Joep van Bakel keeps winning at the Easter Cup in Eindhoven

Last Sunday a new marathon race was born in Holland, the Easter Cup, with a course of 28 km. (with one portage) from Tilburg to Eindhoven. Organized by the local club EKV Beatrix, where the finish line was installed, it also had other two shorter courses for Women, Juniors and U16. Participants form Belgium and Germany joined the Dutch paddlers coming back from the Neerpelt Marathon.

There was a compact first part of the race, with a group of six paddlers, including two Germans and one Belgian. After the first portage, Joep van Bakel (NED) and Corrijn Dries (BEL) broke away, doing the rest of the race together and finishing with the victory of van Bakel at the sprint. Behind, the other four paddlers were Tonny Benschop (NED), Stefan Fiekers (GER), Steffen Luessing (GER) and Olaf Heijne (NED).

Preview of the 41st Amsterdam Waterland Marathon

Proofreading: Rosalyn Lawrence

In less than a month the 41st Amsterdam Waterland Marathon will take place. On the 20th of April we will see a diverse group of world class athletes taking on the challenge of beating each other and the track record set by Manuel Busto Fernandez, who has won the Waterland marathon twice.
 
Tournament director and ex -European Champion Edwin de Nijs shares his expectations of the upcoming episode of the ICF Classic Marathon series:

"For the senior men’s competition I expect a very tough race for the world class athletes as well as for all others, due to the great variety of international paddlers. Our Dutch representative Joep van Bakel, who finished in 6th place at the last Marathon World Championships, will be challenged by the Swedish Jacob Holst, his training buddy Rasmus Jaruta, the Hungarian Gyula Bauer, Thomas Jezek and Spanish Miquel Adsera.

The Swedish athletes are expected to be very fit since they are practicing an extensive training program in Florida as we speak. They will need to be fit if they want to take on the challenge of beating Thomas Jezek, who in the past has won several medals at European and World Championship races.

Bram Brandjes and Eef Haaze, Dutch champions over 5.000 metres

Eef Haaze

Last weekend were held on the Drontemeer waters (Kampen - Holland), the National Championships over 5.000 metres (and shorter distances for lower ages categories). Saturday was a cold and rainy day, with strong winds up to force 5-6, which suppsoed an aditional effort for the contestants, some of them falling in and having to be rescued. Sunday was a more fair day and the good weather allowed many spectators to come by the shores enjoying the races.

Winner in the women senior category became Eef Haaze, race which had also competing the American national team paddler Jen Burke, special guest at the race.

At Men's senior category, Joep van Bakel was leading for most part of the race, but with national team member Bram Brandjes on his wash, he looked like confident on his chances at the sprint, as it finally was, beating van Bakel in a strong final push and becoming Dutch champion.

Manuel Busto, winner at the Waterland Marathon

Last weekend was held at Amsterdam, organised by the KV Viking Amsterdam (club of the great Edwin de Nijs), the Waterland Marathon, competition included in the ICF World Classic Marathon Series. In a chilly but sunny day, the channels around the dutch city were the scene for a high quality race, where some of the greatests marathon paddlers came to fight for one of the first victories of the season.

© Nico Jankowski

From the start itself, the dutch Robin Koenders took the lead and set the pace, having on the wash a bunch of paddlers including three world champions, like they are Manuel Busto, Istvan Salga and Jorge Alonso, not to mention the always strong René Olsen. Finally Koenders felt the pressure that he was putting to himself with his pace and left the lead, where the two Spaniards managed to make a smaller group by tightening the rope. Just five members kept on the fight, including Busto, Alonso, Salga and the Danish Olsen and Nicolai Blach. These last two paddlers fell off the group and were paddling behind for a few kilometres, but finally René Olsen managed to come back while Blach had to give up and faced a solo paddle to the finish line.