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It’s time to get warmed up for the 2024 edition of our great event. The after movie of the sunny 2023 regatta visible below:

 

We are still buzzing since the 2023 edition of the Koninklijke Holland Beker. We are looking forward to the 2024 edition on the 1st and 2nd of June! We’ll keep you posted and are looking forward to hosting all of you next summer!

The men’s final certainly had us on the edge of our seats! My oh my, this certainly was a battle of titans with the reigning European Champion, vice world and olympic champions, world record holder on the erg and an olympic champion at the start, this will go down in history as one of the best Holland Beker finals ever.

Everyone was away fast. However, amidst the clash of the Dutch Titans Australian sculler Heseltine found himself off the blocks first. Top-favourite van Lierop found himself already half a boat length behind at 250m. However, he was the fastest of the Dutch scullers in the first 500m. He did not get much space from the others though. Broenink and Twellaar who race together in the Dutch men’s double sculles rowed almost synchronically together and kept the pressure on van Lierop and Heseltine. They followed the European champion across the 500m line within one second.

After this mark, the race started to change. Broenink placed an impressive attack and started to row away. He built the gap stroke by stroke and Wieten had to let go of the pack. He found himself in sixth place for the remainder of the race. Despite that, we hope he can look back on this weekend feeling proud of what he has achieved in this short amount of time back!

Meanwhile, as the scullers were nearing the 1000m mark, it was Twellaar who seemed to have found his rhythm and started to work his way back through the field. Unfortunately, van Lierop was clearly suffering under the fast pace the others were setting and had to give up costly places to Twellaar and van Dorp. Twellaar crossed the halfway mark in third and van Dorp in fourth place. Leading them were Aussie Heseltine in second place and Broenink in first place.

Having rowed together for such a long time, Broenink and Twellaar know each other through and through. This allowed Twellaar to place a well-timed attack around the 1150m mark. Stef could not fight him off and Twellaar quickly rowed past him. With 500m to go, Twellaar had a half a length lead over Broenink. Broenink tried to fight back, but the first half of the race had consumed too much energy from the vice-world champion. In the meantime van Heseltine cracked and this allowed van Dorp to take over third place. Van Lierop picked himself up and started to regain pace. The cyclists along the course yelled him past Heseltine and helped him gain even more courage for the final 500m.

The final 500m of this race was a true apotheosis of this weekend, and we could not have wished for more. Sadly, Broenink got overwhelmed by the speed he put in in the first part of the race, and slowly but surely fell back more and more. It was van Dorp who rowed past him first, and took over the second place. In the final sprint van Lierop also overtook Broenink and rowed to the final podium spot. Van Dorp who will race at the world championships in the single sculls was thrilled with his performance, demonstrated by a loud roar and him throwing his hands in the air after crossing the finish line. Van Lierop was clearly devastated with a third place after the brilliant race in Bled just a couple of weeks ago. However, the way that he managed to get back from fifth place onto the podium is more than commendable and clearly shows his strong determination and will to win.

Twellaar showed true brilliance and dominated the final 500m. He crossed the finish line clearly very emotional. In an interview with the NOS shortly after the finish, he explained that this was a special win to him. He expressed gratitude for his grandparents who got him to take the leap to go row in Amsterdam. Having just received bad news about the health of his grandmother on Saturday, winning this race was an extra special moment for him and his family. Melvin, we are sure you made her more than proud! Congratulations on winning the 129th Holland Beker!

Under a scorching hot sun in 31 degrees Celsius it was ladies first when it came to the afternoon finals at the Bosbaan on Sunday. Let’s take a look at the race, which is certainly one that we will remember for years to come.  

Lights out and away they went! It was Martine Veldhuis (NED) who pulled away fast with a quick and highly efficient start. She knew that in order to compete with the rest of the field later in the race she had to be away first and so she did!  Top-favourites Emma Twigg (AUS) and Roos de Jong (NED) followed closely behind, with German rower Juliane Faralisch alongside them. Although not fastest out of the start, it was Twigg who attacked at 200m to take over the lead. She came across the first 500m in a fast time of 1:49.80.  De Jong trailed closely behind and the gap at 500m was just 0.44 seconds. German sculler Faralisch crossed the 500m line in third place. But the battle for the Trophy seemed to go between de Jong and Twigg.

