Lofgren (back row, second from left) medaled for the third straight year at Lucerne (photo courtesy USRowing).

Esther Lofgren's Lucerne 2010 Blog | Official Event Site | Live Results, Commentary | Results

LUCERNE, Switzerland—Former Radcliffe rowers Esther Lofgren'08-09  and Laura Larsen-Strecker '08 helped the United States women's eight win the gold medal at the Rowing World Cup in over the weekend. Former Harvard oarsman Brodie Buckland '06 earned a silver medal with the Australian men's eight.

The U.S. women rallied past Canada in the final 500 meters of Sunday's final to take gold in their only competition of the 2010 Rowing World Cup series. Lofgren occupied the stroke seat of the U.S. boat throughout the competition, and Larsen-Strecker rowed in the two seat in Friday's heat victory.

In the final, the U.S. boat trailed the Canadians and the bronze-winning British for the first half race, hitting the 1,000-meter mark nearly two second back. The Americans, however, remained calm and efficient, understroking Canada throughout the race, often by more than two strokes per minute. They passed Great Britain and gained on Canada in the third 500 meters and completed the comeback in the final 500, winning by one-fifth of a second in 6:12.19.

Larsen-Strecker helped the U.S. eight open the competition by winning its heat by more than five seconds Friday.

Buckland and the Australian men made a comeback of their own to snag silver. They entered the final 500 meters of Sunday's final in fifth place but got past Great Britain, Canada and Poland in the final last quarter of the race, finishing in 5:31.31, about a second back of Germany and 0.88 seconds ahead of the British entry. The Aussies also finished behind the Germans in Friday's heat before winning Saturday's repechage.

Malcolm Howard '05 also had a strong showing for Canada in the men's single, placing fourth in a field that featured the top single scullers in the world. He improved his position in each of the three Rowing World Cup competitions, missing a medal in Lucerne by 2.64 seconds in 7:00.82.

Henrik Rummel '09 rowed on the U.S. men's four that took sixth place in its final Sunday, finishing in 6:01.71. The boat reached the final with a heat win and a third-place showing in its repechage.