‘Their blades are nicely clear of the water, these men know their stuff,’ was broadcast over the public address system last weekend at the Damen rowing regatta in Zevenhuizen. The admiring remarks referred to eight first-years rowing for Argo who had just won a huge victory in the final of the lightweight seniors coxed eights. At the starting line, the remarks had been rather more cynical, ‘Wageningen, we haven’t heard anything of them for a really, really, really long time’. Not so strange considering the last time an Argo lightweight men’s crew was victorious was a good ten years ago. But last week they pulled it off. In the final Argo pulled ahead of Leiden’s Skadi club and a combination team of Njord, Euros, Thêta and Triton. Our men completed the two kilometres in seven minutes and seven one-hundredths of a second.
Ashamed
Argo’s competition secretary Eline van den Berg is overjoyed with the result. ‘The opposition’s coaches were shouting that they’d be deeply ashamed if our light eight were to beat them.’ But the Argonauts were untouchable right from the start. ‘These guys are a really well-coordinated crew because they train together every day,’ explains Eline. In the first two competitions, the crew achieved disappointing results, she feels. ‘Now the pressure is off, the way is clear for many more great performances.’ The entire season consists of nine of these competitions. With their first ‘pot’, the guys win promotion from the novice class.Straight after the race, the eight was allowed to row to the awards dock. The cox was thrown in the water because this was her first victory too. Then she swapped places with the rower at stroke position and brought the crew safely back to the river bank.
From back to front in the boat: Stijn de Haan, Julian Bakker, Mart l’Ami, Pieter Teeuw, Gijs Koetsenruijter, Laurens van Leeuwen, Mathijs Peters en Casper Jamin. The cox is Jara van den Bogaerde.