Wedau regatta celebrates 75 years

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18/05/2010 16:24 CET

The Wedau rowing regatta in Duisburg, Germany, celebrated its 75th anniversary last weekend with a record 1500 rowers from 21 nations competing. Entries included the entire German national team of about 150 rowers between the A, B and C squads.
Wedau press officer Hermann Kewitz said the highlight race was the men’s eight, competing for the ThyssenKrupp Cup. “The race was won by one of the German eights competing against another German eight. The Cup was presented by Thorsten Engelmann and Dr. Sebastian Schulte (World Champions in 2006) who are now employees of ThyssenKrupp. This was a special gesture of the main sponsor regarding their programme helping former rowers to find an adequate job after their rowing career.”
The regatta is arranged so that crews race in heats and finals on both Saturday and Sunday, with a small number of heats on the Friday. This gives coaches an opportunity to try out different combinations and rowers over the two days. Head wind conditions meant that times were relatively slow for both Saturday and Sunday.
Germany’s top sculler Marcel Hacker won the men’s single on Saturday and then joined into the quadruple sculls on Sunday to win again. Greece’s Ioannis Christou finished behind Hacker in the single and then on Sunday, without Hacker in the race, Christou took first in the single.
The first final of the lightweight men’s four had World Champions Germany winning over Denmark in a tight race with only one second separating the two boats at the finish.
Lightweight single sculler Marie-Louise Draeger (GER) won her race on Saturday and then raced in the open women’s single on Sunday winning against Annick DeDecker of the Netherlands. DeDecker won her singles race the previous day over lightweight sculler Alexandra Tsiavou (GRE). Tsiavou then raced and won the lightweight single on Sunday. On both Saturday and Sunday Sweden’s Sara Karlsson finished second in the lightweight single.
The men’s pair was won both days by Greece’s Ioannis Tsilis and Georgios Tziallas. Both days the duo beat their fellow countrymen and 2009 medallists, brothers Nikolaos and Aposstolos Gkountoulas who represented Greece in the pair last year.
The Wedau regatta alternates hosting every second year between Duisburg and Essen. The 2009 regatta was held in Essen.
The Duisburg regatta course was built in the 1930s and completed in 1935. The course was designed specifically for canoeing and rowing. Duisburg will host the 2012 World Rowing Masters Regatta. 
For full results click here.