Martin and Valent Sinković, better known as the Sinković brothers, will participate at the European Rowing Championship held in Lucerne, Switzerland this weekend, which will feature almost 600 athletes from 34 countries this year, reports HRT on May 28, 2019. 

After competing in the European Championship for the first time in the new discipline of coxless pairs last year and immediately winning the gold, this year's European Championship brings two challenges for the celebrated Sinković brothers. The first challenge is, of course, defending the title, and the second is competing in a new boat which will be used for the first time in history. Namely, the Sinković brothers will be the first rowers to take on the new Filippi boat at an official FISA competition, said Valent Sinković.

At the 1st World Cup in Plovdiv, the Sinković brothers won second place, losing out to the faster Serbian rowers Miloš Vasić and Martin Mačković. In the forthcoming European Championships, besides the Serbian crew, the Sinković brothers will compete against Romania, the silver medalists in last year's World Championship and the team from France who won bronze in the same competition. Of the other competitors, there is also the Czech crew, who won the bronze at the 3rd World Cup, as well as Italy who in 2017 defeated the Sinković brothers in the World Cup final by several hundredths of a second. 

“There is a lot more competition than the 1st World Cup. All the strongest crews are coming and we expect very even and interesting races. We are not afraid of anyone; we always give our maximum and fight for the gold,” said Martin Sinković.

The first qualifying race scheduled for May 31 is around 9:24 am. The semifinals are expected to be around 11:29 on June 1, and you can watch the final race on Sunday, June 2, from 11:25 on the HRT2 program.

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