September 5th 1926 — Lucerne 28th European championships The Portuguese federation, having been appointed to or ganise the European championships, but not having received the help promised by its government, reluctant ly took the decision, on May 18th 1926, to withdraw from its obligations. Once again, the challenge of replac ing a federation which had backed out, and organising the championships at the last moment, was taken up by the Swiss federation. Spurred on by its president, Rico Fioroni, the Lucerne regatta committee was determined to prove equal to the task. Large posters were pasted on walls throughout the town. Small bills, called butterflies, printed in two languages - German and French - were displayed in almost all the shops. starter’s assistant. The starter was none other than the fa mous Hans Walter, one of FISA’s most frequent champi ons. Standing in the bows of a launch, in the centre of the line of boats, he set them off superbly. The races were followed by the umpire and his back-up, each in his own boat. 4 + : 7 entered 1. ITA 2. SUI 3. POL 4. FRA 5. BEL 6. NED 7. POR The Portuguese made a false start. At the restart, the French set off very fast; too fast, in fact, as they were not able to sustain the pace. Rowing at a high rate of striking, but skilfully and intentiy, the Italians soon went into a lead which they increased steadily throughout the race. The Swiss came through from last place to finish second. 2-: 4 entered 1. SUI 2. ITA 3. NED 4. BEL After two false starts by the Dutch crew, the third was good. In front of a home crowd, on their own water, the crew from Lucerne, A. Reinhard and W. Siegenthaler, led throughout. lx: 6 entered 1. SUI 2. HUN 3. BEL 4. NED 5. TCH 6. POL Joseph Schneider, also from Lucerne, won from Bela Szendey, the son of the Hungarian team-manager. He had unfortunately had to borrow a boat, as his own had not arrived in time. There was another false start, caused this time by the Belgian, F. Vintens. Paris 1931: FISA President, Rico Fioroni congratulates Rursa and Giriat (FRA). Behind him stands Gaston Mullegg, the Secretary General. The races In the fairy-tale setting of Lake Lucerne, the racing took place on perfectiy flat water barely ruffled by a slight fol lowing wind from the south-west, which was to the ad vantage of the oarsmen. An overcast sky protected the competitors from the intense heat. The Lake of Lucerne, however, is not still water. The flow is uniform across the lake, varying in speed from two to three kilometres an hour from one spot to another. It flows out quite fast, to become the river Reuss, exactly 750 metres from the finishing line. The panorama is unrivalled: a perfect cir que of high mountains, some of them snow-capped; and rising above them all are the Rigi and Pilatus, the latter 2,000 metres high, the former 1,800 metres. At the start, the boats were held by children in small stake-boats. They were aligned from the bank by the 4-: 3 entered 1. SUI 2. NED 3. POR Having already won the 2-, Reinhard and Siegenthaler joined up with two other oarsmen from Lucerne, 0. Buh- lmann and K. Zimmermann, to gain their second title of the regatta. 2 +: 6 entered 1. SUI 2. ITA 3. NED 4. BEL 5. FRA 6. ESP With less than 100 metres to go, the Italians went into the lead ahead of the Swiss, who had led from the start. The battle was intense. The Italians were leading by nearly half a length and seemed certain winners when, with twenty or thirty metres to go, the bow man looked round and caught a crab, whih robbed them of victory. It is worth noting that the Swiss stroke was 40 years old. 2x: 3 entered 1. SUI 2. ITA 3. BEL After 750 metres, Bosshard, from Zurich, and Rieder, from Vevey - a last-minute combination - drew level with the Italians, who had been fastest off the start. There after, the Swiss were never troubled. 8 +: 8 entered 1. NED 2. ITA 3. BEL 4. SUI 5. FRA 6. POL 7. TCH 8. YUG Part 2 63
