In sometimes intense pouring rain, the first World Rowing Cup medals for the 2017 season were awarded today in Belgrade, Serbia and Great Britain came away with eleven medals out of 14 events in a regatta that saw new names emerge and Olympic talent return.
Under very rainy skies Great Britain headed the field by taking gold medals in four boat classes including the men’s and women’s pairs, lightweight men’s double sculls and men’s four.
The men’s pair saw the emergence of a new combination of Jacob Dawson and Matthew Rossiter of Great Britain who took the gold ahead of Serbia’s Nenad Bedik and Milos Vasic who secured one of two medals for the host nation.
In the men’s single sculls, Switzerland’s Nico Stahlberg had an outstanding performance pushing Olympic silver medallist Damir Martin of Croatia into World Cup silver medal position. The bronze went to the home country’s Marko Marjanovic of Serbia.
Switzerland was also successful in the women’s single sculls with Jeannine Gmelin dominating the race ahead of 2nd place Rio Silver medallist Victoria Thornley of Great Britain and 2016 European Champion Magdalena Lobnig of Austria, who came through in 3rd place.
Switzerland finished third on the medals table in their most successful World Rowing Cup regatta in recent years as Patricia Merz also won gold in the lightweight women’s single sculls finishing first ahead of Ireland’s Denise Walsh.
Lithuania showed their prowess in men’s sculling by winning gold in both the men’s quadruple sculls and the men’s double sculls. These two golds were Lithuania’s sole medals and it put them into fifth place on the medals table.
The overall points winner of the World Rowing Cup with 60 points was Great Britain followed by The Netherlands in second (47) and Poland in third (36). The Dutch were especially successful in the men’s eight when they rowed through Great Britain just strokes before the finish line to take gold. The Dutch also took gold in the women’s double sculls and women’s four. The Netherlands earned eight medals overall. Poland finished with seven medals including gold in the lightweight women’s double sculls and women’s quadruple sculls.
The World Rowing Cup series was launched in 1997 and consists of a series of three events. The overall World Rowing Cup winners are determined after the third event. This year, the three stages of the series are Belgrade, SRB (5-7 May), Poznan, POL (16-18 June) and Lucerne, SUI (7-9 July).
Report courtesy of World Rowing
