Florijn and Twellaar give rowing team double gold at European Championships

With Florijn and Twellaar as figureheads, the Dutch rowing team impressed at the European Championships in Munich. In addition to these two gold medals, the orange team also returned from southern Germany with four silver and three bronze medals. The World Cup in the Czech Republic will follow in a month.

Florijn had already shown in two World Cup competitions this season that she is in a class of her own against mainly European competitors. In Munich, the Greek Evangelia Anastasiadou finished second almost six seconds behind her. The bronze medal went to Germany’s Alexandra Föster. “Everyone expected this from me, but it’s not that easy,” said the 24-year-old daughter of double Olympic champion Ronald Florijn and former German rower Antje Rehaag. At last year’s Olympics in Tokyo, she was among the four without, for which she won silver.

“The conditions were difficult with a strong headwind. Of course, it’s not really a surprise that I win here, but it’s a bigger game than the World Cups.” Florijn is already looking forward to the World Cup, where she will also meet Olympic champion Emma Twigg from New Zealand. “I am very curious, I hope I will take a better step.”

Strong competition

Twellaar’s win came as a surprise. The 25-year-old Amsterdammer got off to a bad start but drew motivation from it, he told NOS afterwards. “It turned out differently than we expected, but in training we often imitate such situations. You learn to deal with it. It was useful today.

Twellaar didn’t have time to look around and only realized when he crossed the finish line that he had become European champion. The reigning German world champion Oliver Zeidler even missed the podium. He indicated that the competition was indeed strong in Munich. Twellaar won silver in double sculls at the Tokyo Games with Stef Broenink last year.

The Dutch medal haul continued with the men’s eight, Laila Youssifou and Roos de Jong in the double sculls, women’s double and men’s four without (all silver) and Ymkje Clevering and Véronique Meester in the doubles without, the women’s eight and Martine Veldhuis in light pair (bronze). (ANP)