Poland’s top two in top 10

As the second Rowing World Cup comes into view all eyes turn to Poland and the international venue of Poznan’s Malta Regatta Course. Featured at the regatta will be Poland’s most successful rowers and numbers six and seven on the list of the best for 2005: Robert Sycz and Tomasz Kucharski.

Despite being two-time Olympic Champions (2000 and 2004) in the very competitive lightweight men’s double, the elusive duo rarely compete internationally between World Rowing Championships and the Olympics adding to the duo’s mystique. This is a consequence of their struggle to make the required weight, an average of 70 kg for the double, and ongoing ailments that have impacted on Kucharski’s ability to regularly compete.

Just a couple of weeks before last year’s World Rowing Championships, Kucharski had to withdraw leaving Sycz to row in a last-minute pairing with Pawel Randa. The skill of Sycz still brought home a bronze medal and Randa’s first World Championship medal.

The duo came together nearly 10 years ago, before the 1997 World Rowing Championships, when under-23 rower, Kucharski, was selected to row with Sycz, Poland’s representative in the lightweight double at the Atlanta Olympics.

“The boat with Tomasz was the fastest,” says Sycz. “He wasn’t good in the single but in the double we were fast.”

The combination was an instant success finishing the 1997 season as World Champions. Sycz calls this medal, along with their first Olympic gold at Sydney, his most gratifying. Sycz explains, “At Sydney it wasn’t because it was gold, but because we won in nice style and we were really in fantastic physical form. The boat went perfectly.”

Sycz says the key to their success is their technique and ability to be perfectly in sync with each other. He also commends their coach, Jerzy Broniec: “Jerzy has a good eye and follows a style that works best for us.”

“The big headache for us and for our coach,” says Sycz, "is making the required weight. We just get to lightweight (weight) for competition. During the winter and spring we are over lightweight.”

This headache reared its head at the 1999 World Rowing Championships. Kucharski and Sycz were coming into the competition as twice reigning World Champions, but for this vital Olympic qualifying regatta they did not judge their weight correctly and after finishing third in the heat they were overweight for the final and, thus, couldn’t race.

Sycz and Kucharski had to endure the harder route qualifying for Sydney 2000 at the final qualification regatta in Lucerne, in July 2000 (they finished first). Two months later they won Olympic gold.

Following Sydney the lightweight double was dominated by Italy. Sycz and Kucharski finished second three years in a row. But for the 2004 Olympic Games they put it all together again earning their second Olympic gold.

When the duo race they focus on their own plan. “We don’t have a tactic connected with our opponents,” says Sycz. “We go with our own race, but, yes we want to be in control of the situation. We must be in first at the start and then we row with our own speed and rhythm.”

Despite their success together Sycz says they are not the closest of friends living very separate lives. Both are married with Kucharski living in Gorzow and Sycz 440 km away in Warsaw. But the duo spend a lot of time together for training camps, Walcz in the spring and summer and Zakopane, Lago Azul, Sierra Nevada in the winter.

“After Athens we prefer to be separate more, but when we sit in the boat together it is only about cooperation,” says Sycz. “There is no other way.”

The duo are all set to go after Olympic gold number three at the Beijing Olympics and will give the Poles a taste of their winning ways when they compete at this week’s Rowing World Cup starting on Thursday, 15 June in Poznan.

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