Juniors Big Day Out ? A-Finals

Finals day crowds

By Melissa Bray

The A-finals featured many athletes who competed at last year's World Rowing Junior Championships and the advantage of experience shone through as crews raced to become Junior Champions in Brandenburg, Germany this year.

These races also reflected the high standard of junior rowing in Romania, Italy and Germany with race after race seeing these crews dominating the winners dais.

The local radio station held a song competition for the championships and during the lunch break the crowd was entertained by the winning song; ?Everybody wants to be a winner.?

Junior Men's Coxed Four (JM4+)

Germany opened the A-finals by getting into the position they wanted all of their 12 finalist crews to be in ? in first. Making no mistakes, Ben-Jack Drese, Germany's coxswain and local Brandenburg resident, steered his crew to a solid 2 ½ second lead with only 500 metres rowed. Canada sat in second with the United States holding on to third.

But this was all to change going through the 900 metre mark when Italy tried to shake off their slow start and began to push. And push they did. First Canada got overtaken, then the United States and then Serbia & Montenegro were swept past by the Italians. Italy then took on the leading German crew and at the 1,750 metre mark the Italians, coxed by Stefano Famcelli, had put the Germans under threat.

Germany was not giving up. At the line Sebastian Kasielke, Carsten Matzat, Maximilian Munski, Eric Johannesen and Drese became the first World Rowing Junior Champions for 2005. Italy took second and Poland did an awesome effort by coming back from a disastrously slow start at the back of the field to work their way through to bronze.

Junior Women's Pair (JW2-)

Romania's Angelica Rosus and Nicoleta Albu won gold last year in the eight and they wanted another junior medal. Getting off to an aggressive start Rosus and Albu opened up a small lead over Germany's Kerstin Hartmann and Katrin Stenbakken. Not content with simply leading Rosus and Albu, rating 37, moved further away from the Germans, with Lavina Tinelli and Cristina Romiti of Italy (second in 2004) going after the Germans from third place.

Romania continued through the race using a short punchy stroke and a high rating to keep the lead with the longer stroking Italians and Germans unable to get up to Romania. The order didn't change and Rosus and Albu become Junior Champions for the second time.

Junior Men's Pair (JM2-)

Moving from last year's coxed four to the pair must be suiting Ionut Moisa of Romania. Teamed up with Andrei Timpau (2004 gold medal from the eight) the pair shook off a fast start by Canada to take the lead. Rating 36, Moisa and Timpau maintained a consistent pace and kept an eye on the rest of the field from their outside lane.

Meanwhile Italy's Luca De Maria and Armando Dell'Aquila were trying to do everything possible to get into a medal spot with Richard Anderson and Will Crothers of Canada and Germany's Florian Koeppen and Kay Benecke unrelenting in their own quest for a medal.

The final sprint was going to be tight. Moisa and Timpau continued to maintain their pace in the lead with De Maria and Dell'Aquila rating 37, enough to push them ahead of Koeppen and Benecke and leave Canada out of the medals. Romania finish first, Italy second and Germany take third.

Junior Women's Four (JW4-)

Claudia Wurzel, Denise Tremul and Camilla Espana of Italy all rowed to a B-final finish last year at the World Rowing Junior Championships. Joined this year by Cleonice Renzetti together they took the lead in the four using a higher stroke rate and a solid race plan. This left New Zealand, Poland, Germany and Belarus to go after second and with half the race gone barely a couple of seconds separated these four boats.

Italy remained clear leaders and highest stroke-raters as a small rain shower cooled the Brandenburg venue. Coming into the remaining 500 metres Belarus began to pull through and with 200 metres to go they had pushed past Poland and Germany to take second. At the finish Italy became World Rowing Junior Champions, Belarus win the first medal for their country today by taking second and Germany finishing third.

Junior Men's Four (JM4-)

They raced each other yesterday in the semi-final with last year's bronze medalists, Kolb, Saric, Mueller and Schmidt of Germany getting the winning advantage over Romania. Today, in the final, it was Germany again with the leader's advantage. Winners of the second semi-final, Great Britain sat back in third. The order didn't change through the middle of the race as Germany held on to their lead and the more experienced Romanians, Ioan Mihaila (2004 gold in the eight), Marius Luchian (2004 seventh in the coxed quad), Ionel Strungaru and Leon Ani (both 2004 gold medalists in the pair and eight) just a smidgen ahead of Great Britain (in their first year at the Junior Championships).

With 500 metres left to row and barely half a second separating the three leading crews the sprint was on. Charging for the line, Ani took his crew to 41 strokes per minute, Germany clocked in at 43 and Great Britain pushed it into the high 30s.

The crews sat exhausted behind the finish line waiting for the results. Romania had done it. Ani and Strungaru pick up their third Junior Champion title. Germany had gone one better than 2004 with silver and a disappointed Great Britain had to settle bronze.

Medals were handed to the winners by Germany's Andreas Hajek who won the men's single at this course as a junior in 1985. Hajek went on to become an Olympic Champion, retiring in 2003.

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