New Zealand sculling invasion at Holland Beker

Coming directly to Amsterdam from the World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne (SUI), Olympic Champion Drysdale raced to his fifth Holland Beker win. Drysdale finished five seconds ahead of World Champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Drysdale got off to a better start than Synek and the Czech sculler was not able to catch the Kiwi whose time was 7:02 over the 2000m course.

Synek commented in social media, “Holland Beker was not as good as I thought. Second place, but the race was lost with first stroke.”

Synek has won the Holland Beker three times, the last time in 2011. Finishing in third position was Jean-Benoit Valschaerts who also rowed at World Rowing Cup II for Luxembourg.

The premier women’s single sculling race, the Ladies’ Trophy was won for the first time by Emma Twigg. The New Zealander recently competed in the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta where she finished first, booking her spot at the Rio Olympic Games. Twigg’s win was ahead of Dutch sculler Lisa Scheenaard and 12-time Ladies’ Trophy winner, Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus. Twigg recorded a time of 7:40 with Scheenaard clocking 7:44.

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Both Drysdale and Twigg won 3000 euros for finishing first. Synek and Scheenaard won 1,000 euros with Valschaert and Karsten getting 750 euros.

Full results http://www.hollandbeker.nl/en/regatta/results/