Mixed four-man coxed wins silver at the European Championships in Bled

Leverkusen / Dortmund. Coxless two had to settle for a C-final on their first international debut, but it’s improving from race to race

At the European Championships in Bled, Slovenia, St.’s semi-mixed four, trained by RTHC coach Ralf Müller, improved from a bronze achieved in Munich last year to a silver and significantly reduced the gap to the favored British quartet.

Suzanne Lackner (Mannheimer RV Amicitia), Jan Helmich (RC Hansa Dortmund), Marc Lembeck and Catherine Marchand (both at RTHC Bayer Leverkusen) and captain Inga Thun (Ulmer RC Donau) went to the final after finishing third in the Lane distribution racing behind the aggressive British and French quartet. The German boat kept close contact until about the 1,500-metre mark, before the British put water between them and their pursuers in the last 500 metres.

“It wasn’t a nice race, but it was fast. We were all very committed, every shot was on point. When we passed the French, it was a sure success,” stated the stroke Catherine Marchand of Bled’s most successful DRV boat. “A really good race. The team has been able to improve significantly compared to the competition,” said Parra national coach Mark Stahlberg.

Great Britain became European champions new and old, and France relegated the Germans to third place. Fourthly, Italy could not interfere in the struggle for medals.
The two made their captainless debut with Yannick Metzger (Marbacher RV) and Julius Christ (RTHC Bayer Leverkusen) at the European Championships in Senior A. Both rowers already had national team duties, but at U23 and U19 levels.

In District A, the level of performance at the top has risen significantly again and “the two young athletes should arrive first in international business,” says national coach Thomas Affeldt.

In the preliminary round, the two finished fifth with a solid race.

After a hesitant run in the first half of the tournament, the fourth-place finisher in the German Championship finished fourth behind the world champion from Romania and the fourth in the World Cup from Serbia, Croatia and Italy.

The slow starting phase and the resulting inability to the halfway point was a problem on the replay. Similar to the final in the German Small Canoe Championships, “no fire” was applied from the 1000m mark.

Despite the fastest time in the last 500 metres, the French, who finished third, could no longer be snatched away. Yannick and Julius finished second behind Italy, Poland and France to advance to the hoped-for semi-final, finishing second in the half-boat.

In Sunday’s C-final it was now a matter of asserting themselves against Slovenia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Moldova.

There it has been shown that athletes learn quickly and can also apply this in racing. Cheered by the athletes from the other boats in the Deutschlandachter team, they started quickly and were only behind in third place after 500 metres. For the second 500 meters they stayed “on the gas”. The reward was a 1,000-metre lead, and even after 1,500 metres, the German boat was still in second place, 1.3 seconds behind Slovenia. However, in the final sprint, Yannick and Julius could not gain enough ground and had to let the Hungarians pass them.

Third place means fifteenth place overall.

“Our goal was the semi-finals. We learned a lot from the event. We only found our rhythm late here, but then in the last race we didn’t have the energy to hold properly in the final sprint,” said Julius Christ. “On the restart, which we didn’t stay in, we missed a lot. We missed them in the end.” Coach Thomas Affeldt was more optimistic about the pair’s final performance: “They started more gamely and got over the track well. There was a lack of power behind. They tried everything.” Something, but there was nothing they could do in terms of fighting.”

The result on the last day of the European Championship made the national coach in charge of the pair and the fourth optimistic: “Today was an important day for the development process of young athletes. I am sure that the quartet did a great job in today’s task. The pair was also good. “

All results can be found at https://worldrowing.com/event/2023-european-rowing-championships/.

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