Rowers push boundaries with five World Cup gold medals in Belgrade: “The bar is now very high”

Of course, he also had a moment of euphoria on Sunday afternoon at Lake Sava near Belgrade. “Is this really happening,” rowing national coach Eelco Meenhorst had briefly wondered after the World Championships, where the Dutch rowing team had finished at the top of the medal rankings with five gold and three silver medals. But soon after, his true nature emerged. “I’m already thinking about next year. We will immediately evaluate and analyze this World Cup with the staff when we return tomorrow. Where can we do better, where can we do it smarter.”

A year before the Paris Olympics, the Dutch rowing team was more successful than ever at the World Championships in Serbia. Gold went to the women’s sculls and fours, the women’s single scull, the men’s double sculls and the men’s double scull. “This is the best blueprint for next year’s Games,” says national coach Meenhorst by telephone from Belgrade. “This is a qualifying World Cup, everyone wants to be at their best here. The results here are a good reflection of the international balance of power.”

With almost 1.8 million euros per year, rowing is the third sport in terms of financial contribution from the sports umbrella organization NOC-NSF, after sailing and hockey. Never before has the Netherlands won more than one gold medal in the Olympic classes at the World Championships. “I think that the Netherlands is by far the best rowing island in the world,” Karolien Florijn told the ANP news agency, after she had extended her world title in the single scull with force majeure on Sunday afternoon and won the fifth gold medal. The Netherlands thus remained ahead of England (four golds) and Italy (three golds) in the medal tally.

“This is an unprecedented result,” says coach Meenhorst. “We already knew from the data we had from training that the level of the entire team was high. This could well be a successful World Cup, we thought. But the fact that it would be so impressive also exceeds my expectations.”

Farewell to coaches

For an explanation of the exceptional performance, Meenhorst refers to the Olympic Games that were held in Tokyo in 2021. As a coach he was responsible for the success of the men’s ‘scullers’: gold for the double sculls and silver for the double sculls. “We were then driven straight from the airport to Scheveningen, for a TV interview with Humberto Tan. Then I said that we should extend the approach taken with the scullers to the entire rowing team. That is what makes us so successful as a team.”

Upon his appointment as head coach of TeamNL Rowing in November 2021, Meenhorst decided to have the men and women train together. He said goodbye to a number of coaches with their own ‘island’ within the rowing association and is now in charge of everything. “The bar is now very high and we have a very good group of rowers. You learn from the best rowers and if the level of the best is high, then everyone wants to go there.”

He noted in Belgrade that the central approach he introduced is paying off. “The collaboration within the entire team is now closer. As a result, we can now better monitor and manage the entire group at a detailed level. We can also use the data from this World Cup to further fine-tune towards the Games for the entire group, men and women.”

Many rowers praise the national coach’s new approach. “I think we are peaking here at the right time,” said Tone Wieten, who became world champion with the doubles quadruple. “The training programs have been thought through in detail and we have been receiving separate adjustments for each individual for a few years now. Some had to rest earlier, others had to train for a few more days, so that everyone would be at their best on the final day.”

In the run-up to the World Cup, the national coach did not hesitate to rigorously change some teams. Under the motto ‘rather one gold than three silver’, he even changed teams that were good for medals in previous international tournaments. “With all the information and knowledge we have as staff, we can take a reasoned look at where more can be achieved.”

Meenhorst put reigning European single scull champion Lennart van Lierop in the double four. This was at the expense of Simon van Dorp, who competed in the single sculls at the World Championships. It resulted in double success. In the new composition of Van Lierop, Finn Florijn, Tone Wieten and Koen Metsemakers, the double four left the competition on Lake Sava more than a boat length behind to take the gold more than two seconds ahead of Italy.

There was also a medal for Van Dorp (26), who surprisingly took silver on his debut in the single sculls. In the final he only had to tolerate the German defending champion Oliver Zeidler. “I am proud of how I showed in this tournament that I can row fast, at my first international tournament in the single scull,” Van Dorp said before the final. “I think it is a very cool adventure and I think there is much more to it after the World Cup.”

In the double sculls, the reunion of Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink, who were already coached by Meenhorst at the Tokyo Games and then went their separate ways, led to their first world title. “We have completely reinvented ourselves and the fact that it came out here is really great,” said Twellaar a few minutes after taking gold. “We never gave up, we sat down together and discussed things that could be improved. That turned out so well.”

Twellaar and Broenink won Olympic silver in Tokyo two years ago, but after the Games they decided to move to other boats. “We both started doing some different things and had to rediscover the power of our boat. This medal is a great motivation to keep training hard and do more. Then we will do the same in Paris plus a few percent.”

Need a vacation

The starting point of the program to Paris 2024, according to Meenhorst, is ‘controlled pushing boundaries’. “Going beyond where you thought the limit was,” the coach explains. In a traditionally physically demanding sport such as rowing, this does not necessarily mean even harder training. “You can push boundaries in many ways, especially in different and smarter ways.”

The program is demanding. Several successful rowers declared that they were ready for a holiday in Belgrade. Karolien Florijn, who became the first Dutch rower to become world champion twice in a row in an Olympic class, will also leave her skiff untouched for the time being after the World Championships. “I really focus my life entirely on rowing,” says 25-year-old Florijn, daughter of two-time Olympic champion Ronald Florijn. “That’s why I’m going to do nothing at all for three weeks and maintain some social contacts again. I’m also going to visit my family in Germany again. I need to recharge physically and mentally.”

Florijn left the competition far behind him on Lake Sava in the capital of Serbia. “But you shouldn’t think too early that you have arrived and stay focused, because two kilometers is quite long. If you think about it too easily, they will overtake you,” said the Dutch woman, currently in a class of her own in the single sculls. She was more than five seconds faster than the Olympic champion of Tokyo, Emma Twigg from New Zealand.

After a short holiday, the Dutch rowing team will focus on the Olympic Games in Paris. “It is very nice that the intermediate steps all went well, but the highest goal is of course gold at next year’s Games,” says Florijn. “After three weeks off, we will train three times a day again. But I have to get some rest now, otherwise you won’t last.”

National coach Meenhorst says he does not need a three-week holiday. “It already starts on the plane home. In my head I am already evaluating the World Cup. You always have to see if something needs to change, or if you can improve something. At home, I put everything together on paper with the staff. And then the central training sessions will start again in three weeks. Building, setting up and implementing the programme.” Five times gold in Paris? “The Netherlands has never won Olympic gold in an open category for men and women. That is my own goal.”