Prague Rowing Tradition Invites Russia

The men’s eight, “Primátorky” race
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The Czech Republic’s oldest rowing competition took place last weekend in Prague with the major event, the Prague Mayor’s Shield, featuring a composite crew of the top two boats from the men’s quad event at the Athens Olympics, racing together in an eight.

The “Primatorky” Shield race for men’s eights featured as their star attraction the combination Russia-Czech Republic crew of Nikolai Spinev, Alekseij Svirin, Igor Kravtsov and Sergej Fedorovtsev from the Russian quad who won gold at Athens, together with their silver winning Czech rivals, Tomas Karas, Jakub Hanak, David Jirka and replacement for the retired David Kopriva, the Czech Republic’s best known rower, Vaclav Chalupa.

Fourteen crews lined up with the main challenge expected to come from Dukla, the Czech Republic’s elite rowing club, which has dominated the event for the past 25 years.

Pitting the best Olympic quads against Dukla was an attempt by Czech rowing sponsor Pavel Pekny to break the Dukla domination. This wasn’t to be. Dukla was again successful. Made up of the Czech men’s four that took bronze at last month’s Rowing World Cup in Eton and Ondrej Synek, who won the single at Eton, the Dukla eight won over the Russian/Czech scullers by two seconds.

Dukla elite men’s eight

The result was a surprise for the composite crew and their coach Sergei Kroutyakov who thought the difference in the shell quality may have been a factor. Quoted in the Czech daily “Sport” newspaper Czech Rowing Association president Jiri Kejval also commented on the advantage of the coxswains skills; “The race is decided mainly by the cox. He managed to steer through the bend under Vysehrad (rock 500 metres before the finish line where there is a sharp bend) in a way that gave his boat an extra three seconds”.

The men’s single, the Rossler-Orovsky Spring Scullers’ race, also featured on the regatta programme. This is the oldest race of the regatta and dates back to 1885. But it has now become the less important event with the men’s eight, started in 1910, now the major attraction.

The Czech Republic’s top lightweight and 2000 World Champion, Michal Vabrousek won the Rossler-Orovsky while Mirka Knapkova, who has been the fastest Czech woman in recent years, won the women’s single. Half an hour after her singles race Knapkova joined a Czech composite crew to win the women’s eight. 

Information thanks to Petr Kubalek.