It was around 750m that Twigg really started to pull away from de Jong, who could not respond to this attack and had to give in half a boat length. Towards the 1000m Twigg could build this gap and de Jong lost contact. It was still Faralisch who put up a very brave first 1000m and managed to hold on to that third place. However, behind her, Hodgkins-Byrne (GBR), who did not have a very fast start, was catching up and started to row through the rest of the field to fourth at the 1000m. 

Unfortunately, the Belgian U23 rower Mazarine Guilbert could not keep up with the high speed from the start on and trailed in sixth place. She did manage to keep a very consistent pace throughout the race, but will just have to find a little bit more speed in that middle part to be able to really compete with the big league. We do hope she has convinced the Belgian head coach to give her a spot in the Belgian team for the World Championships! 

Meanwhile, de Jong did not let Twigg extend her gap and even placed a clear and decisive attack around the 1250m mark. However, Twigg could (seemingly) easily fight off the attack and soon after managed to extend her lead. Behind the fight in the front there was another thrilling race going on for that third podium spot. Hodgkins-Byrne was getting up to steam in that second 1000m and also managed to row past Faralisch to take over third place by the time they reached the 1500m mark. 

 

In the last final 500m it seemed that defending the attack from the Jong earlier in the race did cost Twigg some costly energy and de Jong gave another push. She managed to close the gap a little bit with a very powerful final sprint. However, with 250m to go only a boat-stopping crab could keep Twigg from victory. Despite exhaustion she showed powerful and long strokes in her final sprint and smoothly rowed to the finish line. She crossed the line in a whopping 7:27.15  and claimed the ladies trophy for the third time in her career!

De Jong had to settle for second place (this time). However, she came out of the boat smiling broadly, clearly very happy with her race and the final result. Hodgkins-Byrne crossed the line third, almost ten seconds behind de Jong and twelve behind Twigg, but wow what a race from her! Best of luck in Henley next weekend, we are sure that this race will have instilled some confidence! Faralisch unfortunately could not keep up quite the same pace in the second half of the race, but she did manage to finish fourth, just in front of Veldhuis who pulled off a really hard final sprint to see whether she could close the gap. A brave row from both girls. As mentioned above, Guilbert came in last, but certainly not least. 

What an edition of the Ladies Trophy this was. Thank you to all participating athletes for your brave performances and spectacular racing.  We hope to welcome you back next year! 

For the Ladies Trophy this afternoon, it looks like we are getting a tight battle between Roos de Jong (NED) and Emma Twigg (AUS) with the times in the semis just 0.10 apart! They will be accompanied by Mazarine Guilbert (BEL), Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (GBR), Juliana Faralisch (GER) and Martine Veldhuis (NED). There is some serious prize money to divide between the top three spots and the athletes are strongly matched. The A-final is at 16:15 today! Don’t miss it!

In the Holland Beker all the Dutch National team rowers qualified for the A-final. Van Lierop had to battle Broenink all the way to the finish to claim the first spot. The difference at the line was 0.19 seconds so we also expect some super close finishes in the A-final. It looks like Broenink and Twellaar were able to conserve some energy in the last 500m. This will definitely help them out later today. The only non-Dutchie joining these titans in the A-final is Aussie Blaine Heseltine. You can see how the battle unfolds at 16:30!

If you come to the Bosbaan, we want to inform you that it is scorching hot today. Therefore, don’t forget water, sunscreen and a hat!

Get your merch at the Koninklijke Holland Beker now! Check out our stand right next to the VIP tent in the finish area.

For competive people, the fastest man and women over 100 meter on the ergo win a free T-Shirt!

Each year, the top six of the Freshmen classification gets an invite to row a direct A-final at the Holland Beker. Whereas no points for the classification nor for so-called ‘status’ can be awarded by winning this race, for most crews getting the invite is an honour and goal to achieve in their first year of racing competitively. As the commentators pointed out, there is a ‘Holland Beker Curse’, meaning: whoever is on top of the classification does not win at the Holland Beker. This year, the curse was broken. Many crews topping the general classification fulfilled their ‘duty’ and also won today. The only exception was the LMFm8+ event where it was surprisingly the crew from Skøll who won by a boatlength! This crew has had some strong performances this season, but the 2k-win over the strong crews from Nereus, Laga Gyas and Skadi was quite unexpected! Well-done!

