Dutch rowers receive Olympic blessing

The Netherlands qualified four boats for the Olympics at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled and the first crew to be selected in recent weeks was the men’s eight. Announced by technical director Rene Mijnders, the eight will include Diederik Simon, Olivier Siegelaar, Jozef Klaassen, Sjoerd Hamburger, Matthijs Vellenga, Rogier Blink, Mitchel Steenman, Roel Braas, and coxswain Peter Wiersum. Three of the crew – Klaassen, Blink, Steenman – were not in the eight last year when it qualified.

The crew is full of Olympians and Olympic medallists. This will be the fifth Olympic Games of strokeman Diederik, 41, while Siegelaar, Klaassen, Steenman, Blink and Wiersum were in the men’s eight at the Beijing Olympics. Vellenga competed in the men’s eight in Athens and in the men’s four in Beijing and Hamburger was in the single in Beijing.

The women’s eight was selected by Mijnders and coaches Susannah Chayes and Jan Klerks. It includes Annemiek de Haan, Carline Bouw, Nienke Kingma, Roline Repelaer van Driel, Claudia Belderbos, Chantal Achterberg, Sytske de Groot, Jacobine Veenhoven and coxswain Anne Schellekens.

At both the Athens and Beijing Olympics the Dutch women’s eight medalled with bronze and silver respectively and in Beijing De Haan, Kingma and van Driel were in the boat. De Haan also raced in the bronze medal Athens boat. The women’s eight is expected to be one of the biggest medal hopes amongst the rowing squad.

A women’s pair featuring Wianka van Dorp and Olivia van Rooijen has been decided. They will be the spares for the women’s eight as well as trying to get a qualification spot for London at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May. The Dutch federation will also send a lightweight men’s four and a lightweight women’s double sculls to Lucerne to aim for qualification. At last year’s World Rowing Championships the lightweight women’s double finished just 0.23 of a second outside of qualifying for an Olympic place.

The Netherlands also qualified a men’s pair and men’s four last year. The men's four will be Boaz Meylink, Ruben Knab, Kaj Hendriks and Mechiel Versluis. They will still need to prove themselves at this year's World Rowing Cups to get the Olympic nod.

The men's pair is still open for selection. There are currently six athletes being considered; Meindert Klem, David Kuiper, Robert Lueken, Derk Noordhuis, Nanne Sluis and Vincent van der Want. The selection will be made after the first World Rowing Cup at the start of May.

All of the selected athletes are full-time athletes with funding coming from the National Olympic Committee with some still managing to do a bit of work or study. They are based at the Bosbaan in Amsterdam apart from training camps. Between now and the London Olympics there will be five training camps and the crew will race at all stages of the 2012 Samsumg World Rowing Cup series.