What nobody could have guessed before the Bundesliga debut became apparent in the course of a mixed, but at times very successful season: Rüdersdorf is one of the best teams in the 2nd German Rowing League. However, the fact that the team from the small village would also be fighting for promotion sounded more like a summer fairytale than the standings before the last day of racing.
In the first race, the time trial, the team was not yet fully harmonised, as the technical quality of the rowing could be improved. Consequently, the time was also mediocre: seventh place after the time trial. The time trial only determines the seedings for the final eight. The opponent here was Allemannia Hamburg and it was literally an equal opponent. Only two hundredths of a second separated Hamburg and Rüdersdorf at the finish line.
The Rüdersdorf team have had bad experiences with photo finishes, but this time they were lucky. By winning the final eight, they were able to continue competing for a medal and promotion. However, their direct rivals for promotion from Munich and Hameln also proved to be very strong in their eighth finals and, as luck would have it, these three teams met in the quarter final. The table before the race day: Hameln 60 points, Rüdersdorf 59 points, Munich 58 points.
After the quick elimination of Hameln, Rüdersdorf and Munich were thus one round further in the battle for first to fourth place. At that moment, it was already clear that Rüdersdorf would finish at least fourth in the overall standings. That was reason enough for the Rüdersdorf athletes and fans to celebrate even before the semi-finals. Their opponents in the semi-finals were Dortmund, who were incredibly convincing on the day. The Rüdersdorf team's favourite opponent, as they have rowed against and won against no other team as often as Dortmund this season.
As Munich had already won their semi-final against Hamburg, Rüdersdorf had to follow suit. And with respect but without fear of Dortmund, they did so impressively. A clear victory in the semi-final made the RBL organisers' dream come true: two teams fighting for promotion, separated by just one point, will meet in the A final of the last Bundesliga race day of the season.
The winner of this A final would therefore be promoted, while the loser would remain in second place in the table. An unbelievable constellation that could only have come from a film script. The most exciting final of the evening was once again extremely close. Munich won ahead of the Rüdersdorf team. Although the boat from Rüdersdorf only crossed the finish line in second place, some people raised their arms high, as an outstanding season came to a fantastic end. Nobody was disappointed. The joy of another medal far outweighed the disappointment, even though the team from Kalksee missed out on promotion by a hair's breadth.
Rüdersdorf is no longer "the village in the shadow of Berlin" - as the speaker announced on all race days - but the best non-promoted team in the second division and therefore certainly no longer a "nobody" next season.
The team would like to take this opportunity to thank the numerous fans and sponsors, above all Sparkasse Märkisch-Oderland, for their fantastic support in the 2010 season, because it was this support that made this unimagined success possible in the first place.
by: Thomas Bode, press spokesman for the Rüdersdorfer Ruderverein in the German Rowing League