Results Fm races
LW4* Gyas
W4+ Euros
M4+ Pelargos

LM8+ Skøll
W8+ Nereus
M8+ Nereus

Day 1 is done and dusted, and what a day it was! Although slightly on the warm side, conditions were perfect. A mild tail breeze resulted in a world best time (AUS W2-) and national best time (NED W4x). Kicking the day off were the heats of the BM2x. With a gap just below 1 second separating the number 1 and 2 of that heat, the crews laid down the basis of an exciting day of racing ahead.

It truly was a day that had it all: a great ambiance at the entire Regatta venue, very powerful and dominant crews getting their bowball in front in the start all the way until victory, and also some other really tight races such as the W2x where the Dutch duo Vos/Scheenaard managed to finish just 0.11 seconds in front of the GBR2 crew.

Want to know more about day 1? Read our recap of today’s results below!!You can find all results here.

Holland Beker
The heats of the Holland Beker were packed with talentTwellaar, van Lierop, Broenink and van Dorp directly qualified for the A/B semi’s tomorrow by winning their heats. Of these four Dutch rowers, Broenink was the fastest over the 2000m course, closely followed by van Dorp in the second heat (just a 1 second margin). Racing nearly 2 seconds faster than current European Champion van Lierop, van Dorp has showed that he is up to the challenge and can compete with the top in the single. The runners-up who also directly qualified for the semis tomorrow were Franz Werner (GER), Mats van Sabben (NED) and Aussies Hamish Harding and Blaine Heseltine. Surprisingly Tone Wieten (NED) had to row the repechage. However, he did so very successfully, showing that we should still count the comeback kid in for tomorrow’s victory. The others who claimed a spot in tomorrow’s semis via the repechage are Jannis Romanowski (GER), Lars Kreiter (NED) and Oskar Martinius Gjerland (NOR). Best of luck tomorrow! Youngster Gianni Perotti could not surprise and will row against Holland Beker routinieer Privel Hinkati in the D-final tomorrow.

Ladies Trophy
Although she explained to us in an interview that she is not at her best level yet, it came to no surprise to us that Emma Twigg (NZL easily won her heat. As she told us she was able to conserve some energy in the final part of the race, which is likely to help her row to victory tomorrow! Although Roos de Jong (NED) also easily won her heat and likely did the same as Twigg did, she managed to row nearly 5 seconds faster than Twigg. Martine Veldhuis (NED claimed victory in the third heat. This race was a bit closer, with just two seconds separating the numbers one and two, however, it is notable that she did manage to row a faster time than Twigg! We are excited to see the racing between these three unfold tomorrow! Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (GBR) claimed the final direct qualifying spot.

In the repechages Chloe Ahixsa Callorda Bordacosta (URU), Iris Neijzen (NED), Ida Görtz Jacobsen (DEN), Alejandra Alsonso Aldrete (PAR), Mazarine Guilbert (BEL), Juliana Faralisch (GER), Cara Grzeskowiak (AUS), and Suzannah Duncan (FRA) proved themselves worthy of a spot in the A/B semi-finals. The fourth repechage was the fastest of them all. However, the difference with the third repechage was only one second, so we are ready for some exciting racing tomorrow!!

Other events
Too much happened today to sum up in this race review. We want to mention that we saw some delightful racing across the scope and are even more happy and proud to see everyone having enjoyed it so much.

In the ‘other’ events it was predominantly the Dutch national team that stood out. For example, in the W4-, the GBR crew was no match for the awakened force of the Dutc. This unchanged crew since last European’s is looking well on their way for the world’s later this summer. Also, the Dutch W4x set a new national record! Very surprisingly Dutch national team duo Ritsma/Wiersma was seriously outclassed by the duo from Utrecht: Eli Brouwer and Pieter van Veen. The belgian duo of Claeys/Mercier came in third. The Dutch men eight was a delight to watch, but the real rowing lover was also looking behind them to the race between the Indonesian/Triton crew and the Dutch U23 crew. The Indonesia/Triton crew surprised everyone. They managed to stay in front of the Dutch U23 crew, and the commentators rightly complimented this team with their great rowing.

