Sometimes the most interesting races in a World Cup or other early-season race is how much improvement is obvious in specific boats.
At last year’s World Championships, the star Canadian pair of Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Katie Vincent easily won the C-2 500 m title over Hungary’s Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs, by more than two seconds.
Not this time.
At the second ICF Sprint World Cup in Duisberg, Balla and Takacs stayed with the Canadians and edged ahead at the line for an unexpected 1:51.587-1:51.905 victory.
“We thought the same, we thought the Canadian girls would win this C2,” Balla said afterwards. “When we saw on the big screen we had won, we were so happy. We just pushed and focused on our technique.”
The Hungarian pair also finished third in the C-2 200 m race and Balla won the C-1 500 m by more than a full second over Shixiao Xu (CHN).
For Vincent-Lapointe and Vincent, there were other races to concentrate on. They went 1-2 in the C-1 200 m, Vincent-Lapointe won the C-1 5,000 m race and Vincent teamed with Mark Oldershaw for a silver in the Mixed C-2 500 m.
Germany had a strong regatta, winning both of the K-4 500 m races – men and women – and had wins from Tom Liebscher (K-1 500 m) and Max Rendschmidt and Max Lemke in the K-2 500 m, and in the Mixed K-2 500 m, with Franziska John and Rendschmidt.
There were eight boats that swept the two-stage World Cup in their events:
Men:
● C-1 500 m: Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos (BRA)
● K-1 200 m: Liam Heath (GBR)
● K-4 500 m: Germany
Women:
● C-1 200 m: Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (CAN)
● C-2 200 m: Wenjun Lin/Luqi Zhang (CHN)
● K-1 1,000 m: Alyssa Bull (AUS)
● K-2 200 m: Spela Ponomarenko Janic/Anja Osterman (SLO)
Mixed:
● C-2 500 m: Hao Liu/Mengya Sun (CHN)
Summaries from Duisberg:
ICF Sprint World Cup
Duisberg (GER) ~ 30 May-2 June 2019
(Full results here)
Men
C-1 200 m: 1. Ivan Shytl (RUS), 38.935; 2. Alfonso Benavides (ESP), 39.047; 3. Timur Khaidarov (KAZ), 39.416.
C-1 500 m: 1. Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos (BRA), 1:44.731; 2. Martin Fuksa (CZE), 1:45.740; 3. Conrad-Robin Schieibner (GER), 1:46.743.
C-1 1,000 m: 1. Adrien Bart (FRA), 3:48.399; 2. Fuksa (CZE), 3:48.887; 3. Tomasz Kacsor (POL), 3:49.811.
C-1 5,000 m: 1. Rigoberto Camilo (MEX), 22:14.766; 2. Balazs Adolf (HUN), 22:15.337; 3. Yul Oeltze (GER), 22:37.292.
C-2 200 m: 1. Antoni Segura/Alfonso Benavides (ESP), 35.739; 2. Alexander Kovalenko/Ivan Shytl (RUS), 36.065; 3. Aleksander Kitewski/Norman Zezula (POL), 36.277.
C-2 500 m: 1. Song Xing/Qiang Li (CHN), 1:38.661; 2. Kitewski/Zezula (POL), 1:39.202; 3. Pavel Petrov/Mikhail Pavlov (RUS), 1:39.564.
C-2 1,000 m: 1. Hao Liu/Pengfei Zheng (CHN), 3:25.394; 2. Yul Oeltze/Peter Kretschmer (GER), 3:26.904; 3. Loic Leonard/Adrien Bart (FRA), 3:29.028.
K-1 200 m: 1. Liam Heath (GBR), 34.647; 2. Maxime Beaumont (FRA), 35.111; 3. Arturas Seja (LTU), 35.251.
K-1 500 m: 1. Tom Liebscher (GER), 1:39.001; 2. Balint Kopasz (HUN), 1:39.416; 3. Fernando Pimenta (POR), 1:39.730.
K- 1,000 m: 1. Josef Dostal (CZE), 3:27.206; 2. Roman Anoshkin (RUS), 3:27.770; 3. Balint Kopasz (HUN), 3:27.859.
