RowingRelated

This week's video offers an inside look at the GB men's rowing team during their training camp in Avis, Portugal earlier this year, and while it's certainly not short of scenery and context, what makes this video worthwhile is the amount of very high quality technical rowing—a good reminder of the finer points of the sport in the midst of summer racing season. Speaking of summer racing, the Holland Beker is set to take place this weekend on the Bosbaan in Amsterdam, and there will be a number of familiar faces from World Rowing Cup II on hand, including Julien Bahain —the French Olympian is now racing for Canada (and just placed sixth overall in the men's single in Aiguebelette). Earlier today, Bahain took on Roel Braas over a 200m course at the Aegon City Sprints in Amsterdam, and, from the look of it, Bahain came out on top.

This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland.  As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just ove...