Winter break for rowers at Team Cup

Every February the long slog of winter training is broken by the FISA Team Cup. Heading for Seville, in the south of Spain, athletes blow out the competition cobwebs by sprinting for 1000m on the first day and 500m on the second.

For the most part 1000m winners followed it up with a 500m win on the second day. Leading the women’s single, gutsy Swede Frida Svensson finished ahead of lightweight Greek Alexandra Tsiavou. Svensson has qualified for Beijing in the single while Tsiavou will go to Beijing in the lightweight double. On the second day, in the absence of Tsiavou, Russia’s Julia Kalinovskaya finished second behind Svensson.

Alan Campbell of Great Britain was the easy winner of the men’s single with former Under 23 Champion Sjoerd Hamburger (NED) finishing second. Campbell made it a double-header by winning on day two ahead of Tim Maeyens of Belgium who pushed Campbell to the line.

On day one Maeyens teamed up with Stijn Smulders in the double to finish second behind Ioannis Tsamis and Ioannis Christou of Greece. The Greek duo also won on day two.

The return of Kirsten van der Kolk to the lightweight double with team mate Marit van Eupen (NED) gave them a win over the 500m distance. But Mar Bosch and Sonia Boubeta of Spain pushed them hard right to the line. Van der Kolk took time off after earning bronze at Athens and is back with van Eupen with the aim of qualifying for Beijing.

Great Britain proved their strength in the men’s sweep events winning the pair, four and eight. What has become the usual four of the last three years was reshuffled with Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge in the pair while Richard Egington and Matt Langridge joined Steve Williams and Alex Partridge in the four.

Conditions were fair for racing with some wind on the first day followed by rain on day two. At the end of the weekend Spain headed the overall points table followed by Great Britain in second and Greece in third.

The Seville regatta venue is a regular winter training spot for development crews from around the world as well as many elite European squads. At present, under the watchful eye of FISA’s development director Thor Nilsen, athletes from Hong Kong, Tunisia, Iran and El Salvador are making the most of the venue.

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