Netherlands, brought the home crowd roaring to their feet. “I put everything into the last two strokes, that was it,” said Savic afterwards, grinning from ear to ear. Changes led to fresh champions, Ekaterina
Karsten and Yuliya Bichyk, moving into an impressively fast new Belarussian women’s quad. Romania and Germany won the eights with half their crews made up of newcomers, while the latest GB men’s four brought an injection of serious speed without ever having to use their top gear. Russia’s men’s eight looked dangerous, and there is much interest to see how their new coach Mike Spracklen can turn the country’s fortunes around. Both lightweight doubles titles were
successfully defended, Italy taking the women’s. It was heartwarming to see France’s 2013 champion, Stany Delayre, back winning with his crewmate Jeremie Azou, after Delayre’s July training crash which left him with three injured vertebrae and having to miss the world championships. Denmark’s stellar lightweight men’s four dominated their event in typically bravura style, while an intense men’s doubles final saw Lithuania beat Azerbaijan and world champions Norway. The lightweight men’s pairs, defended
successfully by Switzerland’s Simon Niepmann and Lucas Tramer, had its European best time lowered five times in three days, slicing an astonishing 17 seconds off the previous mark and bringing it to within three seconds of the 1994 world record. This suggests that the inclusion of this and the two lightweight singles in the Europeans will raise the standard of these events, which have been languishing as second- raters since the promotion of the doubles and four to Olympic standard in 1996. Greece’s Aikaterini Nicolaidou took nine
seconds off the championship best time while defending her lightweight women’s singles title. Portuguese Pedro Fraga went one better than 2013, claiming his lightweight men’s singles gold well clear of Italian legend Marcello Miani. A medals table including 19 of the 36 participating nations, with 11 sharing the golds, was impressively egalitarian. The most successful country on paper
was Britain, with eight medals including two golds, and there was much GB delight that the Europeans are now in a more practical place in the racing season. The BBC, who were host broadcasters for the 2012 Olympics, have bought the TV rights until the end of 2016. “We’re totally
LEFT Helen Glover and Polly Swan, reigning World Champions collecting gold again.
BELOW Czech sculling star Ondrej Synek taking Gold in the Men’s Single Sculls
committed to the Europeans for the next cycle,” said performance director Sir David Tanner. “We want to be involved – Britain were the ones to propose the inclusion of the lightweight pairs and singles. I believe the world cup should have them in too.” A lengthy Congress on Saturday 31 May saw
the 2016 hosting rights awarded to Brandburg, Germany, the juniors to Trakai in Lithuania, while the 2015 event will be in Poznan, Poland. Discussion was held over a potential Under-23 European championship, which Britain say they would support if held in September, while Germany’s national federation proposed a summer league of sprint eights regattas to stimulate more European club racing. ROW360
ROW360 // Issue 001
89
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116