World Cup II: Luzern

In Luzern we rowed our first Elite competition as a team, where we competed against the best atlethes in the men's lightweight double sculls.

The World Cup was our first test to know how far we stood according to the highest level of rowing. We could measure ourself against some Olympic teams including our Belgian crew Brys & Van Zandweghe.

In the heats we had to row against our Belgian friends, we had to let them go together with the German crew (Osborne & Rommelman). This way we had to prepare our self for an additional race, the repechages took place the same day in the afternoon.

During the repechages we had to make a tactical decision, this way could end up in a less difficult semi-final. If we were able to take third place, we would end up against the Polish crew. This crew was a little bit off so we had a chance to beat them and end up in the A-final. We were able to execute our race plan to perfection and became third in the repechages.

In the semi-finals we had to row against: Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and China. If we could take a place in the Top 3 we could qualify for the A-final. After an exciting race against the Swiss U23 crew we were able to take the third place. The Polish crew was, as expected, a little bit off. We were able to write history for the Belgian rowing team, for the first time in history two Belgian lighweight doubles rowed the A-final of a World Cup together.

For us this World Cup was more than succesfull, but we still tried to fight in a race against our idols. Because of unfair conditions we had to give up pretty early in the race and ended up with a 6th place on our first international race at elite level. Brys & Van Zandweghe ended up 5th.

End result: IRL - NOR1 - GER - ITA - BEL1 - BEL2

Click here for the full results