Video(s) of the Week: Greek Lightweights Impress at World Cup I in Belgrade



While the story of the regatta was the performance of the British national team, which dominated the points and earned a total of twelve medals (four of them gold), the Greek national team also looked outstanding as we build toward the Games in London. The lightweight women's double of Alexandra Tisavou and Christina Giazitzidou performed as we've come to expect, despite heading to the reps following a great heat with China (another crew to watch). In the final, Tsiavou and Giazitzidou established a lead in the second 500m and held it through the line, fending off strong challenges from the new-look GB LW2x of Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland (who took second place), and China's Dongxiang Xu and Wenyi Huang.



In the lightweight men's double, Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase looked excellent, as expected, despite a slower than usual start (which characterized many of the GB entries, as pointed out by the commentary, and is likely to do with their training cycle for London), but the Greek sprint in Belgrade was reminiscent of Vasileios Polymeros and Nikolaos Skiathitis in Athens. The Greek LM2x of Panagiotis Magdanis and Eleftherios Konsolas, despite being in an outside lane in of one of the deepest fields in all of world rowing (though without the Kiwi duo of Peter Talyor and Storm Uru), managed their race very well, and timed their sprint perfectly, putting pressure on GB as they crossed the finish. Like the rest of the rowing community, we're looking forward to some fantastic racing as we draw ever closer to the Olympics this summer!

-RR

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