Glad to have left the cold winter at home behind to race on the sunny Bosbaan this weekend is Olympic Champion Emma Twigg. Whilst she was making small adjustments to her oar and riggings set up after her win in the heats Saturday, we met up with her for a little chat! 

Catching up

It was her first international race in a while, so we were curious to see how it felt. Twigg told us that she definitely had to get the “cobwebs off”, referring to the fact that it was her first time making the 36 hour flight to Europe in a while and having to find the rhythm in her preparation after arriving in Amsterdam on Tuesday.  Although we did not catch it, she told us there were some “funny strokes” due to the weed in the water. However, overall the race felt good and she is happy to be back! 

For Twigg, the Bosbaan is a special place. In 2014 she won her first and only senior world title at this course, which is her second most meaningful race to her (the first one of course being her race to victory at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic games). As such, coming back to the Bosbaan brings back good and special memories. Apart from that, she likes the course as it can be fast. Which was proven  by the Australian W2- shortly after this interview by setting a new world best time (6.47.11) and later in the day with the Dutch W4- setting a new national best time!  

Apart from the course being fast and special to Twigg, she is also using the Holland Beker to prepare for WRCIII. Coming from Australia, you can only stay in Europe for three months. With the Worlds in Belgrade (Serbia) later this summer, this is the perfect way to get some racing in and working around the visa problem! The world championships are the number one priority right now, as winning those championships means qualifying for the 2024 Olympic games. Twigg hopes to make it to Paris to defend her title.  With the whole summer still to go, she says she is not quite near her top form yet, but we are sure that she will make a strong performance in tomorrow’s Semi A/B and final. After Paris the plan, for now, is retiring from rowing. However, as she has retired from rowing and came back twice, it’s more a ‘we’ll see’ than a definitive retirement. 

Twigg has been in the rowing sport for twenty years, so of course we had to ask what she loves most about it and what made her continue these past years. She replied: I love being fit and training to be the best I can be. But, as I was getting older it also changed. For me now, it is not necessarily the rowing itself, but more the social aspect of it and the lifestyle. Getting to spend three months in the EU racing, but also meeting new people, and making and catching up with friends. For example, I just met up with Karolien (Florijn, red.) for a coffee last week. I think it is quite unique in our sport. In the end, I think people don’t remember the wins, they remember the friends and people, the ones that make it fun. 

Apart from rowing, spending time with her son and watching him grow up  is her favourite way to spend time. As she loves Amsterdam and the Holland Beker, being able to bring her family here is extra special and she enjoys showing them around the city and the great food that we have here.  When asking her what her favourite food is, she surprisingly said she really finds “ontbijtkoek lekker” and then pulled a ‘ Snelle Jelle’ out of her bag. 

Strong advise 

These past few years Emma has been advocating for more LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in the rowing sport. Since marrying her wife and with the birth of her son she felt it was her responsibility to talk about it and be a role model. For her being visible and having a being a person talk to are the most important factors contributing to an environment where everyone can feel comfortable in being themselves. She herself was worried for a long time what people would think about her and for her to feel okay with herself and accept herself for who she is.  She wants to remind those who are finding themselves in a similar situation that everyone goes through a process of acceptance. Even now, when people, more than ever, can be who they want to be. For some it happens over night and for others it takes longer, and that’s okay. 

We believe the Holland Beker is an excellent race for junior rowers to get to see the top of the world and their favorite athletes racing. As such, to conclude, we asked Twigg what her number one advice to these young rowers is.  She told us that you should not necessarily want to be the best very quickly. Rowing takes a long time to learn and to master the art of it. Most people are not a world champ overnight, it takes a lot of time and commitment. You should also enjoy the process of it. 

Some last minute information for your travel towards the Bosbaan.

The A10 North is closed for 2 weekends in a row. Rijkswaterstaat is laying a new layer of silent asphalt. From Friday evening 23 June to Monday morning 26 June, the stretch between Coenplein (S118) and Watergraafsmeer (S113) in the direction of Amersfoort/Utrecht is next. When you need to travel on the A10, count on half an hour to an hour extra travel time.

The A10 will be closed from 11 p.m. Friday evening to 5 a.m. Monday morning. Yellow signs and information panels indicate the detour routes.

Keep in mind that the Weesperstraat is also closed during the day and there is therefore extra nuisance for traffic.

Click on this link for some more background information (in Dutch).

See you this weekend!