Bombshell before the Olympics
Rowing icon loses place in Germany’s eight again
07.06.2024, 16:22
The rowing eight is Germany’s flagship boat. But the form is not yet right with a view to the Olympic Games in Paris. This now has personnel consequences. It affects the renowned and successful Hannes Ocik. He only returned to the boat a few weeks ago.
Just 50 days before the Olympic Games, the German eight is reacting to the recent sobering results with a prominent personnel change. Strokeman Hannes Ocik has to vacate his place in the German flagship, and Frederik Breuer will take his place in the team at the World Cup in Poznan (14 to 16 June). Mattes Schönherr will again be the strokeman in the final competition before the Summer Games in Paris.
“This is a tough decision now. But we have always said that this is a provisional line-up and that we will reassess the overall situation once we know which boats have qualified for Paris,” said national coach Sabine Tschäge.
The 32-year-old Ocik, who led the German eight to Olympic silver in 2016 and 2021 and won three world championship titles, had only been called back to the German flagship boat at the beginning of April. But at the World Cup in Lucerne at the end of May, he only managed fifth place, almost five seconds behind the podium, and seven seconds behind the victorious British team.
“It is important to me to stress that Hannes was an attempt to bring more stability to the races. We did not quite succeed in doing this. We managed to qualify last year with Mattes Schönherr and the seating positions in the boat have also changed,” explained Tschäge. Breuer is moving up from the foursome that missed out on a ticket to Paris by one place in the qualifying regatta in Lucerne.
In Poznan, the German eight will face the Olympic boat from Australia, a Romanian and two Ukrainian national boats. The national coach is hoping for a clear improvement compared to Lucerne: “We don’t have much time and want to achieve the turnaround as quickly as possible.”