Rowers from Karlsruhe go to world championships
Both athletes succeeded in qualifying at the traditional regatta in Ratzeburg for the U23 World Championships, which will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, at the end of July. The Karlsruhe rowing club Wiking, for which Kulbach starts, thus has a participant in international title fights for the first time in over 15 years.
After two unsuccessful attempts in the last two years, this time it finally worked out: With a sovereign victory in the lightweight men's double sculls last Sunday at the international regatta in Ratzeburg, Cedric Kulbach solves the ticket to the U23 World Championships in this boat class. Together with Joachim Agne (Würzburg), Jannik Menke (Hannover) and Jan Knipschild (Dortmund), the victory was achieved ahead of a foursome from Denmark and another German boat consisting of the athletes already nominated for the World Championships from the double sculls and single sculls. This means that the winning boat can start preparing for the World Championships with peace of mind. At the end of June, the German U23 title competitions will be held in Cologne as a stopover.
Kulbach's nomination crowns a strong season, which already started promisingly after intensive and long winter training with 5th place in the U23 at the long-distance regatta in Leipzig in March. At the end of April he managed to confirm this performance as sixth in his age group at the German small boat championships in Brandenburg, whereupon he was invited to form the world championship foursome, where he recommended himself for the demanding position of the stroke via another strong performance in the single and on the ergometer. He now also took this position in Ratzeburg and confirmed the choice of the coaches. "He has been very good this season, especially in the head. That has made the essential difference to the last two years," praised KRV coach Ralf Thanhäuser. For him, too, the nomination is something special, as it is the first of his career as a coach. In general, the entire rowing club seems euphoric these days, after all, the last international appearance of the KRV was a long time ago. In the late 90s, Angelika Brand succeeded in becoming world champion in the lightweight women's double sculls, among other things. Cedric Kulbach himself is relaxed: "At the moment I can only be happy about the nomination. I knew that the boat would run well, but I still had a lot of respect before the race. In the end it was very controlled. It's still difficult to make a forecast for the World Championships, I'll wait for the preparation.
The same applies to Luisa Werner, who also successfully qualified for the U23 World Championships by winning the lightweight women's double four. Due to an infection at the last regatta, her omens were somewhat worse and she had to fear for her World Championship ticket until the very end. So the relief and joy about the successful qualification is all the greater.
Werner starts for the rowing club Saarbrücken, but trains in the Rhine harbor in Karlsruhe.
This respectable success of the two athletes clearly shows that studying and competitive sports can be combined very well in Karlsruhe, which is not least due to the very good and close cooperation between KIT Hochschulsport and the Karlsruhe rowing club Wiking.
The U23 World Championships will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from July 22 to 26.