Month: June 2022

That’s a wrap. It’s a cliche, but Sunday was once again funday. The day took off with the skiffs of the lightweight men and -women. Japan, Great Britain, Portugal and Belgium were all represented in the women’s heats. The LM1x field saw many national talents competing, of which Brian Poll (Theta) and Martijn van den Berg (Euros) finished first in the morning heats. In the end the LW1x title went back with Olivia Bates to the UK and Brian Poll took the LM1x-title back to Eindhoven. After the lightweight single scullers, the morning was filled with junior rowing. The JM1x consisted of no less than six finals, meaning 35 juniors appeared at the start! Klaus Baud (Willem III) was the fastest of them all. In the JW1x we saw Jente Jongsma (Nereus) racing to victory.

The Holland Beker semifinals brought some unexpected results. In semifinal 1, Kjetil Borch crossed the 500m line as third, with Callum Dixon (UK) close behind him. Ahmet Rapi (Sweden) took the lead for the first 1000m and also Martin Helseth (Norway) started strongly, being the second crossing the 500m and 1000m line. After 500m, Borch had to give away his third position and ticket to the finals because Callum Dixon (UK) decided to step up. By doing so he passed the Norwegian. His extra pushes resulted in a second position after crossing the 1500m line. There, Rapi fell back to a third position and Helseth took the lead. You can imagine that all these swapping positions led to an enervating final sprint. The athletes gave everything they had. In the end it was Dixon who crossed the line first and let the three Scandinavian competitors finish 1-4 seconds later. It was Kjetil Borch who took the shortest straw and was condemned to Final B. In semifinal 2, Marc Weber took the lead after 1000m and kept it during the whole 2k. Lars Lipman (Laga) and Eric Talens (Euros) also claimed a spot for the finals, which were to be continued in the afternoon.

Preparing for the finals left enough room for speculation. Callum Dixon, who already had the fastest time in the semifinals, indeed went home with the Holland Beker, congratulations! It was a very close call with the German Marc Weber, who decided to give everything in his final sprint, but was not able to close the gap anymore.  

The battle of the crown also continued for the female rowers, who all had their eyes on the price. While in the heats Ria Thompson kept quiet, she now blew our minds by immediately claiming the first position. The bronze medalist (women’s quad, Tokyo 2021) was just a size too big for Rebecca Wilde and Minke Holleboom, who were the number two and three on the podium respectively. They can however be extremely proud as they finished both within 8 seconds of the Olympic-medalist. Congratulations to all of them.

Lastly, the winners of the Dutch Nationals require an honorable mention. All the races for the Dutch Nationals took place within 30 minutes of each other, with the M4x, LM4x, W4x, LW4x and W8+-titles up for grabs. First to cross the line was the Orca/Skøll/Nereus/Njord-combination. This crew will be allowed to enter World Cup III in two weeks in Lucerne and they lived up to the expectations. Another crew that will race World Cup III is the LM4x-combination of Laga/Gyas/Dudok van Heel/Triton and as was to be expected, they claimed the title. The W4x was won by the combination of Njord/Theta/Nereus/Laga. Interesting to note, as all the other quads were combinations, but the winning M4x was all Nereus and they were clearly crushing their field. Last but not least, the W8+ was won by another combination, this time comprising Proteus-Eretes/Skadi/Laga/Theta/Okeanos/Njord. 

To all the competitors, visitors and volunteers of this weekend we wish to say a big thank you. We hope we will see you all next year, we will already place our order for two days of perfect weather. To all the winners of this year’s edition we want to say congratulations, it was a pleasure to watch you all.

With all that said, thanks again and hasta la vista!

