2004 Concept2 Euro Open Report
Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam on December 18th turned out to be the venue for the best ever away performance by a British indoor rowing team. With 12 gold medals, five silvers and 10 bronzes, plus a number of personal bests, the day was immensely successful, while the night out afterwards didn't seem too shabby either.
At the World IRC in Boston this year, Britain took three out of the four 30-39 race categories; this time, we managed to go one better and perform a clean sweep. In the Men's 30-39 Hwt, Nik Fleming was always in command, winning in 5:59.0, the fourteenth time he's gone sub-six. Behind him, the giant French basketball player Bruno Corcoran finished second while Britain's Grahame Todd dug in to take bronze. There was British gold and bronze in the Men's 30-39 Lwt as well, when Dan Staite, who'd been ill in the week leading up to it, overtook Denmark's Anders Brabaek after 300 metres and increased his lead for the rest of the race to win in 6:21.2. Gary Blackman was just unable to do enough to overtake Brabaek himself, finishing in 6:33.4.
In the Women's 30-39 Hwt, Nottingham's Rachel Scott was involved in an epic battle with the United States' Gina Klean. After taking the lead just after the halfway stage, Scott was forced to dig deep to hold off a final charge from the American, winning by just half a second in the end in a time of 7:15.8. Megan Brown took another bronze for Britain in this race as well with a 7:21.0, good enough to hold off the Netherlands's Petra Schouten. In the Women's Lwt version, Carol Dunbar easily took the top spot with a great time of 7:31.9.
Talking of British clean sweeps, there was another, albeit more concentrated one, in the Men's 50-59 Hwt race. At last year's European Open, Paul Langguth was in silver position before blowing up badly with a couple of hundred to go and finishing out of the medals. All eyes were on him this time to see whether he could make amends in Amsterdam. It was clear from the start, however, that if he was, it wasn't going to be the easy way. After 600 metres, there was a tight leading pack consisting of him, Martyn Lowe, Alex Brown, Johan Bielderman of the Netherlands and the Estonian Lohmus. With just over 500 metres to, Paul started his sprint for home, hitting 1:35s and 1:34s. The question was whether he'd gone too early or would he break the rest of the pack. From those following him, it was only Martyn Lowe who was still in contention, and although he finished at 1:32s, he wasn't able to do enough to overtake a deserving champion. Paul won in 6:26.4, while Martyn fulfilled his target of breaking 6:30, by the merest tenth of a second. Behind them, Alex Brown did really well to hold off the Estonian to take a major championship bronze in a time of 6:35.6.
In the Women's senior events, more golds were taken home, this time by Sarah Payne, Helen Hall and Anna Bailey in the 40-49 Hwt, 40-49 Lwt and 50-59 Hwt events respectively. All three won relatively easily, while Carole McNally was also able to add silver when she held of Italy's Jolanda Virtu in the 40-49 Hwt race.
In the Men's 60-69 Lwt race when Roger Prowse was unable to be beat teh British record he set in Cardiff a week earlier, but still won in 6:52.7; Philip Stubley took bronze in this race as well. In the 70-79 Lwt race, Geoffrey Knight was just unable to do the same: his time of 7:14.4 was good enough for gold but was half a second outside Bert Leah's British and World record. To cap off a good day for British men's veteran racing, Bill Payne and Denis Melody also won the 70-79 Hwt and 80-89 Lwt races.
In the first of the Open races, the Women's Lwt, the two favourites were home girl Marit Van Eupen and Denmark's Juliane Elander, who finished second at last year's European Open. At the start, Juliane went off at a high stroke rate of 34/35, something that seems to be traditional for Danish lightweights. It was another Dutch rower, Linde Verbeek, however, who got the best start and had the lead after 200 metres with Elander and a steady-looking Van Eupen lying in second and third place. After 800 metres, Verbeek started to slow and was soon overtaken by the other two, with Van Eupen looking the strongest, consistently hitting 1:48s compared to Elander's 1:50s. By 1,300 metres, Van Eupen had a half-length lead and Elander was forced to push hard to try and close the gap. Van Eupen was able to respond, however, and while with 250 to go and again with 100 left Elander raised her pace, each time Van Eupen was able to hold on. Van Eupen won with 7:12.7, Elander silver in 7:13.4 while Verbeek did just enough to hold on and take bronze in 7:20.8.
The Men's Open Lwt was all about the two members of the Danish Olympic lightweight double, Rasmus Quist and Mads Reinholdt. They both set off like the clappers at 54 strokes per minute with Quist just shading the start by the merest of fractions. They then locked into each other's stroke pattern for the next six minutes. With never more than two metres between them for most of the race, they nailed each stroke in unison, time after time. With 400 metres to go, Mads stuck in a few big strokes to take the lead, finishing the race with 1:32s and a final time of 6:12.9. Behind him, Quist was second with 6:15.3, and the Netherlands's Harm Scholten third with 6:20.0. Jesse Elzinga was the top placed Brit, finishing seventh with 6:27.6.
As expected, Hurnet Dekkers ran away with the Women's Open Hwt race. The tall Dutch girl was far too good for the rest of the field, winning in a time of 6:39.6, well ahead of countrywoman Marjolijn Stenneke and Pavlina Zizkova of the Czech Republic, who finished second and third in 6:56.4 and 7:00.0 respectively.
The Men's Open Hwt was a battle between Hungary's Akos Haller, a world champion in the double in 2001 and 2002, and Holland's Sjoerd Hamburger, the bronze medallist in the single at the U23 World Championship this year. Unfortunately, the one person whose machine glitched on the race system all day was Hamburger so a lot of the crowd were denied the best Open race of the day. After establishing an early lead, Haller was never able to shake off Hamburger, and the Dutchman slowly caught him up until with less than 250 to go, and Haller desperately trying to pour on the power, Hamburger was able to hit the front for the first time, winning in 5:54.0 with Haller exactly a second back.
The fastest time of the day, however, came in the Men's U23 Hwt event, where Latvia's Kristap Bokums romped to victory. Looking the spitting image of indoor rowing legend Matthias Siejkowski, Bokums won in 5:49.8, a phenomenal time for someone that age.
The championship also had a number of team races, including a 4x1000m relay that featured Great Britain's Carole McNally, Kelly Sapsford, Kay Hughes and Carol Dunbar racing. As well as raising some excitement in the hall due to the fact they were racing in lingerie and high heels, they were also raising money for Pendlebury Children's Hospital in Manchester. To donate to the cause, as well as to see them in uniform, go to http://www.justgiving.com/amsterdam2004
