Raineri and Mannucci Italian Erg Champions

Sydney gold medallist, Simone Raineri, erged 500m in 1:19.2 and took first place in the 2001 Grand Prix of the Champions in Genoa, Italy last weekend.

Olympic silver medallist in the men’s four and recent World Championships  silver medallist in the men’s coxed pair, Lorenzo Carboncini placed second with a time of 1:20.4. Rossano Galtarossa who was in the Sydney Olympic gold medal winning quad along with Raineri placed third.

The competition was by invitation only and took place in the framework of the International Nautical Show that attracts large numbers of visitors. And to add to the excitement, the rowers were asked to row the 500 metre sprints “cold” meaning with no warm-up.

In the lightweight category, the 2001 World Championship gold medallist in the lightweight men’s quad Filippo Mannucci out-erged Leonardo Pettinari and Lorenzo Bertini for first place in a time of 1:24.1.

His top place earned him not only the prize money awarded to the winners but also a congratulatory note sent by someone who, like him, is from the city of Livorno – Italian president Azeglio Ciampi!

And Ciampi was not the only one following the races on television – the Italian television station RAI, who co-organised the event, recorded a peak of 4 million viewers for the star-studded event.