Croatia’s men’s quad on form at Croatia Open

Showcasing their talent in front of a home crowd were Croatia’s Olympic silver medallists, the men’s quadruple sculls crew of Damir Martin, David Sain, Valent and Martin Sinkovic. Racing in the final of the men’s single sculls was the Sinkovic brothers and Damir Martin. Martin easily won with an eight second lead over Valent Sinkovic in second. Slovenia’s Olympic medallist, Luka Spik was third, less than half a second behind Valent, while Martin Sinkovic was fourth.

The next day the Sinkovic brothers paired up in the men’s double sculls and finished in first in a tight race with Serbia’s Marko Marjanovic and Aleksandar Filipovic. Marjanovic and Filipovic both tried to qualify for the London Olympics last year but missed out. They went on the finish fifth at the 2012 European Championships. In third were Paul and Bernard Sieber of Austria. The Sieber brothers are the reigning Under-23 Champions in the lightweight men’s double.

The fourth place went to Estonia’s Kaspar Taimsoo and Allar Raja. Taimsoo and Raja come to Croatia after competing less than three weeks prior in the Samsung World Rowing Cup in Sydney, Australia. The duo were the silver medallists in Sydney.

Croatia’s men’s quad then came together to race in their signature event. At the start it was Slovenia that shot out in the lead, boating a young crew of Fistravec, Markovc and Rojec built around the very experienced Spik. By the 1000m mark, Sain, Martin and the Sinkovic brothers had reeled the Slovenian’s in to take the lead. The crew came to the Croatia Open directly from a 10-day training camp in the Croatian seaside resort of Zaton.

At the finish Croatia had won with a three second margin over Slovenia. Valent Sinkovic commented, “It was better than expected and we have found what we need to work harder on in training.”

The women’s single sculls race was won by the 2012 Under-23 Champion from the women’s double, Magdalena Lobnig of Austria. Lobnig held off Estonia’s top woman, Kaisa Pajusalu with Iva Obradovic of Serbia in third.

Austria also prevailed in the lightweight women’s single sculls with long-time competitor, Michaela Taupe-Traer finishing first ahead of fellow Austrian Stefanie Borzacchini in second and Adela Roszkowski completing a clean sweep for Austria by finishing in third.

There was a record 70 entries in the junior men’s single sculls which was won by Andrija Sljukic of Serbia. Sljikic finished third last year at the World Rowing Junior Championships in the men’s pair.  

Igor Velimirovic, who is a member of the board of the Rowing Club Croatia Zagreb noted that the Croatia Open is a very important start to the season for a number of countries. “Some countries (like Croatia, Slovenia and Austria) even choose this regatta as a starting point in the selection process for their crews for the rest of the international season.”

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