After the Paris Olympics, it’s been a short but well-deserved break for rower Lennart van Lierop, who arrives in Genoa for the Coastal Rowing World Championships as the fresh winner of the gold medal in the men’s quadruple sculls.

“We were very happy after the victory, we felt like we had done our job,” says van Lierop. “We celebrated a lot and enjoyed the result.”

From Paris to Genoa, the discipline changes, and so does the racing venue: “It’s very beautiful but very different from the classic rowing courses, even from Paris itself, it will be very interesting.”

The Dutch athlete will compete in both Coastal Rowing and the Beach Sprint, but without the pressure of winning a medal: “It would be nice to win gold, but we’re mainly here to have fun,” he explains, “we’ll see how it goes”