Van Zandweghe-Colpaert closes the World Cup in twelfth place, the Belgian double wins the C final and finishes thirteenth

After crashing alongside the top twelve in their second chance race last Thursday, Tim Brys (KR Club Gent), Gaston Mercier (RACE Liège)n Ward Lemmelijn (Schulensmeer) and Ruben Claeys (KR Sport Gent) immediately indicated that they wanted to get over this mental eruption as quickly as possible and eradicate all frustrations in C-final. The quartet underlined this ambition from the first meters of this race for places thirteen to seventeen. They left the initiative for a moment to the Czech favourites, eleventh in the recent European Championship, but the strongly encouraged “local rowers” ​​did not have more than a meter lead.

After 1300m, lettuce grower Tim Brys had had enough. He led his team to a six-yard lead. The Czechs had to let go of the role and the Americans quickly understood this. The Yankees picked up the pace tremendously and gave it their all for first place. They approached within two meters, the signal for our Belgians to react on alert. They crossed the finish line proud winners, albeit completely empty. Not that thirteenth place, but the fact that they came close to the world top in the second chance and gave the Czechs another chance in the C final, shows that after only six months together the team has already achieved a remarkable result. .. has made progress. There is still enough time to give the OS 2024 project an increasingly solid shape.

In the B final of the lightweight doubles, Niels Van Zandweghe and Marlon Colpaert failed to interfere for a second in the battle for seventh to twelfth place. The Bruges-Ostend duo were sixth from the first meters and, despite their famous last 500 meters, did not come close, let alone finish in the top three. “Nevertheless, their World Cup can be considered a success,” says coach Frans Claes. “After all, this team has only been together for five months. Their preparation for the World Cup was also disrupted by Niels’ illness, which forced Marlon to compete in the European Championship on a single scull last month. We We are already happy that in these circumstances they make the top twelve here and finish less than five seconds from seventh place, the Olympic selection criterion that they must fulfill for Paris 2024 during the 2023 World Cup. This duo still has a lot For growth. Also, there may be other opportunities once Tibo Vyvey, the couple silver in the World Cup final, is healed and can come and strengthen our lightweight core,” sounds convincing from the mouth of the crystal-clear Olympic coach Frans Claes.

Belgian results:

Light men.

Final B: 7th to 12th place.

two of couple:

1. Alfonso and Dinis Costa (Por) 6:28.78

2. Pombo – Balestegui (Spain) 6:30.20

3. Benske – Tjoem (Nou) 6:30.50

4. Leerkamp – Gaus (Germany) 6:31.33

5. Dunham – Stockley (NZl) 6:32.16

6. VAN ZANDWEGHE – COLPAERT (BEL) 6:33.33

Niels Van Zandweghe (Brugse TR) and Marlon Colpaert (KRSN Ostend) close their World Cup with a 12th place out of 29 teams

Senior men.

C-final: 13th to 18th place.

quadruple:

1. BELGIUM (BRYS-MERCIER-LEMMELIJN-CLAEYS) 5:51.74

2. United States 5:52.05

3. Czech Republic 5:55.36

4. New Zealand 5:56.51

5. Indonesia 5:58.63

Tim Brys (KR Club Gent), Gaston Mercier (RCAE Liège), Ward Lemmelijn (Schulensmeer) and Ruben Claeys (KR Sport Gent) close this World Cup with a 13th place out of 17 teams.