The Germany eight started the World Cup final in Lucerne without an encouraging sense of achievement. At the start of the traditional regatta on the Rotsee, in which for the first time this season almost the entire world elite is at the start, the parade boat of the German Rowing Association (DRV) had to be content with third place in the preliminary heat.
In order to save energy for the repechage on Saturday, the crew around batsman Mattes Schönherr (Potsdam) slowed down in the duel with the currently overpowering Brits on the second half of the course. “We can do it a little bit better. Tomorrow we want to step it up a notch,” commented eighth coach Sabine Tschäge.
The big gap to the victorious and currently dominating boat from Great Britain was almost eight seconds at the finish. Even the second from the Netherlands was over six seconds faster. Helmsman Jonas Wiesen (Treis-Karden) announced more resistance for the repechage: “We will do everything to qualify for the final and have the chance to do better.”
Zeidler criticizes the new format
One-man driver Oliver Zeidler, who is considered one of the favorites after his recent victories in Varese and Henley, also got off to a less than ideal start in the three-day regatta. The German one-man champion from Munich had a hard time with the decision of the organizers to forgo the classic heats with board-to-board fights in many boat classes for test reasons and instead to carry out so-called time trials. In this format, the rowers start back-to-back at specific time intervals and battle alone against the clock.
“It’s a nonsense format because it doesn’t exactly increase the attractiveness of rowing,” complained the 26-year-old, “I was very lucky today because I only missed the elimination by 0.7 seconds.” Like Zeidler, Alexandra Föster (Meschede) also took a direct course to the quarterfinals, which will be held in normal mode again. All other German boats that started in the 14 Olympic classes have to go into the repechage.