The beautiful surroundings of Lucerne, Switzerland once again played host with perfect conditions on the Rotsee as the final day of the 2024 World Rowing Cup II got underway.

The final day of racing saw medals awarded across 18 boat classes which saw reigning World Champions be beaten, World Rowing Cup leaders repeating success, and a few new arrivals on the scene in what is likely to be closest preview for what we might see in Paris at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the coming months.

The block of A-Finals started with the PR1 women’s and men’s single sculls. In the women’s event, the lead changed several times throughout the race with Germany’s Manuela Diening being victorious in the end, and bringing to a close Birgit Skarstein (Norway)’s gold medal streak. A medical withdrawal from the reigning Paralympic and World Champion, Roman Polianskyi, in the men’s event opened the door for Italy’s Giacomo Perini.

The coxless pairs saw both winners from World Rowing Cup I repeat their success with the reigning World Champions from the Netherlands winning the women’s event and, in the men’s, the 2023 World Rowing Championships silver medallists from Great Britain took the honours comfortably ahead of Spain.

There was a surprise in the men’s four; while eyes had been on the reigning World Champions from Great Britain, and the reigning Olympic Champions from Australia, who beat them by 0.03 seconds in the heat, it was the USA that claimed gold, with Australia missing out on a medal altogether. Great Britain found continued succes in the women’s four when their new line-up for this Olympic season won gold ahead of the Dutch reigning World Champions, with the Americans winning bronze.

It was absolutely no surprise to see Great Britain winning the lightweight women’s double sculls; as a crew, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant are unbeaten since Tokyo. Meanwhile, in the lightweight men’s double sculls, the Italians, Stefano Oppo and Gabriel Soares, repeated their win from World Rowing Cup I beating the gold and silver medallists from last year’s World Rowing Championships, Ireland and Switzerland.

In the men’s double sculls, it was the Netherlands who finished on top, with Italy and Spain filling out the podium. On the women’s side, it was Sophia Vitas and Kristina Wagner of the USA who pulled ahead of the Australians and newly minted European Champions from Norway.

In the quadruple sculls, it was the reigning World Champions who took the honours for both men and women – the Netherlands for the men, and Great Britain for the women.

What was perhaps the largest surprise of the day came in the men’s single sculls when Simon van Dorp of the Netherlands overhauled reigning World Rowing Champion Oliver Zeidler of Germany in the last few strokes.

Canada, with a substitute on board, came from behind in the women’s eight to cross the line ahead of Great Britain and the USA. Great Britain were challenged by the USA in the men’s eight, who had won the Preliminary race on Friday, but took home the win. That podium was completed by the Netherlands.

The Netherlands left the Rotsee orange, coming away at the top of the medal table with 9 medals (5 gold medals) and the World Rowing Cup point standings lead with 128 points.