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Rower Lennart van Lierop caused a resounding surprise at the European Championships in Slovenian Bled by winning the European single scull title.
Van Lierop dispatched Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos and world champion Oliver Zeidler in sensational second and third place in a thrilling race.
Last year he was still in the Holland Acht, which won silver at the European and World Championships. Because Stefan Broenink and Melvin Twellaar were reunited in the double sculls, he was allowed to go to the European Championship in a single scull.
As number three in his semi-final, he narrowly reached the final. Van Lierop was still third halfway through, but then thundered brutally to the title.
Florijn defends his European title
Karolien Florijn defended his single scull title with a great show of power. The 25-year-old Dutch left Swiss Aurelia Janzen and Serbian Jovana Arsic far behind.
No answer
Halfway through, after 1000 meters, however, the gap to Janzen was already over three seconds. The rest of the peloton had no reaction to the speed of Florijn’s boat.
Without being threatened, she then rowed for gold, with which Florijn once again demonstrated that she was the woman to beat in the single sculls next year at the Paris Games.
Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester had to settle for silver in the coxless pair (06:57.56). For a long time, a gold medal seemed to be waiting for her, but the big final sprint of the Romanians Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel threw a key in hand (06.56.40).
Disappointment at Meester and Clevering after European Championships silver: ‘It’s sour’
Clevering and Meester, who also finished second in the World Cup behind New Zealand last year, broke the Dutch record (06.59.59) set in 2012 by Claudia Belderbos and Chantal Achterberg in Bled.
Both rowers were previously part of the four without, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They also won gold at the European Championships three times in a row in the four.
Silver coxless four
The coxless four, made up of Guus Mollee, Nelson Ritsema, Olav Molenaar and Gert-Jan van Doorn, gave their calling card by taking silver behind the unaffordable Briton (05.49.34) (05.52.24).
Last year, Ruben Knab, Sander de Graaf and Ralf and Rik Rienks won bronze at the World Cup and silver at the European Championship. Now there was a new boat in the European Championship final and she was rowing straight for a medal.
Halfway through, the Dutch talents had already moved from fifth to second place and this position was not abandoned. France and Romania increased the pressure, but the Dutch quartet repelled these attacks.
“Young dogs” of four without happy with European Championship silver: “We stayed cool”
Broenink and Twellaar have each gone their own way after Olympic silver in Tokyo, but heading into next year’s Games in Paris, the pair have been reunited.
Expectations were therefore high in Slovenia. Yet Broenink and Twellaar went no further than bronze, just ahead of Ireland.
The battle for gold was between Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic and Luca Rambaldi and Matteo Sartori from Italy.
The Croats, only fourth at the World Cup last year, proved that this classification was an incident. After an exciting final sprint, the Italians had to give in.
Also tans in women
Roos de Jong and Laila Youssifou were hoping to put pressure on Romanian favorites Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis in the double sculls. Instead, the Dutch duo had to settle for bronze (06.45.98).
Sculls are fed up with the European Championship race: “We lack speed in the last part”
Romania, unbeaten for four years, were tested by Lithuania in place of the Netherlands.
Donata Karaliene and Dovile Rimkute looked set to become the surprise of the tournament for a long time, but Romania overtook the Lithuanians on the very last shot.
Paralympians Corné de Koning and Chantal Haenen walked away with silver in the mixed double sculls (PR2 Mix2x).
Para-rowers De Koning and Haenen happy with their silver medal at the European Championships: “A very good step taken”
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