Men's Pair Final

What an upset, what a race. The men’s pair of Veslin Savic and Dusan Bogicevic of Serbia proved the advantage of having home crowd support. The previously unranked duo of Savic and Bogicevic set the Sava Lake regatta course alight when they beat the Dutch favourites in the pair. 

The race opened with Germany’s Bastian Bechler and Anton Braun in the lead. But this didn’t last long as Savic and Bogicevic edged out into the front. Savic has only been on the Serbian national team once before in 2011 when he took gold at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in the coxed four.  Bogicevic has seen a few international regattas over the years, but all as a sculler, mainly in the double sculls. These two came together this year and they must have found a certain spark.

With Rogier Blink and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands chasing hard, Savic and Bogicevic remained on attack keeping their bow ball just ahead of the Dutch. Blink and Steenman finished third in the pair at the 2013 World Rowing Championships and then won the World Rowing Cup in Sydney earlier this year. Blink and Steenman must have felt the pressure as they tried to get closer to the Serbs.

The final 300m was now being rowed and the crowd at the finish line was beside themselves. No one was left sitting as Serbia remained on attack, neck-and-neck with the Dutch. At the line Belgrade celebrated. Savic and Bogicevic had struck gold for their country. Blink and Steeman were just 0.24 seconds behind in second and Germany was third. A new European Best Time had been set of 6:21.75.

Results: SRB, NED, GER, GBR, ITA, ESP

Gold– Veselin Savic – SRB

The audience was so loud! That gave us the strength to keep pushing and finish the race. The first 1000 metres was a super race and then all the other teams started pushing more and more. The last 5000 metres was unbelievable and the crowd gave us the power to finish. I heard we broke the European record- it’s incredible.

Silver– Rogier Blink – NED

It’s was difficult – it was so windy. We’re not satisfied with second – we had a plan to win and it didn’t happen.

Bronze– Bastian Bechler – GER

I felt both good and bad. We wanted to win but we’re satisfied in the end.