EUROPEANS
European
Championships WORDS RACHEL QUARRELL // PHOTOGRAPHY PETER SPURRIER/INTERSPORT IMAGES T ABOVE The
local heroes of Veseline Savic and Dusan
Bogicevic claim gold in front of
an ecstatic home crowd after just holding off the Netherlands
88 ROW360 // Issue 001
he eighth edition of the modern European Championships saw 10 countries retain 2013 titles, 30 new championship best times set, and three days of ferocious racing. It included Great Britain’s senior team
for the first time since the 2007 revival of this regatta, which had been the premier non- Olympic rowing event for 80 years until replaced by the worlds in 1974. Shortly before the 2014 European Championships, host city Belgrade hit the headlines as torrential rainfall caused severe flooding at the junction of the Rivers Sava and Danube. Regatta organisers were quick to reassure competing countries that the majority of the trouble was upstream at Obrenovac, and in suburbs of Belgrade away from the rowing course on the Sava Lake. By the time the continent’s rowers
descended, the flooding had receded without visible damage to the regatta centre, and an
energetic local committee had everything in place for a vibrant championships. From Dutch lightweights Tim Weerkamp and Ivo de Graaf winning the opening race in record time, to the German men’s eight reasserting their supremacy in the last A-final, it was a gripping event played out in lively tailwind conditions. Czech sculling stars Ondrej Synek and Mirka
Knapkova are becoming very tough to beat, and so it proved, Knapkova timing it beautifully to hold off charging Dutchwoman, Chantal Achterberg, while Synek disposed of Germany’s Marcel Hacker efficiently despite a difficult race. Hacker, who came the closest to breaking the best time, can take comfort from having held the world’s most consistent sculler to a tighter margin than last year, while eyes will be on Lithuanian Mindaugas Griskonis, who earned a deserved bronze medal with improved form. By far the most popular victory was that
of Serbia’s latest duo Veselin Savic and Dusan Bogicevic, who won the men’s pairs in breathless style. Their dash to the line, chased down by the
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