Top-class rowing at todays finals day at Lucerne Regatta

In cool, but mostly sunny weather conditions and with increasing headwinds during the day, racing on Sunday’s final day of the LUCERNE REGATTA took place across Lake Rot.
No less than 16 countries shared the medal cake in the 15 race categories. Great Britain and China were the only nations to win 3 titles, while Holland was in the medal tally with two titles. In addition, 8 country representations were able to secure gold once.
The races were characterized by successes of the favorites, which was not surprising considering the proximity to the big goal of all athletes this season, the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The German Oliver Zeidler and the Russian Hanna Prakhatsen won the single races. In a heartbeat final, the British eight outperformed the German eight in the final meters, thus underlining this season’s category hierarchy. There were plenty of impressive performances. For example, the men’s double four and the women’s double four from Holland, the Romanian women’s double sculls Nicoleta-Ancuța Bodnar/Simona Geanina Radiș or the Irish men’s lightweight double sculls (Finton McCarthy/Paul O’Donovan), who delivered superior true demonstrations of their skills.
Unfortunately, the hopefuls of the Swiss delegation did not make it onto the victory pontoon. Roman Röösli and Barnabé Delarze started very fast in the double sculls and even took the lead of the field for a while. Finally, however, they paid tribute to the horrendous speed and crossed the finish line in fifth place – still within striking distance of the very strong competition. At least they left the season’s dominators from France, Matthieu Androdias/Hugo Boucheron, behind. In the women’s skiff competition, Jeannine Gmelin was on the defensive from the start and lost a lot of water and time to the competition, rowing far below her usual performance level. She had to settle for 6th place. Also making its appearance in the final was the young women’s double four, formed with the 2024 Paris Olympics in mind, with Pascale Walker, Lisa Lötscher, Ella von der Schulenburg and Salome Ulrich. They did well and finished in 5th place, even ahead of the Dutch European champions from 2020 in Poznan, Poland.
All in all: Despite the complex circumstances due to the Corona, the organizing committee and the large number of helpers mastered the task of staging a major sporting event with flying colors. Of course, the great rowing festival lacked the mood and atmosphere of the public on Lake Rot. But in July 2022 it should be possible again a LUCERNE REGATTA with audience at the lake with the cheers of the audience and the sound of the cowbells. This hope must be!

Media inquiries: Mic Zemp, Communication LUCERNE REGATTA (+41 79 729 47 49 / communication@lucerneregatta.com )

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)