A World Record and lots of promise at Euro Open

Belarus’s Shurmei raced in the open men’s category with strong competition coming from German Olympic Champion (men’s quadruple sculls) Tim Grohmann and German junior World Champion Kai Fuhrmann. Fuhrmann was the first to get to the 1500m mark, before Shurmei made his final move to win in a time of 5:48.9. Grohmann followed in 5:50.2 with Fuhrmann clocking 5:50.7.

"That was very clever of Pavel," said Grohmann, commenting on the Belarusian’s tactics after the race."But I'm satisfied and it was great fun.”

“It was a very good race," said the 36-year-old Shurmei, who has decided not to return to national team rowing. "I'm an old man now and enjoy competitions like this. The flair of Kettwig is fantastic."

The Euro Open attracted nearly 1000 competitors from 19 countries. They were divided into age groups and lightweight and heavyweight classes. The competitors ranged in age from 17 – 79 years old and included rowers from 109 different German clubs.

One World Record was broken with Bernhard Strocka of Germany setting the new standard in the 70 – 74 year old heavyweight men’s category. Strocka’s time was 6:54.8.

The open women’s category was dominated by under-23 German national team athletes. Germany’s new head coach, Marcus Schwarzrock was very impressed by winner, Charlotte Reinhardt who pulled a 6:50.1 to win the category. Judith Sievers and Alexandra Hoeffgen followed in second and third respectively.

Pedro Fraga of Portugal has been doing the rounds of recent indoor rowing events and can now add a first place finish from the Euro Open to his list of accomplishments. Fraga won the lightweight men’s category in a time of 6:11.2. Fraga, who raced in the lightweight men’s double sculls final at the London Olympic Games, was followed closely by German Olympians, Lars Hartig (6:12.8) and Lars Wichert (6:15.7).

The closest finish was in the junior men’s category with Laurits Follert of Germany and Ondrej Hollas of the Czech Republic both finishing in a time of 6:11.2. Sixteen-year-old Follert is aiming to break into the German junior team while Hollas has competed in the Czech junior quadruple sculls for two years.

The junior women’s category was relatively clear cut with Lena-Maria Seuffert winning by just over two seconds in a time of 6:59.9. Carlotta Nwajide was second and Frauke Hundeling third. All of these competitors were from Germany.

The lightweight women’s category was also an all-German affair for the medallists. Leonie Pless was the clear winner in a time of 7:11.4. Pless competed for Germany in the lightweight single last season. Behind Pless, Fabienne Knoke was second and Katja Ruegner was third.

For full results: http://www.stoebehh.de/liveergebnisseIndoorKettwig.htm