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Olympic silver for master student LST Stef Broenink

Not one, but two Olympic rowing medals with a Leiden-Delft touch. Master student Life, Science and Technology Stef Broenink won silver in the double pair. He and partner Melvin Twellaar were in front for a long time, but were overtaken by the French at the last minute.

On the header picture: on the left: Melvin Twellaar, on the right Stef Broenink. 

It was an exciting and chaotic race, the men told regional broadcaster TV West.  Broenink, who sets the pace and rhythm, even lost track of the rankings for a while. Normally not so much happens in terms of shifts in positions,' he says.  'But this was absurd, we were overtaken on the left and on the right we overtook another boat. It was impossible to keep track of it all.'

Exciting until the last second

After this chaotic start, the Chinese boat is initially in the lead, but when it falls back, the exciting battle between the Netherlands and France begins. Broenink and Twellaar are initially in first position, but the French are coming closer and closer. In the end, the Dutch fell short and lost the final sprint by only two-tenths of a second.

Watch back the race: Gids.tv – Bijna Goud! Bekijk hoe Melvin Twellaar en Stef Broenink zilver pakken

'We gave our utmost'

So no gold, but a beautiful silver medal after all. 'We were very close,' says Twellaar. So that's a bit of a mixed feeling. But we gave everything we had. So we are still very happy.

Interview TV West

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Double success: golden and silver medal for master students from Leiden-Delft

Now we just hope that the boys in the double four will take the gold. We will be cheering them on later', Broenink concluded his interview with TV West. 

And their cheering was successful: a little later, the men's double-four won the golden medal. Among them was Dirk Uittenbogaard, student of the Delft-Leiden master Industrial Ecology. 

Read more here: Olympic gold for Industrial Ecology student Dirk Uittenbogaard

Instagrampost TeamNL,  Broenink and Twellaar on picture 6.

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