In the absence of one of the strongest European rowing nations, Great Britain, Germany came to the fore taking medals in 10 of the 14 events, five of them championship titles. These medals included the return to strength of the lightweight men’s four and the men’s four. Both of these crews took gold after coming off an inconsistent season. It also saw a very happy women’s double of Annekatrin Thiele and Stephanie Schiller step up a notch taking gold.

Poland’s World Champion women’s double – Magdalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska – have been hidden away all season and finally appeared in Portugal. Fularczyk and Michalska both had to work through early season injuries and their silver medal in Portugal showed that they are rushing back to their 2009 winning speed.

Also demonstrating ever-improving boat speed was Romania’s top women’s pair of Camelia Lupascu and Nicoleta Albu. Lupascu and Albu won in convincing style that saw them lead from start to finish. The duo then joined their country’s eight and picked up a second gold at the regatta.

The European Championships have been a success story for Greece who topped the medals table last year with four golds. This year they managed to win two events – the men’s pair and lightweight women’s double. Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou retained the men’s pair title for their country while Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou absolutely dominated the lightweight women’s double. Giazitzidou and Tsiavou were also defending their European Championship title and although they spent this season racing in different boats, it looks to have done no harm to their double combination.

The Polish men’s quad (World and Olympic Champions) came to Portugal on the back of a lacklustre season, but in Portugal they put everything straight. Poland finished back on top before declaring that this was their last race of the season. This leaves silver medallists, Croatia, the favourites heading to the World Championships

But for the home crowd, no one could have been happier than when Portugal’s lightweight men’s double of Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes finished in the silver medal spot. Fraga and Mendes said they felt the vibration of the crowd which helped edge them through from the back of the field into a medal winning spot.

The recently revamped Montemor-o-Vehlo course received much praise including winner of the men’s double, France’s Julien Bahain who stated, “It’s a place for Olympic Games!” The course laid on flat calm conditions for the majority of the regatta with the feared cross-wind rarely being an issue. The course is just 15km from the Atlantic Ocean and boasts eight lanes with a separate warm-up area.

The European Rowing Championship now go to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2011 from 16 to 18 September. The 2012 European Championships have been awarded to Varese, Italy.