National coach Eelco Meenhorst wants a lot of gold instead of a lot of medals next year at the Olympic Games in Paris. At the World Cup Rowing on the Rotsee, an important first step has been taken with four gold medals.
Aegir rower Melvin Twellaar, together with Stef Broenink, shared in the successes of the Dutch team in the double sculls. After the duo’s bronze at the European Championships in Bled two months ago, Meenhorst switched positions again. Just like at the Olympic Games in Tokyo where they won silver, Broenink took over the batting place from Twellaar again and with success.
In Bled, the duo were too close together and due to a back injury from the Aegir rower, they had not trained together enough at the time. On the Rotsee, Twelaar and Broenink already dominated in the preliminary rounds. In the final, the duo immediately took the lead and did not relinquish it. The reigning world and European champions, the Croatian Sinkovic brothers, continued to follow in second place half a boat length from the Dutch and their final sprint was also well parried by Twellaar/Broenink.
,,We were really looking for that click after the Olympic Games, and we now feel that we are flying, so that is quite a good feeling”, Twellaar reacts afterwards. “Apparently we are getting too old,” the Sinkovic brothers responded via Twitter, expressing their appreciation for the Dutch pair.
Other medals
After another silver medal for the women’s double fours at the European championships barely two months ago, Meenhorst replaced half the team. Only Bente Paulis and Tessa Dullemans, who grew up in Dalen, remained in the boat. Roos de Jong and Laila Youssifou, who had been ‘second best’ behind Romania in double sculls for a few years, were given a seat in the larger boat at the expense of Aegir rower Ilse Kolkman, among others.
The ‘sacrifice’ of the double sculls for the double scull had the desired success. The efficient fast start laid the foundation for victory. The Chinese women, undefeated since 2019, made futile attacks to continue their hegemony, but fell completely to fourth place in the last 500 meters.
Gold was also there for the Dutch men’s double sculls and skifwoman Karolien Florijn continued her series of victories with great force majeure.
Women without four
The women’s coxless with Marloes Oldenburg, Mijntje Drenth, Tinka Offreins and Benthe Boonstra ended up just next to the podium in fourth place. The speed of the Gyas combi at 700 meters is still a problem.
The leading position they had together with the Australians was lost to the Dutch. Romania joined the Australians in the second half and won the race. Great Britain came third. The Dutch eight won the only bronze medal.