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Sunday 30 May 1999
World Cup, May 28-30 1999, Hazewinkel
Britain leads the Rowing World Cup after the first round, eleven crews amassing 50 points and a twelfth achieving a bronze medal but not earning points because their race was won by Messrs Cracknell, Redgrave, Coode and Pinsent. Jonny Singfield stroked Jonny Searle, Richard Dunn and Jim Walker to third place behind Poland after lying fourth after 500 metres, fifth after 1000, and fourth after 1500. This crew was unfairly dubbed 'Dad's Army' by some in the press box, but their performance was excellent while being a good measure of the standard of opposition on hand for the world champions.
Jurgen Grobler, coach of the No 1 four, was deadpan and uncommunicative about his plans for the future of Ed Coode and Tim Foster. It is virtually certain that Coode will keep the No 3 seat for the Cup's second round in Vienna in the hope that this four will be put to a much more severe test than they received in Hazewinkel. They could cruise at will after 1000 metres in semifinal and final.
For his part, Foster was unlucky to miss the semifinal of the single sculls in a hard repechage. He showed he is a gutsy sculler and proved that his claim to have recovered 95 per cent of his fitness is true.
The best World Cup performances came from Dot Blackie and Cath Bishop in the pairs, which they won in cracking style, from [text lost].
Stephen Williams and Simon Dennis also in the pairs, and the men's eight in a sleek black Resolute who, like the pair, finished second.
Blackie and Bishop said that the difference between this season and last is that now they know they can medal when previously they only believed that they could.
Williams and Dennis have come from nowhere to second place, beating the Olympic silver medal winners David Weightman and Rob Scott of Australia in the process, and getting very close to winners Oliver Martinov and Ninoslav Saraga of Croatia.
The men's eight not only fought off determined pushes by the rump of the Netherlands Olympic champion crew but found a storming finish to overhaul the Russians and close to within two seconds of the Romanians.
Miriam Batten-Luke and Gillian Lindsay, world champions in double sculls, finished fourth, unable to respond to a race led throughout by the Dutch crew Pieta van Dishhoek and Eeke van Nes. The British were second at half way but lost the remaining medal positions to Levina and Merk of Russia and Garcia and Balmary of France.
The new women's quadruple scullers, stroked by Guin Batten, finished fourth after hitting a buoy 35 seconds into their race, a promising start to the Olympic qualification year.
Four crews earned fifth places - the lightweight double scullers Tracy Langlands and Jane Hall and Tim Male and Tom Kay, the lightweight men's four (James Brown, Jim McNiven, Dave Lemon, John Warnock) and the women's eight. The latter was changed just before the regatta when Sanders and Templeton were subbed in from the scratched four after two women reported sick. Alison Mowbray was sixth in the single sculls.
The Scot Kirsty McClellan was fourth in the women's lightweight singles. Philip Baker and Ben Webb won the lightweight pairs, with the Germans Locher and Stomporowski second and Britain's Aidan Tucker and Michael Louzado third.
The second lightweight men's four, Mark Partridge, Ned Kittoe, James McGarva and Gareth Davis, finished fourth.
© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1999.
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