Press release of the Rüdersdorfer Ruderverein Kalkberge e.V. from 3 July 2023
Sometimes there is only a brief moment between joy and frustration, between sweat and tears of joy, between winning and losing. For the men and women of the Kalkberge rowing club in Rüdersdorf, this was just half an hour last Saturday. It was to be a day full of contrasts. But let's start at the beginning. The Ägir rowing club had organised the traditional Müggelsee eight regatta. A highlight for many recreational rowers in the region. They rowed 6 kilometres in a gig eight, two thirds of which was on the Müggelsee, which is known for its sometimes high waves. This was also the case on Saturday. The women's eight started first: Dörte Lenz, Frederike and Sophie Skole, Sophia Hornung, Christa Kawalle, Kerstin Groß, Elke Knauthe, Julia Hilpert and coxswain Kerstin Schmidt. 8 boats had entered in their boat class. Never before have so many women's eights competed in the Müggelsee eight regatta. The women from Rüdersdorf had a real battle with the waves, and in the end none of the women got out of the boat dry. But the fight was worth it: with a time of 25:18 minutes, they knew they had a good chance of winning that day. There was little time to take a deep breath, as the men around Thomas Schmidt, Eric Hartmann, Christian Nowak, Matthias Mehl-Uderhardt, Mirko Döring, Florian Richter, Christoph Pache, Uwe Groß and once again coxswain Kerstin Schmidt took to the course in the same boat just half an hour later. The weather was getting worse by the minute. The wind freshened and the waves became stronger. Too strong for the men. The high swell brought the Rüdersdorf rowers to their knees. The water whipped over the side of the boat. Wave after wave landed in the boat. Coxswain Kerstin Schmidt had her hands full steering the boat through the waves and scooping up water at the same time. The effort went unrewarded: shortly after the turn, on the penultimate section of the course, in the middle of the Müggelsee, the crew went overboard. There was now too much water in the boat and it was in danger of sinking. The only solution was to jump into the cold water. An excursion raft, which was travelling not far from the scene of the accident, rushed up and helped the Rüdersdorf crew out of the water. The DLRG joined them a little later. Together they tried to pull the boat to the nearest headland. One of the sportsmen stayed behind with the DLRG, while the other rowers took the raft safely to the rowing club.
Ägir were brought back. After 1:29 hours it was finally done. The Rüdersdorf team was the last of the 7 boats to cross the finish line. Four of them. With the help of three foreign rowers who happened to be on site with the DLRG as helpers. They were greeted with loud cheering and clapping at the jetty. But victory was out of the question for the men from Rüdersdorf that day. The only consolation was that three other teams had the same fate as them. So now it was up to the women to bring victory to Rüdersdorf. Their biggest rival on the day was the boat from Friedrichshagener Ruderverein, which had a very young, performance-orientated team at the start. But when the Friedrichshagen team came second at the award ceremony, it was clear: it was enough. With a lead of almost 40 seconds, the women from Rüdersdorf were able to take home the coveted trophy. The men were also delighted. They didn't take home the trophy, but they did take home a good story.