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Kayak foursome wins World Cup gold: “Rocked the route down”
Have ensured a golden start in the kayak foursome: Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher, Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke (from left to right). photo
© Ulrich Gamel/Kolbert-Press/dpa
The German team celebrates a promising start at the Canoe World Championships in Duisburg. After a difficult start to the season, the parade boat is there on point – thanks to a change of staff and modifications.
Germany’s parade boat has at the home world championship in Duisburg ensured a golden start.
Despite constant rain and thunderstorm interruptions on the Wedau, the kayak foursome with Max Rendschmidt, Max Lemke, Jacob Schopf and Tom Liebscher-Lucz paddled to the world title. “Thank you Duisburg,” said Lemke, while Rendschmidt said: “It’s unbelievable to drive in front of such a crowd. And with the three guys on board, it’s just fun to rock down the track.”
Second was Hungary ahead of Ukraine. The dethroned defending champion from Spain had to settle for seventh place. The newly formed kayak foursome with Lena Röhlings, Katinka Hofmann, Sarah Brüssler and Enja Rößeling came in eighth among the women, but thus secured the quota for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Missed podium at World Cup opener
The men’s Olympic champion boat from Tokyo 2021 had a rather difficult start to the season after Ronald Rauhe retired after finishing second behind Spain at the World Cup in Canada last year. After missing the podium with fourth place at the World Cup opener in May in Szeged, Hungary, with a view to the home World Championships, it was time to concentrate on the essentials and avoid a large double burden with starts in other boat classes.
The parade boat got the last kick in the training camp in Munich-Oberschleißheim when Liebscher-Lucz and Lemke swapped positions, moving up from fourth to second place. The reshuffle “works well”, praised head national coach Arndt Hanisch after the victories in the preliminary and semi-finals. Sports director Jens Kahl saw this trick as a crucial piece of the puzzle. The individual seating positions in the tailor-made boat have also been optimized to ensure optimal transfer to the water.
“It was a very instructive year”
“It was sawn open, made two centimeters wider so that I also feel comfortable at the back,” said Liebscher-Lucz from Dresden on ZDF, adding: “It was a very instructive year. We came here as the underdog. In the end, we were beaten by the taken home by the fans.”
Previously, the kayak duo with Paulina Paszek and Jule Hake had won silver over 200 meters and thus gained self-confidence for the Olympic distance over 500 meters. Bronze in the canoe double over the non-Olympic distance over 200 meters went to Lisa Jahn and Hedi Kliemke thanks to a jump with the boat. Conrad Scheibner won over 500 meters in the Canadian singles silver after Sebastian Brendel had been given preference over twice the Olympic distance.