This is an interview with Drazen Sudic about Valent and Martin Sinkovich.

They are our best rowers ever. They have trained regularly since 2000 when they came to Mladost Rowing Club.

In 2000 we attended the World Championships in Zagreb, winning two silver, one bronze and a bronze medal on OI Sydney.

RC Mladost has good rowing facilities: which include a Regatta course, good boats and good coaches. We have established a new generation of young rowers from a selection of over 1000 kids.

The Sinkovic brothers came to the Mladost rowing club at the beginning of 2000. They tried out our boats; saw our club’s junior and senior World Championship medallists and the good trainers with good new ideas for kids. Our club knew how to row and how to train to win. Part of our success comes from our use of Rowperfect ergs.

So, the Sinkovich brothers have been in the top 10 of the World Rowing Junior championships since they were 16. If you are the best, you must have everything, and every little bit helps.

In my opinion Rowperfect ergs were a crucial part of their 10 years of training leading up to winning the gold medals at the world championships. And we hope that Rowperfect erg’s will keep them at the top for the next 10 years. Mladost Rowing Club bought our 2 Rowperfect ergs in 1999 and that year won two bronze medals at the World Rowing Championships.

Nino Saraga and Oliver Martinov of Mladost Rowing Club

Nino Saraga has had back problems and he has rowed for a few years on Rowperfect ergs. As we only have two Rowperfect ergs, and they are not as robust as C2 model C, we only use Rowperfect ergs for technique and for the perspective rowers.

Our training is from March untill November, mainly without ergs. The training programme involves rowing, cycling, swimming and running for cardio. From November to March we have a lot of time for training without competition.

It’s our best time for basic aerobic training: Cycling, cross country, running, rowing in basin, orbitreck and of course ergometers.

In our rowing club, Mladost (www.mladost.hr ), we have over 100 rowers in full training and a few hundred younger students and masters.

The parents and Grandparents of the Sinkovich brothers are also rowing fans and they give them a lot of support./

Also and we others in the club, but more than 50% of logistic is from home. Since 2003 they have been regularly training about 26 – 27 times a month, during summer this increases to about 40. They enjoy rowing, competing and winning.

The brothers also row with 100 other kids. Most of them are not strong as the brothers were, and they train less than 20 times per month. Most of the children are now good students and row for their faculty about 7 to 10 trainings per month.

Valent (1988) and Martin (1989) were the best rowers of their generation in Croatia. Valent was the best junior rower in Croatia at age 16. 2 year he row in 1x ( 10.th and 7th.) From 1999 they regularly won medals in the Senior World Championships.

8+ won a medal on OI Sydney and in next 2 years.Skelin brothers than had idea to be the world Championships in 2-. It was the end of our dream of Cro 8+.

We have now won the World Champions four times and we hope win many times over the next 10 years.

At this time in our club we are working with the trainer Nikola Bralic who is putting in a lot of effort. We put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into our 10 clubs in Croatia. From 2000 until 2007 we regularly won medals in the Junior World Championships in sculling.

Our medals include:

• 2000 1x bronce, 2x silver
• 2001 2x gold
• 2005. 2x Tomislav Holi – Jurina silver
• 2005. 1x 7. Valent Sinkovic, bad luck in semi. Damir Martin was 4. in 4-.
• 2006 4x Holi, David Sain,… silver , 2x silver Damir Martin and Valent Sinkoch
• 2007.1x Martin Sinkovich , bronce

• In next few years they have success at the U23:
• 2008. 2x silver Martin and Valent
• 2009 4x gold Valent Sinkovich, Damir Martin, Martin Sinkovich and David Sain, Coach Nikola Bralic
• 2010. 4x gold – same crew

With the help of new Rowperfect ergs this team hopes to win 4 gold medals at the London Olympics.

In my opinion, the Canadian, USA and German rowing crews are not as good as they could be because of selection depending on C2 ergs results.

Stroker of our 8+ row 2000 meters on C2 best for 6:10 – 6:12. Mainly about 6:15.

Slide make some better situation.

Our Sinkovich brothers have learnt to row from the best. The have the best trainer, they are very strong and have excellent aerobic capabilities, technique and motivation.

Now you have the whole picture. Thanks to Row Perfect, we came out winners in NZ. Rowperfect also helped the brother with the most difficult part of rowing, when they were 16 and training on Rowperfect ergs.

It taught them to make a good curve and helped them learn how and when to use their leg and back muscles.

Looking at their rowing in the 2010 World Cup, you could see economic rowing with high speed of boat and they knew how to accelerate it to 7 meters per second in the last 500 meters.

Thanks to Rowperfect they have learnt how to row efficiently; how to propel the boat not only with strength, but with their brains as well.

Compared to Rowperfect, the C2 ergs, teach the rower not to obey the trainer’s suggestions and just row with strength.

We row more than 100.000 km per year in our club on C2 ergs, but are very careful of injury and bad technique which are common when using C2 ergs.