Ready. Set. Go. The Koninklijke-Holland Beker 2022 was finally back in full glory this morning. While the sun needed some guidance with finding the Bosbaan, the rowers were shining bright and early. Racing took off with the M4- heats, where the Skøll/Skadi/Orca combination was the fastest crew. Rowers Martijn Bos, Stijn Wieling, Jorn Salverda and Daan Klomp have already put themselves on the map this year with some excellent performances during national regattas and today they showed off during the KHB. At the end of this week, the crew will travel to the UK for the Henley Royal Regatta and they appear to be in good shape. The first medal of the day goes to the LM 2-, where a Brazilian pair triumphs. More victory went to Brazil when also the M2- crossed the finish line first. 

In the Holland Beker, Kjetil Borch (Norway) had a rough start of the morning, as he didn’t instantly claim his spot for the next round. Callum Dixon from Great Britain took the lead in the heat with Borch and easily ensured his place for the semifinals. In the repechage however, Borch managed to finish first, so we will see the Tokyo silver-medallist tomorrow again in the battle of the Holland Beker. Next to Borch, no less than four Dutch rowers made it to the semi-finals tomorrow, after having proved themselves in the repechage. Apart from Borch, we will see more competitors from Scandinavia that will appear at the start of the Holland Beker semifinals as we have Martin Helseth (Norway) and  Ahmet Rapi (Sweden). The battle for the Holland Beker will resume on Sunday a little before 11:00h, so make sure to check our livestream or to come enjoy the ambience on the Bosbaan.   

When looking at the Ladies Trophy, we noticed it were our neighboring countries who showed off, with Rebecca Wilde (UK) and Sophie Templitz-Heywood (Germany) claiming the direct tickets to the A-final. In the repechage, the remaining tickets for the final went to three of our fellow Dutch(wo)men and the woman to watch, Ria Thompson (Australia), bronze-medallist of Tokyo. The final of the Ladies Trophy will take place at 15:00h, so another one to put on your calendar for tomorrow (we know you are lying on the couch around that time anyway).

As mentioned, once again the KHB is hosting the Open Dutch National Championships as well. Racing was hard and fair, but in some of the events, it was not hard to declare the victors. In the M2x, Wibaut Rustenburg (Skøll) and Guillaume Turlan (France) crushed their field and claimed the title very quite convincingly. Another notable mention is the FISU-eight, who claimed the Dutch title in the M8+, by racing to a respectable 05:38,10. Given the example by Wibaut, more rowers from Skøll raced to the National Title. The W4- was a full Skøll-crew and the proud winners of today’s race. The M4- crew that already showed off in the morning also had 2 Skøllies on board, and they went home with the title. Another notable highlight of the Open National was the LM2x, where a boat of Willem III made a hell of a fight with the boat from Great Britain. The boats continued to swap places during the races, but in the end the English had the final say and can boast about their Dutch National title. In any event, congratulations to all the winners!

For now, we’ll take a short break. We hope to see you all tomorrow at our beloved Bosbaan. 

We are thrilled that the 2022 edition of the Koninklijke-Holland Beker will start tomorrow in full glory. Rowing crews from 14 different countries will join our beloved rowing regatta which, as usual, takes place at the Bosbaan. Not only will the KHB be Holland’s most renowned international regatta this weekend, it will also serve as the Dutch Championship for every boat with more than 2 oars (NK Groot).

Needless to say that we, after a long period of planning and preparing, are more than ready for a brilliant weekend full of rowing pleasure. For the complete KHB experience, we advise you to come and checkout the grandstand at the Bosbaan or watch the livestream, and very important, buy the most awesome rowing merchandise available to mankind. Of course, a rowing regatta is all about racing, so helpful as we are, we’ve put together some of the highlights you can look out for this weekend.

