On October 26, 2024, the Camden County Boathouse held the Gold Cup Challenge, a small regatta pitting the best scullers in the world against each other in a 750-meter sprint race, featuring only singles. The Gold Cup is a tradition in the Philadelphia area, previously being held from 1920 to the early 1960s, before the regatta disappeared. In 2011, the race resurfaced and began to include female entries. It is split between the Herb Lotman Challenge, showcasing rowers over 18, the Hoffman Challenge, featuring rowers under 18, and the Gold Cup Challenge, a four-person competition between former Olympians and world champions. All events reward large cash prizes for their four respective rowers who qualify for the final.
The Lotman Challenge saw eleven male rowers and five female rowers compete in time-trials at 9:00 AM. On the male side, the 2022 Lotman winner Jacob Plihal captured back his title, following a campaign in Paris competing in the men's single sculls category for the US national team. Previously, Plihal had competed in U23 World Championships in 2017 and 2018, both in the men's quad, and had participated in Worlds for Team USA in the quad in 2022. For the Head of the Charles in 2024, Plihal also raced the Champion Double and Four, but stated the 750m spring on the Cooper River was "more tuned for to my physiology."
Kara Kohler would defend a back-to-back title on the women's side of the Lotman. Kohler is a three-time Olympian, having won bronze in the quadruple sculls category in 2012 and most recently competing in Paris in the single sculls category. She won gold in the four category at Worlds in 2011, as well as receiving a bronze at the same regatta for single sculls in 2019. Kohler was named USRowing's Female Athlete of the Year. On the subject of the Gold Cup, Kohler told Row2k,"It's been post-season racing. It's always more fun because it's more relaxed and there's not a whole lot weighing on it."
As for the junior rowers, V-Sculls Rowing's Donovan Moses repeated in the Hoffman Challenge in a tight race against Potomac Boat Club's Tony Madigan. On his strategy, Moses announced, "Starts are my favorite thing. I really like to just get out ahead and reassess the field, see where I am."
As for Agnes Irwin School's Ava Kennedy, the youth rower would move up from her silver medla last year to win the Hoffman in 2024. Hoffman sculls all year round, but finds herself only in the single during the fall as practice for her spring quad. On her strategy, Kennedy claims she "focused on the beginning and just trying to get ahead on the start," which she did by keeping her stroke rating high.
The main event kicked off at 12:15 for the men's side. The pool for the 2024 competition saw a matchup between Dutch rowers Melvin Twellaar, Simon Van Dorp, Belgian rower Tim Brys, and German rower Ollie Zeidler. The entries were star-studded, as Twellaar is a two-time silver medalist in the double sculls category in the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, having also won gold in the double at Worlds in 2023. Van Dorp won the bronze at the 2024 Olympics in the single sculls, and had previously seen gold in the eight for Netherlands at Worlds in 2018, as well as a bronze medal for the eight in 2020. Brys competed in the single sculls in the 2024 Olympics, placing fourth, and in the lightweight double sculls in 2020, placing fifth. Zeidler is probably the most recently accomplished of the four competitors, having won gold in the 2024 Olympics in the single sculls, winning the single at the World Rowing Cup I in Italy, won gold at the 2024 European Championship in the single, and had won his fourth Diamond Sculls at the Henley Royal Regatta. Despite his competition pool, Twellaar captured his third Gold Cup title in a tight race against fellow Dutch athlete Van Dorp. Twellaar was pleased to be able to compete against his national team colleague.
"Usually in training camp," Twellaar said to Row2k, "I do some training against Simon. And normally, our coaches say, okay, don't destroy each other, but [today] we finally had the chance to go the max."
On the women's side of the big race, the pool contained New Zealand representative Emma Twigg, a medalist at Worlds for the single sculls seven times and the silver medalist in the single sculls in Paris (previously winning gold in 2020), Dutch rower Karolien Florijn, a five-time gold medalist at Worlds in the coxless four and single sculls as well as the gold medalist for single sculls at Paris, the aforementioned Kara Kohler, and the Lithuanian Viktorija Senkute, bronze medalist in the single sculls event at Paris. Twigg ended up taking home her fourth Gold Cup victory against an extremely talented group.
"It's pretty cool to come back and get to spend time with the people that you race against internationally every year, and actually get to know them a bit better," Twigg stated, adding that the four rowers spent time training together in Philadelphia a week before the race. "Like this year, with Viktorija, I haven't known her really, so spending some time with her has been really cool."
This time next year, the Gold Cup will return with a pool of rowers picked from the finalists of the 2025 World Championship, taking place in late September in Shanghai, China. Twellaar and Twigg will both return, as a part of their automatic bid that they receive for winning their race.
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