Iztok Cop Takes Cop Challenger

Itzok Cop wins his first ever Cop Challenger held last Friday, four years after the Slovenain sculler founded the original invitational sprint event.

In front of a home ground of thousands who lined the shores of the Ljubljanica river in the heart of Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, Cop raced Norway's Olav Tufte in the last sprint of the evening race.

"Red" and "blue" pose for a group shot

Eight international single scullers accepted the invitation – and the challenge of an evening 200 metre sprint on a city centre floodlit course. The group, which included an impressive six Olympic medallists, was divided into two groups for a series of heats to determine the final line-up. Cop won the heats in the "red" group which also included Peter Wells of Great Britain, Niksa Skelin of Croatia and Vaclav Chalup of the Czech Republic. The "blue" group included Olaf Tufte of Norway, Sinisa Skelin of Croatia, Diederik Simon of the Netherlands and Stefan Roehnert of Germany.

In the final, the Norwegian sculler added to the excitement and tension by going out in a false start. The second start was to be the good one and local boy Cop passed the finish line ahead of his Norwegian opponent.

Although highly competitive on the water, the two scullers are the closest of friends off the water – Tufte was even Cop's best man at his recent wedding to sports journalist Petra Filipic.

And after the race the two mates did not fail to live up to their reputation of clowning around during the victory ceremony  – the medal presentation was followed by a cake fight before both athletes ended up in the cold waters of the Ljubljanica!