Ladies’ Trophy

Last year, with a lead of nearly 20 seconds, Pia Greiten claimed the Ladies’ Trophy and thereby became the successor of Emma Twigg. Both rowers will not reclaim their title in the 2022 edition. Of course, this begs the question who will bring the Ladies’ Trophy home this year. With the pandemic mostly faded out (which hopefully stays that way) and the travel restrictions for most countries lifted, the Trophy can travel quite far this year. With entries from Australia to the USA, the international allure of the KHB is shining like never before. The Australian Ria Thompson is clearly one to look out for. She triumphed during the 2019 World U23 Championships in the single and won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s quad. Another Olympian in da house is Alison Rusher, who represents both Cambridge Boat Club and the USA. Regarding the Dutch representation, we have a nice fun fact, which is that one of the competitors for the Trophy, Lisanne van der Lelij (Orca), is the daughter of Tom, with whom we talked last week about the ins and outs of umpiring at the KHB. Make sure to keep an eye on Minke Holleboom (Euros), who definitely has a chance of finishing as first Dutchie and maybe even the crown? 

Holland Beker

The battle for the Holland Beker will also be of Olympic standards. With silver medal winner Kjetil Borch appearing at the start, we are convinced that this race will be another one to watch. Kjetil (Norway) made his Olympic debut in 2012, when he participated with Nils Jakob Hoff in the Double Sculls. After becoming World Champion in the Single Sculls in 2019, Kjetil won the silver medal last year in Tokyo. We are proud to announce that Kjetil will compete for the Holland Beker this year. For the Netherlands, we have, amongst others, Wietse Morreau as a serious contender. With his enormous talent and his third place in the Dutch Championships last year, he has the potential to be the best placed Dutchman in this edition and is a possible contender for the throne.

Australia represent

Although the Netherlands is not exactly around the corner, Australia is well represented in the entries. After two years of limited travel possibilities, they can now travel the world again to remind us that they have some very talented rowers on board. We talked with one of the coaches of the lightweight women’s crew. Nigel Harding is the proud coach of the lightweight Australian women, made up by Sophie Jerapetritis, Eve Mure, Alexandra Moylan and Maggie Foley. The last eight weeks they have been training at the Australian National University Boat Club in Canberra. Sophie and Eve won Haslam Trophy, which is the Championship Lightweight Double Sculls at the Henley Women’s Regatta, last Sunday. After narrowly missing selection into the national senior and under 23 national teams, the group decided to obtain international racing experience by attending the Henley Women’s, Holland Beker and Henley Royal Regatta. The national federation, Rowing Australia, contributed in the form of arranging contacts for boats to hire. The entire squad is aiming for Paris 2024, although this will be very hard as for the lightweight women the double sculls are the only event available. This weekend however, they will make sure to add some Australian spice to the KHB and put in their best efforts.

Not to miss

The Australian rowers are not the only ones who start both the KHB and the Henley Royal Regatta. In the Men’s Elite 8+ a boat from Triton will enter, with freshly announced World Cup participators Pieter van Veen and Eli Brouwer on board. For this squad the expectations at the KHB and at Henley are quite high. Another highly talented boat is the Men’s Double Sculls of Wibout Rustenburg (Skøll), who will race with the French Guillaume Turlan at both the KHB and Henley.

Irrespective of how good this preview will be, rowing is best experienced alongside the water with a beer in your hand and all your friends around you on the grandstand. We are more than ready and hope to see you all on Saturday and Sunday. Don’t forget to take a picture at the photobooth to bring home your KHB memories. See you there! 

All entries, time-table and draw can be found via Time-Team.

This weekend the Koninklijke Holland Beker 2022 will take place at the Bosbaan in Amstelveen. We hope that you’ll join us along side this great venue for some exciting and close racing!

We have also been busy with making sure everybody who is interested can follow the event from home. Therefore we have set up a livestream on Youtube where you can follow every race.

Please click here for the saturday livestream

Please click here for the sunday livestream

The entries, draw and results can be found on Time Team

Het bestuur van de Holland Beker Wedstrijd Vereeniging nodigt u van harte uit voor de Algemene Vergadering die op zondag 26 juni 2022 om 10:00 uur gehouden zal worden tijdens de Koninklijke-Holland Beker in het de VIP tent langs de Bosbaan te Amstelveen.

