the damage he inflicted during the 75-stroke burn which took four lengths out of the race leader will be etched into Synek’s memory for the rest of the season. It was a bravura display of bare-knuckle sculling, well worth making the trip to see. Behind the top two, Cuba’s 2013 silver medallist Angel Fournier Rodriguez underlined his status with bronze, and Frenchman- turned-Canadian Julien Bahain did his chances of confirming selection for the worlds no harm at all by reaching the A-final. Briton Alan Campbell was absent, his wife Juliet having given birth to a baby daughter, Tabitha, a week earlier. The British team was delighted with
strong results and wide winning margins which made up for the absence of some top European medallists. Champion Heather Stanning’s first international final since the 2012 Olympics was a resounding success. She and Helen Glover were untouchable from the first stroke to the last, while the USA’s women’s eight scrapped it out in pairs
behind them. “It feels like I haven’t been away,” said Stanning. “I knew it was in us but it’s a relief to do it.” The talented Polly Swann, who claimed her own place at the top of the GB women’s squad during Stanning’s absence, is now relegated to the eight, which sneaked past China to claim bronze while the US women’s pairs were busy doubling up and demolishing early leaders Canada. It was an astonishing rate-40 sprint, the American world champions overcoming their lactic acid fatigue to charge back from a 1.5-length deficit and win by a second. GB domination was visible also in the
men’s fours, where the crew dubbed “le machine Britannique” by the French commentators inexorably led the field, accelerating in the second half as they settled into a stronger rhythm and pulled away from a useful Australian crew carrying one substitute due to injury. The sweep squads for Britain and the USA may be shuffled before Lucerne, since both at the moment have a top four and a lower eight. In GB’s case the question is whether
to keep the successful four together and go for a second medal with an eight which can be strengthened by returning athletes and reshuffles, or to put out a top eight to defend last year’s world title. The USA’s four underperformed to lose silver in the last strokes to Australia, while its eight had no trouble at all adding a gold to the tally with a very
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