Final reactions from 2022 European Rowing Championships

The final day of the 2022 European Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany once again provided exciting racing with a mix of emotions seen at the end of the competition.

Romania picked up two more golds on the second day of finals, the first was for Ionela Cozmiuc who was victorious in the lightweight women’s single sculls. Speaking after her race, she said:

“It feels very good. It’s a while since I have been on a podium. I’m enjoying very much this medal. The race was a very tough one because the wind is crazy. But I managed to do my best race and I got a gold medal. My whole family is competing here, my husband (Marius Cozmiuc) won the men’s pair, and my little brother (Florin Lehaci) got the bronze in the men’s four, so it was a very good day for me yesterday – and today is even better.”

The second gold for Romania came in the women’s eight when they rowed through Great Britain in the final quarter of the race.  It was the second gold for Simona Radis in these Championships.

“It was a good race for us. We are very happy for this. It was strong. It’s the first time I doubled (up). I won gold yesterday and today another gold so that’s great for me.”

Meanwhile, it was silver for Great Britain with Heidi Long reflecting afterwards:

 “I don’t know exactly what happened in the race, but it feels it was a similar pattern to what happened in the heat. We were a bit slow off the start, but then built our rhythm and then found a real solid pace in the middle of the race. We didn’t have quite enough gears to hold the Romanians off in that brutal race into a brutal head win. We gave it our best and think we stepped on from our heat. Not quite enough but the Romanians had a great race.”

The Olympic Champions in the lightweight men’s double sculls, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan, took gold in the same boat class in Munich. McCarthy was pleased with their approach:

“We just kept consistent pace the whole way, and we had something in the end that I guess the other crews didn’t. We kind of just do what we do, hold our pace that we know we can do from training, and it seemed to work out for us. We pushed it on in the last 500 then and that came good.”

Meanwhile, in the lightweight women’s double sculls, Great Britain proved to be stronger than the Tokyo Olympic gold and silver medallists on this occasion. Imogen Grant was happy with how she and partner Emily Craig had performed:

“The plan was definitely just to got out there and put together a really confident and bold race in the conditions. And really show that we’re really strong. There’s so many people in the grandstands and I think the multi-sport event it means there’s so much excitement around the city and it was really special today.”

In the men’s double sculls, it was gold for Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia, however they were pushed hard this time by Spain. Aleix Garcia Pujolar, from the Spanish boat didn’t mind coming second to their heroes:

“We fought for the win. We are a bit lightweight, so it was hard for us. The course is nice, we like the race course and we enjoy a lot the race. The Sinkovics are heroes for us, since we are so young, we have watching them a lot. It would have been a dream to beat them. We are training so hard day by day to do that, and we are so happy because we are near.”

Meanwhile, Valent Sinkovic respected their opposition:

 “We knew before the race Spain would be tough. Maybe they surprised us the first 1,000 (metres), we thought we would be in front a little bit. We were going good in that part of the race – maybe they were a little bit in front, but we were going good in rhythm. I said to my brother (Martin Sinkovic, CRO) we will stay in that rhythm and let’s see what will happen. After 1,000 metres we started to get in front of them and we knew we would probably beat them.”

There was double gold for the Dutch, winning the women’s and men’s single sculls. Florijn took the first gold for the Netherlands, but had to work hard for the victory.

“It was not easy with the conditions and it didn’t feel easy to me. I know that Alexandra Foester has a big sprint at the end, so I knew I had to watch her before she goes crazy for the last 500m. It wasn’t easy with headwind and others kept pushing me. I’m very happy with the result.”

The second gold for the Netherlands came soon after when Melvin Twellaar won the men’s single sculls in one of the most exciting races of the day;

“So much happened in one race. Everyone took the lead for one time. In the second part of the race, I thought, I am just going to try everything, fly or die and see what happens. It worked quite well.”

In the same race, there was huge disappointment for home favourite Oliver Zeidler when he missed out on a medal altogether. Commenting after the race, Zeidler reflected;

“It was a crazy race. Until the 1,500 metres it was strict, I just stick to the plan. Then I feel stronger winds came in and just destroyed the plan to collect a bit of power 40 for the sprint at the end. Then I just couldn’t stand the last 20 strokes, I just blew up and there was nothing more possible.

I did everything on the course today, there was nothing to say against the tactic or something like that. I fired to the end and in the end the others were better.”