Klik op deze link voor de agenda

For the single sculls event at the Koninklijke Holland Beker (both men and women) the prize money* is as follows:

• Gold medal €3.000
• Silver medal: €1.500
• Bronze medal: €750

* The prize money will only be awarded if at least three contestants from the Tokyo Olympics compete in the specific event

When the tan lines finally start showing, you know we have arrived in June, a.k.a. the month of the Koninklijke-Holland Beker. Let’s get this party started! June 25 and 26 it is all going to happen. While the organizing committees are busy writing articles for the website, ordering food stands for the event and shooting pictures for the poster, there is another group of rowing enthusiasts without whom the event could never take place. Today we meet Tom and Laura, two umpires in heart and soul. Passionately they talk about the ins and outs of being an umpire in general and the different adventures it has brought them so far and of course how they are preparing for the KHB.

Looking forward to the KHB

Tom: “Yes, the Koninklijk-Holland Beker is coming right up, that is always a great event! In the first place because it is an international race, which makes it special in several aspects. The variety of international athletes appearing at the start is always a pleasure. In addition, the umpiring world is quite small and at international events you meet umpires from all over the world. Could be that I’ll be drinking coffee with an Australian farmer who happens to have a passion for rowing too. How great is that?” Laura nods in agreement: “The umpires with an international license are divided among some of the crucial spots. All umpires that are only allowed to judge Dutch races take up the remaining tasks. At national events we divide the tasks based on the different levels we have (A, B and C*), while during the KHB we make a distinction based on national vs international license. Therefore, the difference in A vs B disappears at such a race which makes it extra fun for the umpires with a level B license.”

*Umpires with license A and B are allowed to judge at national events, umpires with license C can only act on regional races.

How it all started

As expected, we ask about what Laura has been up to with rowing and our mouths drop when she starts talking about her rowing resume. Of course, nothing can go wrong if the beauty of rowing has been instilled in you from your childhood. And what is more romantic than a first rowing stroke taught to you by your grandmother? Laura made her first strokes on the waters of Salland (Overijssel) but admitted sometimes preferring lying back in the skiff back then. Not sure whether it was this sunbathing or her grandmother’s rowing education that brought her to the Coupe de la Jeunesse in 2005. Impressive, Grandma could be proud! Unfortunately, an injury kept her back from rowing for a while. Even when she joined the student rowing association W.S.R. Argo in Wageningen, she committed herself to the cooking committee with in her hand a spatula instead of oars. Until the day that Argo’s women’s four needed replacement. From that day on, Laura and rowing are completely intertwined again. We can be happy with that. Laura has been an enthusiastic umpire for quite some years now. An indispensable element of rowing: without umpiring no racing! 

What you need

We ask which qualities a good umpire should bring to the table. A suitable character can act calm, read situations, and regain control if needed. This can be done by pacifying, listening, providing good feedback, and showing empathy with the rowers. Therefore, it certainly helps if you bring experience in lying at the start of a race yourself. In that case, you can better sense when rowers are on top of their nerves. You know that comments regarding rowing suits or shoes in the boat could make rowers furious. Even though these details are so important to check. Tom: “Beforehand, as a rower, you hardly think about how dangerous it is if the shoes are not fixed correctly and what can happen if your boat capsizes.”  Laura: “If I pull them off before a race, some rowers get extremely stressed. That does not always make us loved. Having a few extra laces in your pocket however can clear the air again.” 

A day as umpire

If you recognize yourself in (some of) the above points, do not hesitate to sign up. The KNRB can certainly use some extra manpower. It is definitely worth it if you ask Tom and Laura. A warm group of like-minded rowing enthusiasts awaits you with whom you have nice contact throughout the season. Tom: “On a typical race day you usually work in blocks. Some are checking boats at the docks, others are present on the water during the races, guiding the boats through their lane. Of course, we also have the spots at the start and the finish. The start is especially a favorite for many.” Laura: “Every race is different. How to act also really depends on which boats are in front of you. For an eighth or a coxed four you really need your megaphone. For the smaller numbers you can sometimes do it without and ‘steer’ by instructing the motorboat driver to put the boat behind a certain crew and thereby give a signal.”  The final sprint of a race is something to carefully think about. Tom: “Towards the end of the race you usually know who will be swinging from left to right across the finish line. I always try to correct the crew in question already at the 1500m line. After 1750m, the rowers put on blinders, then I usually save myself the trouble of calling them out.”

