University

Success for Lübeck Teams at the German Universities Rowing Championship

Professional athletes and novices: Conscious link to the English model

Two teams from the University of Lübeck participated in the 72nd German Universities Rowing Championship in Hamburg Allermöhe on 29 June. The teams in question were a women’s coxless four in the 1,000-metre championship race and a men’s coxed four in the 500-metre beginner’s race.

Folllowing a heat, a repechage, and a semi-final, the women’s team finished sixth in the A Final. Team member Hanna Asmussen said: “We are very satisfied with our performance. Today we were able to draw on our work during training in the past few weeks! We had a great time and look forward to seeing what the next year brings.”

The A Final featured strong competition, with some participants having already achieved success on the international stage. Finishing sixth among the 13 participating boats was therefore an excellent achievement.

In the end, the men’s team won the D Final and came 19th out of a total of 23 participating boats. Team member Paul Siegwardt says: “The regatta was a great experience. We learned a lot in the last few weeks and hope to build on this over the next year. We definitely want to compete again!”

Former professional athletes as well as enthusiastic novices

“We are very pleased to see that students have teamed up to represent our university at the Universities Championship,” says University President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gillessen-Kaesbach. “With our own university team we want to help make the university visible in society as a whole, beyond the field of scientific expertise. After all, intensive learning and elite sport have one thing in common: commitment to performance.”

The women’s rowing team consists of students Natalia Zappe, Imke Fütterer, Hanna Asmussen and Anne Tjorven Büßen. They are from the University of Lübeck’s programmes for medicine and medical engineering. Anne Tjorven Büßen was German Champion in the 2013 Junior 4 category, while Imke Fütterer participated in the World Rowing Junior Championships in Plovdiv in 2012.

The men's team was made up of Michael Hellfritz (coxswain and member of this year’s 1st Rowing Bundesliga Team from the Lübeck Rowing Club), Theo Santjer, Paul Siegwardt, Maximilian Schumann and Jonathan Steeb. Their study programmes comprise medicine, psychology and physiotherapy. Sarah Sentis is trainer of the men’s team. She is studying for a master’s degree in molecular life science at the university.

All those who participated in the regatta are members of the Lübeck Rowing Club (LRK) or Lübeck Women’s Rowing Club (LFRK). Twice a week, around 30 students and trainees from the University of Lübeck, the Technical University, the University of Music, and the Department of the Federal Police at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences come to Lübeck’s University Sports for rowing training. Both enthusiastic novices and former professional athletes row in the group.

Conscious link to the English model

The participation of Lübeck students at this year’s Universities Rowing Championship can be traced to two parallel initiatives. Firstly, the personal involvement of Paul Blessmann and Anne Tjorven Büßen, who sparked enthusiasm among their fellow students for rowing during their Federal Volunteers Service in the LRK and LFRK in 2016. Secondly, on the initiative of Dr. Petra Roßkopf, head of Lübeck’s University Sports, and Prof. Dr. Georg Sczakiel, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Lübeck, rowing was incorporated into Lübeck University Sports in 2017; ever since, there has been great demand for the two associations that carry out the activities, LRK and LRFK.

<STRONG/>Trainer Sarah Sentis sees rowing as the ideal activity to complement studying: “The ability to work in a team and the desire for sporting success, but also the precise coordination required when rowing sharpens the senses and strengthens mutual reliability within teams. This can be of benefit in any situation in life.”

For the university, participating in these championships is partly inspired by the English tradition: Win or lose, triumph or fail – this makes university rowing so exciting, as proved by the example of the traditional boat race between Oxford and Cambridge.

The 72nd German Universities Championship in 2019 was organised by the University of Hamburg in cooperation with the Allgemeiner Alster-Club – Norddeutscher Ruderer-Bund (General Alster-Club – North German Rowing Association).