Tuesday debrief: A splash of orange, a load of shockers

There will be celebrations galore going on at the House of Orange. The Netherlands breezed away from the banks of Lake Bled with 11 medals. The 2023 European Rowing Championships have wrapped up and packed up and left us with some amazing memories.

“Lenny” beats the big guns in the men’s single

Ever heard the name of Lennart Van Lierop before? Well, you’d better get up to speed fast on this name as he just beat the reigning World Champion Zeidler and the reigning Olympic Champion Ntouskos in the A-Final of the men’s single sculls. And talk about doing it by stealth! Lennart finished second in his heat, snuck on through the repechage, then only just qualified through the semi-finals and, pow! With a sprint to die for, Lennart took out the best at the finish. That is called coming a long way from C-Final finish as a junior at the Under 19 Worlds. With Melvin Twellaar, last year’s European Rowing Champion, going back in the double with his Olympic partner Stef Broenink, we weren’t expecting the Netherlands to defend their title in the men’s single – but “Lenny” delivered when it counted most – to the delight of his pair and eight partner from last year, Niki Van Sprang, being the first one to congratulate him on the victory ceremony pontoon. With the European Championship title, will now come the expectations  – can he repeat his amazing performance when we will see him again at World Rowing Cup III, and later on at the Worlds?

 Romania’s Gold Rush

The double sculler has done it again in double style and with double the finesse. Simona Radis of Romania won the A-Final of the women’s double sculls in an amazing sprint on the line, and then an hour later went on to stroke the women’s eight to a resounding win. But the reigning World, European and Olympic champion is used to this routine. Last year she did the double-up at both the World Champs and the European Champs. All four medals were gold. Is she the best in the world right now?

She isn’t the only one walking away with two golds from the regatta. Six other athletes in that Romanian Women’s Eight won a second gold as well – Magdalena Rusu, Madalina Beres, Amalia Beres, and Maria Tivodariu in the Women’s Four, as well as Roxana Anghel and Ioana Vrinceanu in the Women’s Pair.

Radis was originally entered in the single – and we were desperately looking for that race against the other unbeatable athlete of the moment, Karolien Florijn of the Netherlands. But a late crew change had Simona back in the double with Ancuta Bodnar, and that winning combination struck gold again. Will we see a Florijn-vs-Radis showdown later this season ?

Roeoesli doing better than he ever was

After racing in the Tokyo Olympic final in the men’s double sculls, the Swiss sculler, Roman Roeoesli disappeared off to do the British Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race. A career of sculling quickly changed into sweep rowing as Roman helped Oxford to a Boat Race win in the eight last year. He returned last year in the Four, leading the new Swiss combination to a somehow surprising A-Final, where they managed to finish fifth. He’s now taken up pairs rowing for his home nation and after a win at World Rowing Cup I, Roman and his partner Andrin Gulich, finished as European Champions by a fraction of a second. Who ever said once-a-sculler-always-a-sculler? The ever-smiling Roeoesli also showed up how cool of a person he is outside the water, when he offered his gift received on the podium to her young boat handler as a sign of recognition.

Make the men’s double more zany

Thought it couldn’t be possible? Apparently it’s totally possible and it happened on the waters of Lake Bled. Just when you thought the double was stacked to the gills and no room for more to happen, we had the European Championships. Into the mix came a cheeky new combination formed at the pasta-eating, aperitivo-swilling Italian camp where the name Sartori is synonymous with rowing. In a semi-final that looked more like an World Championships A-Final, the new combination Luca Rambaldi and Matteo Sartori managed to grab a spot to the A-Final beating the reigning World and Olympic Champions of France, the Romanians and the Serbians, two proven combinations at this level. In the final on Sunday, Rambaldi and Sartori gave the Sinkovic brothers a right proper run for their money. The Sinkovics held them off but there’s no doubt the pressure Rambaldi and Sartori put on the Croatian’s up to the last 200m. With Broenink and Twellaar back in the double, the Irish back in the A-Final, the Australians coming over for World Cups II and III and the French eager for revenge, there will be fireworks in this boatclass.

How many fantastic finishes did we get?

Beautiful Lake Bled treated us with some amazing, thrilling, nail-bitting finishes. The first one being the men’s eight race and the photo finish to determine that Great Britain won by a mere 0.05 seconds, But the last 250 meters – with the Romanians up to 47 strokes a minute, the Dutch less than half a second behind the top two… we loved every second of it. We also loved the Romanian’s final sprints – both in the women’s pair and in the women’s double, we thought, entering the red buoys, that they had to settle for silver. But twice, they managed to row through the Netherlands and Lithuania, to grab twice a well-deserved gold medal – to the delight of an ecstatic Elisabeta Lipa in the finish area. And just when you thought you had seen enough, the men’s pair was also fantastic, with four crews in the mix for a gold medal in the last 200m, and the brand new Swiss combination of Roeoesli and Gulich putting their bowball in front of GB for 0.10 seconds. Could we ask all crews to give us such exciting racing for the remainder of the season, please?