Cop and Spik start season at Croatian Open

The 25th Croatia Open, raced in Zagreb, attracted 1,000 rowers from nine countries all eager to see how their winter training had set them up for the coming season. Current World Champions in the men’s double Iztok Cop and Luka Spik from Slovenia found the competition tough, winning by less than a second ahead of Estonia in the final.

Cop said on his website that, unlike other seasons, they had been spending more time in the double together to work on their “flaws in technique.” After being beaten in the heats by Estonia’s Allar Raja and Igor Kuzmin, Cop and Spik were aware how hard the final would be.

“To be honest, I was having some doubts about our victory in the finals, because our morning race really wasn't brilliant,” said Cop. “I was relieved when we managed to put our act together and win the race. The regatta in Zagreb showed us where our flaws are and what we need to work on in the future.”

Due to a shorter season because of the Olympic Games, Cop and Spik chose to do the Croatia Open rather than the usual spring regattas in Germany.

Croatia’s Olympic men’s pair, Sinisa and Niksa Skelin won with relative ease over Serbia’s Goran Nedeljkovic and Milos Tomic. Two lightweights dominated the open women’s single. Michaela Taupe of Austria won over Croatia’s most decorated female rower, Mirna Rajle.

Organiser Igor Velimirovic said the shortening of the season due to the 2008 Olympic Games meant that the Open hosted more international crews than usual. Velimirovic noted the high calibre of rowers from Estonia, Slovakia, Turkey and Italy as well as some student crews from Great Britain in addition to the usual entries from Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.

Velimirovic commented the Estonians only managed to compete on the second day of the two-day regatta. “They had some problems with transport from their training camp on the sea coast,” said Velimirovic. “Strong winds prevented the trailer from transporting boats from Skradin, near the city of Sibenik, to Zagreb.”

The large number of entries meant that organisers had to contend with 200 races in the programme.The biggest race of the regatta, the junior men’s single, attracted a huge 75 entries.

For complete results: http://www.croatiaopen.vsz.hr/