As a regatta, the weekend was excellent, despite a bit of a tricky wind on finals day. Five British crews reached finals, and four more in non-world cup events, and some questions were answered while some new ones were posed. The coxless four of Toby Garbett, Steve Williams, Ed Coode and Rick Dunn found an answer to their calling by winning from the front, faster over every quarter. "It's a completely different crew, and I always said two years ago I felt a bit of a tourist," said Ed in answer to the inevitable question about comparison with the Redgrave Olympic four. "This has come from all of us. each move, each time we've beaten someone has been achieved by all of us." Dunn came from the eight and Simmonds went to the eight barely four weeks ago, and the four started life by winning the Stewards' at Henley. Now they are up for the world champs and anything that Italy, Canada or possibly Australia can throw at them - the three major countries that haven't yet shown this year.

The men's eight also answered a question. They led by a length after 500 and held the lead for 1600 metres when Croatia and them Germany passed them. They took the bronze and have turned into racers since their last appearance in Vienna, definitley moving in the right direction. The line-up was Devlin, von Martzahnn, Dennis, Simmonds, Grubor, Attrill, Josh West and Trapmore. Kieran West will be back, apparently.

Tim Male and Tom Middleton won bronze behind Germany's Euler and Brehmer and France's Moreau and Chapelle, and they came up from fifth place at 500 metres. Good stuff.

The women's eight didn't quite answer a question. Cath Bishop is now in the stroke seat and Kath Grainger behind her at 7. They finished fourth, "It's always hard to finish fourth," said Grainger, "but we were so close to the medals." This is true: the result was 1 Germany 6:34,84, 2 Australia 6:36.96, 3 Belarus 6:37.25, 4 GB 6:37.67, 5 Romania 6:41.26. So that's all right, but the question remains as to whether it's wise to double up on the world champs. After all, there are only five weeks left to train in the pair and double for Bishop, Grainger, Houghton and Flood and with the others in the eight. The two women's fours in Munich, by the way, finished close together in seventh and eighth places, so if doubling at the worlds is too risky, Nicole Scott, Alison Trickey, Alex Beever and Helen Fenoulhet could find themselves in a four in Lucerne.

Jane Hall and Helen Casey came sixth in the lightweight doubles, and the light four of Brown, Ireland, English and Jones failed to reach the B final.

The strength of the men's lightweight team is clearly in the non-world cup events. The eight won a straight final brilliantly. The light pair of Jo Nitsch and Sarah Birch also struck gold. Peter Haining and Nick Strange led the light men's pairs for more than halfway before being taken by Gearold Towey and Tony O'Connor of Ireland and Miguel Cerda and Cristian Yantani of Chile. Haining and Strange are probably tired from the Goblets, which they contested to the final with Cracknell and Pinsent. They were world silver medallists last year, and very close to the gold.

Tracey Langlands did well to get to the final of the lightweight singles, in which she finished sixth. The front of the race was a tremendous contest between the Finn Laila Finska-Bezerra and the Irish sculler Sinead Jennings who went from sixth to second, and the Dutch sculler Miriam Ter Beek. The men's light quad finished in 12th place. Nuff said.

Back in the world cup, Istok Cop won the singles with Chalupa once more second, Tufte third and the Aussie Diamonds winner, Duncan Free, fourth. Karsten won the women's event with commanding power and then stepped into a double to take a silver medal there. Germany continues to dominate sculling, having won the women's doubles, the women's quads and the men's and women's light doubles.

Germany also dominates overall, finishing top in the World Cup series with 172 points, Britain in second with 147. A good regatta, as was the official party, in a magnificent castle. See you in Lucerne.

Copyright Christopher Dodd 2001

World Cup top five: Germany 172 points, GB 147, Belarus 78, USA 77, Denmark 76.