Going abroad

Tom’s rowing career is special in any case. He has been a loyal member of the umpiring committee for quite some years now and visited many national and international races all around the world. Tom comes from a real rower’s nest. His daughter, Lisanne van der Lelij, is part of the women’s selection of A.U.S.R. Orca and has quite some medals on her name. You may also have seen his wife at world rowing events. What’s even more special is that last summer Tom was the chosen one to go to the Olympics in Tokyo as umpire. Wow! Only one Dutch umpire is selected per Olympic cycle. For Tom it became a memory to never forget. One from which we could have made an entire article on itself. Fortunately, Tom has already done that job, see https://roei.nu/dagboek-tokyo-van-kamprechter-tom-van-der-lelij-zaterdag-24-juli/. In preparation for the Olympics, the Dutch rowers may be happy with Tom and his colleagues. Tom: “Since we are weighing boats, they have no longer been outweighed internationally. In Tokyo I weighed the Dutch Holland8, it was over a kilo too heavy! By acting strictly in the Netherlands, we teach rowers what heat does to a boat. Acting this way, we try to prepare them for the international field and rules.”

Swinging boats

Laura: “I enjoyed the Varsity a lot. The Varsity is just different from other races. You don’t have your standard amenities. I was unexpectedly allowed to umpire in the ladies 4 final. I was so happy and honored! Imagine, 6 coxless fours, without clearly defined lanes. I was in a lifeboat and was wedged in the front. My whole leg was bruised afterwards. Yes, that was really cool.”  Tom also has a beautiful memory. A KHB memory. “Speaking of competitions where there were boats swinging from left to right. Athens (Olympics 2004) arrived, and NZ had the Olympic four appearing at the start of the Holland Beker. The two teams were too close to the edge of their lanes, and I was standing there with my bum squeezed. Something had to be done or they would collide. Normally, adjusting direction causes imbalance in a boat with more inexperienced crews, but here it went so smoothly. The Olympic level is really impressive.” Tom imitates the sound of the rowboat getting back on course and shows us how sharply they acted. “That’s the beauty of being an international umpire. You are part of the top of the rowing world in a way and that is simply a spectacle!”

The joy of umpiring clearly shows off from Tom and Laura. In our opinion, they deserve a warm applause. Without umpires we would have been lost. We will see each other soon at the Bosbaan. We will raise our glasses to a beautiful KHB edition including the international rowing top, happy supporters, and a great team of umpires! 

The pictures in this post are shot by Thomas Disseldorp for Pixcie Asopos

In collaboration with Roeigoed we have opened the Koninklijke Holland Beker webshop!

Get your orders in now so you are guaranteed of receiving the merchandise before the event.

Click on this link to visit the webshop.

In 2021 heeft de Koninklijke Holland Beker voor het eerst de CO2 uitstoot van de Holland Beker gecompenseerd met het aanplanten van bomen via The Green Branch. The Green Branch is een Nederlandse organisatie die in het zuiden van Brazilië gedegradeerde landbouwgrond herstelt tot een biodivers bos. Met de CO2 compensatie dragen wij bij aan het herbebossen van 400.000 m2 land (dat zijn zo’n 80 voetbalvelden!) waar meer dan 30.000 bomen de CO2 opnemen uit de atmosfeer. Er worden meer dan 30 verschillende soorten bomen geplant waardoor de biodiversiteit, waterhuishouding en de ecosystemen hersteld worden. Zo maken we niet alleen impact op de natuur, maar ook op de lokale boeren en samenleving!