Drysdale and Svensson winners at Holland Beker

Over the 2000m Bosbaan course, Drysdale displayed a dominating performance finishing six seconds ahead of Synek. Synek stuck with Drysdale for the first half of the race but then Drysdale was able to easily press away in the second half. Behind Synek, Tim Maeyens of Belgium was just one second down on 2010 World Champion Synek at the finish. Maeyens recently qualified for his third Olympic Games when he raced in May at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Mexican Olympian Patrick Loliger finished fourth.

Synek has already beaten Drysdale this season when they met at the second stage of the Samsung World Rowing Cup series late May in Lucerne. After his Holland Beker win, Drysdale noted that it was now one-all going into the London Olympics. Drysdale will race again at the third World Rowing Cup later this week in Munich, Germany, but Synek has not entered this regatta.

This is Drysdale’s third Holland Beker win which includes 2008 and 2009. Synek won the last two years and four times in total.

Racing in the women’s single sculls for the Ladies’ Trophy, Frida Svensson of Sweden had an easy job in winning over two Dutch entries. The strongest challenge came from Nicole Beukers who represented the Netherlands last year at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships and will do so again in the single this year.

Svensson was to have competition from New Zealand’s Emma Twigg, but Twigg pulled out at the last minute for medical reasons. The Netherlands’ Lisa Scheenaard was third with American sculler, Ursula Grobler in fourth. This is Svensson’s first Ladies’ Trophy win.

The top men’s pair in the world, New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond outclassed the field finishing in a very swift 6:17, just three seconds outside of the World Best Time. This time was 11 seconds ahead of their nearest competition, a Dutch combination of Nanne Sluis and Meindert Klem. Sluis and Klem will race at the Olympic Games for the Netherlands.

For full results: http://www.hollandbeker.nl/