K-1 5,000 m: 1. Pimenta (POR), 19:39.656; 2. Max Hoff (GER), 19:40.854; 3. Joakim Lindberg (SWE), 19:46.631.
K-2 200 m: 1. Manfredi Rizza/Andrea Domenico di Liberto (ITA), 31.312; 2. Levente Apagyi/Kolos Csizmadia (HUN), 32.010; 3. Ilia Zotov/Maxim Molochkov (RUS), 32.113.
K-2 500 m: 1. Max Rendschmidt/Max Lemke (GER), 1:28.986; 2. Oleg Gusev/Vitaly Ershov (RUS), 1:29.642; 3. Guillaume Burger/Guillaume Le Floch Decorchemont (FRA), 1:29.946.
K-2 1,000 m: 1. Cyrille Carre/Eitienne Hubert (FRA), 3:07.105; 2. Max Hoff/Jacob Schopf (GER), 3:07.025; 3. Tobias-Pascal Schultz/Felix Frank (GER), 3:08.585.
K-4 500 m: 1. Germany, 1:18.660; 2. Slovakia, 1:19.352; 3. Russia, 1:19.493.
Women
C-1 200 m: 1. Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (CAN), 45.996; 2. Katie Vincent (CAN), 47.180; 3. Kincso Takacs (HUN), 47.206.
C-1 500 m: 1. Virag Balla (HUN), 2:06.605; 2. Shixiao Xu (CHN), 2:07.836; 3. Yajue Zhang (CHN), 2:12.040.
C-1 5,000 m: 1. Vincent-Lapointe (CAN), 25:00.822; 2. Shixoao Xu (CHN), 25:17.997; 3. Maria Mailliard (CHI), 25:48.155. Also: 11. Lia Gaetano (USA), 28:11.326; … 13. Ann Marie Armstrong (USA), 28:59.858.
C-2 200 m: 1. Wenjun Lin/Luqi Zhang (CHN), 42.014; 2. Dilnoza Rakhmatova/Nulufar Zokirova (UZB), 42.137; 3. Virag Balla/Kincso Takacs (HUN), 42.335.
C-2 500 m: 1. Balla/Takacs (HUN), 1:51.587; 2. Laurence Vincent-Lapointe/Katie Vincent (CAN), 1:51.905; 3. Kseniia Kurach/Olesia Romasenko (RUS), 1:54.188.
K-1 200 m: 1. Emma Jorgensen (DEN), 40.235; 2. Teresa Portela (ESP), 40.519; 3. Linnea Stencils (SWE), 40.939.
K-1 500 m: 1. Anna Pulawska (POL), 1:48.283; 2. tie, Manon Hostens (FRA) and Jorgensen (DEN), 1:48.851.
K-1 1,000 m: 1. Alyssa Bull (AUS), 3:58.118; 2. Sarah Bruessler (GER), 3:59.964; 3. Yu Zhou (CHN), 4:01.178.
K-1 5,000 m: 1. Alyce Burnett (AUS), 21:45.433; 2. Bull (AUS), 21:46.632; 3. Jennifer Egan (IRL), 21:47.336.
K-2 200 m: 1. Spela Ponomarenko Janic/Anja Osterman (SLO), 36.477; 2. Karolina Naja/Helena Wisniewska (POL), 37.158; 3. Kristina Kovnir/Anastasiia Dolgova (RUS), 37.453.
K-2 500 m: 1. Manon Hostens/Sarah Guyot (FRA), 1:41.279; 2. Ponomarenko Janic/Osterman (SLO), 1:41.689; 3. Hermien Peters/Liza Broekx (BEL), 1:42.194.
K-4 500 m: 1. Germany, 1:31.175; 2. France, 1:31.782; 3. Poland, 1:32.350.
Mixed
C-2 500 m: 1. Hao Liu/Mengya Sun (CHN), 1:44.729; 2. Mark Oldershaw/Katie Vincent (CAN), 1:45.483; 3. Pavel Petrov/Olesia Romasenko (RUS), 1:45.729.
K-2 500 m: 1. Franziska John/Max Rendschmidt (GER), 1:32.553; 2. Lize Broekx/Artuur Peters (BEL), 1:33.318; 3. Tobias-Pascal Schultz/Jasmin Fritz (GER), 1:33.580.
