European Rowing Championships: 6th place in the men's lightweight single scull

After my first place at the national trials I got the chance to represent Belgium in the lightweight single scull at the European Elite Championships.

This European Championship took place in Poznan, Poland from 9 until 11 October.

Heats started on Friday for me, only the first two place could qualify straight for the semi-finals. It became clear very fast that it would not be possible to manage to end first or second. I ended up behind the Norwegian sculler Kristoffer Brunn, Olympic medalist in Rio, and the slovenian sculler. I became third and had to row the repechages.

The repechages went better than the heats, the top 3 qualified for the semi-finals. I finished second in a very good time 7'00", fast enough to qualfiy for the semis.

In the semi finals I was not favorite to take a spot in the A-final. The last 500m I was still in 4th position with a gap of 4 sec from the third, but one way or another I found extra gear and could do a massive endsprint and take that third and last qualifying place. I ended only 0,3 sec from the Czech rower, who took 4th place. I rowed a new personal best time of 6'57.33". My Europeans were already succesfull, it was already a lot better than what we had in mind before.

The A-final was less, because of the big efforts from the day before and the extra race on friday. My body was already pretty tired. I tried the first 500m to go with them but I felt fast that my legs couldn't do it again. I became sixth, wich was a little bit dissapointing but there was really nothing more I could do that day.

After all, I was really happy about my tournament, the race in the lightweight single sculls are something I would like to do again. But unfortunately, the lightweight men's single scull is not a Olympic boat class, so has very little perspective in the future.

End result: NOR - ITA - IRL - GRE - HUN - BEL

Click here for the full results