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Britain records World Cup win
Posted: Saturday June 03, 2000 01:48 PM
MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- Britain's Steve Redgrave, hoping for a fifth successive Olympic gold medal this year, swept to victory Saturday in the coxless four at the year's first Rowing World Cup in Munich. Redgrave teamed up with two-time Olympic gold medalist Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster to hold off a late charge from France 1, finishing 0.76 seconds clear in a time of 6 minutes, 14.67 seconds. "We expected it to be a hard opening regatta," said Redgrave. "We made it hard for ourselves in some ways this weekend. We know we've got more in hand but we don't want to use it till we need to." Germany won the first major international regatta of the Olympic season by a convincing margin behind its imposing women's sculling squad, which captured the double sculls, quadruple sculls and lightweight double sculls. Germany, compiling points from seven other finals, finished with 52 points while France achieved its best ever World Cup performance to take second with 39. Britain was third at 37. Yugoslavia's Djordje Visacki and Nikola Stojic, a new combination, took the men's coxless pair while beating French world silver medallists Michel Andrieux and Jean-Christophe Rolland. A new Croatian men's eight provided another surprise, winning in 5:54.48 and demolishing a field that included world silver medallists Britain, who finished second at 5:57.05. Both the Yugoslav pair and Croatian eight must still qualify for Sydney at an Olympic Qualification regatta July 10-12 in Lucerne, Switzerland. World and Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus dominated the women's single sculls, coming home more than four seconds clear of Russian 1998 world champion Irina Fedotova in 7:50.98. The Netherlands women's eight produced a finishing burst that relegated Olympic and three time world champions Romania to third place. The second World Cup regatta takes place June 23-25 in Vienna, Austria followed by the final in Lucerne July 14-16.
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