Nominees for Athlete of the year 2018-2019
Iris Hochstenbach
In her first year, it became clear that rowing was reserved for Ilse. She became a member of Gyas in 2015, immediately found her way to a competition team and won the first-year rankings (’15 -’16) with the light ladies. This turned out to be a nice advance to the top, because already in her second year she rowed double in the light ladies for a silver medal at the world championships under 23 in Plovdiv (“16-” 17). Also in her third year Iris started the World Championship under 23, this time in the light ladies double (’17 -’18).
Last season (’18–‘19) Iris worked hard, again on the way to the World Cup under 23. In addition to an insanely heavy training schedule, Iris also ran chaps, which requires the necessary discipline and perseverance. On the way to the World Cup under 23, Iris managed to become a Dutch Champion in the light ladies skiff up to the age of 23! Here, she again showed her perseverance. The highlight of the year was of course her performance in Sarasota at the WC under 23. Iris rowed together with Femke van de Vliet (Triton) in the light ladies double. With a strong race (only 7 seconds above world record!) the ladies qualified for the A-final. In this spectacular finale, the ladies moved the boat to a spot every 500 meters, where they were 5th on the first 500 meters, they crossed the finish line in 2nd place and obtained a well-deserved SILVER medal!
Ilse Kolkman
Ilse had a successful rowing season in 2018-2019. The season started very well for Ilse: at the Dutch Championship she became Dutch Champion under 23 in the skiff! In addition, she was selected last year for Dutch women doublefour under 23. Together with rowers from Delft and Amsterdam, she trained in Amsterdam every weekend. With this team she has won many national and international competitions. She has won the ARB competitions, the Damen Raceroei Regatta and the International Wedau Regatta in the doubles. With this win, she carries an Aegir record. She has also participated in the World Cup II in Poznan in Poland and also in the World Championship <23 in Sarasota in the US. At the World Cup, she narrowly missed gold. Finally, Ilse achieved the Senior A status last year, which is the status that rowers earn in eight victories.
Ilse is currently running a selection for the eight-wheeled women who will participate in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Maurice Backschat
Maurice Backschat has been training for triathlons already some 10 years, however the first 6 years more recreationally. In 2017 he felt that he actually got some talent for endurance sports, so he decided to go all in in training, leave a job in Berlin and start a second Bachelor Programme in Groningen, to combine sports on a high level and also have an educational benefit from it. Since in long distance triathlon the best performing age begins in your late 20‘s and stretches until 35 or even 40 years, it was not too late. Immediately in 2017, he competed in the Long Distance World Championship in the amateur category (3 km swimming, 120 km cycling and 30 km running) and could finish surprisingly on a second place. Even though it was only the amateur category, his time would have been good for a 14th place on the Pro rankings; just one week before his studies here in Groningen began.
Since then he has been training relentlessly, up to 30 hrs a week, next to his studies. As a member of G.S.Z.V. De Golfbreker he is trying to improve his swimming skills and as a member of G.S.A.V. Vitalis he is doing important speedwork on the running track. Last year, the training started to pay off and he was able to win the European Championship in middle distance triathlon (July, in Targu Mures, Romania) as fastest amateur overall and on 9th place in the Pro rankings. In September he topped this by winning his second European Championship title over the full Ironman distance (3.8 km/ 180 km cycling and a full marathon of 42.2 km) in 9:00:01 hrs. He just missed the perfect debut (diving under 9 hrs) by the smallest margin possible. Using this as motivation for the upcoming year, he is training to compete again in the World Championship, this time in Almere, one last time as amateur and then hopefully kick off afterwards a career as professional triathlete.
