This weekend, Dutch rowing came together for the first national championship event of the season, the NKIR, which is the championship for indoor rowing. RP3 now sponsors the event, and with all the prize money to win, the elite events were filled with squad rowers looking to collect their Christmas bonus.
First Years
Starting the day were the first years. With fresh faces and a lot of ambition, they’ve spent the last two months laying the basics and learning the sport. Whilst this event doesn’t count toward the general classification, it’s always the first opportunity to compare how each club has started.
On the women’s side, Nereus showed a dominant force. Stroked by Bruun Schwartz, they not only took off at a much higher pace, but they kept creeping away from the field all the way until the last 500m. From there, they held a clean three-second lead all the way to the finish. Much tighter was the race between Laga, who finished second, and Triton, third. Whilst Laga led through the first part of the race, it looked like Triton was coming back into it for the sprint. A close race for Triton, they missed out on second place by one second.
The men’s event was won by the crew from Laga, who also won at the NKIR last year. It was no easy job; they were followed very closely by Nereus the whole race. It was the last 250m that really brought things close. Those who had been leading the push for Laga were losing speed, and Nereus began rapidly closing the gap, which had been at 8m, down to 5m, then 3m. They eventually finished 0.3 seconds behind Laga. The rest of the field was somewhat further back. Third place was taken by Aegir, who were seven seconds behind the winners, Laga.
Open
As mentioned before, the open events are controlled by squad rowers all ready to put down their best effort. The elite women’s event was won by Tinka Offereins with a time of 06:29.8. Originally from Okeanos and now racing for the Dutch, she most recently won the 2025 World Rowing Championships in the women’s eight, which took gold in China. Only half a second behind, Noortje Wilms from Theta took second place, and Lisa Bruijnincx completed the podium from Njord with a time of 06:33.6.
The day ended with the men’s events. The quickest race of the day was nearly the fastest race ever, as Simon van Dorp almost broke his own world record with a time of 5:25.8. Simon, who is rumoured to have been very relaxed in his training for this event, was 13 seconds faster than Ward Lemmelijn, who once again came to race from Belgium. Completing the podium was Sander de Graaf, another talented member of the Dutch team. He was just behind Ward with a time of 5:39.8.
