Press Release: 2008 World Rowing Senior & Junior Championships

The 2008 World Rowing Senior & Junior Championships held in Linz/Ottensheim, Austria, came to a close today after six days of racing. Germany topped the medals table in the junior categories and a mix of nations picked up medals in the senior categories. With 2008 being an Olympic year, the World Rowing Championships include non-Olympic boat classes only at senior level and are combined with the World Rowing Junior Championships.

A total of 655 athletes from 48 nations competed in the junior events. Germany dominated the racing, winning medals in 12 of the 13 junior boat classes – eight of them gold. In her second year of junior racing at World Rowing level, Carina Baer, 18, proved her strength in the single, winning all initial rounds before earning the title of junior World Champion. The junior women’s pair of Anja Broders and Ronja Schuette won their heat to advance directly to the Final, and then made it two out of two in the Final. Clara Karches and Mareike Adams in the junior women’s double sculls crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Austria to grab gold, while their counterparts in the junior men’s double, Martin Menger and Lauritz Schoof, were able to successfully defend their nation’s 2007 title. A convincing lead of three boat lengths gave Germany’s junior women’s quadruple sculls their fifth consecutive world title in this event. After a fifth-place finish last year, Germany raced to gold in the junior men’s quadruple sculls: “It was a surprise but we are very happy,” said three seat Hubert Trzybinski. And, closing the World Rowing Junior Championships, Germany’s juniors once again raced to gold in the men’s eight, retaining their title from 2007.

The senior regatta saw nearly 300 athletes competing in eight non-Olympic boat classes. The highlights of Sunday afternoon’s finals included Italy’s Daniele Gilardoni’s ninth win in the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls – Gilardoni is number six on World Rowing’s 2007 list of Top 10 male rowers – and Pamela Weisshaupt of Switzerland’s long-awaited world title in the lightweight women’s single sculls – an event she began to compete in internationally in 2002. Duncan Grant of New Zealand successfully defended his 2007 World Championship title in the lightweight men’s single sculls in a thrilling race against Jaap Schouten of the Netherlands, and Greek brothers Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas  won their first ever senior World Championship gold in the lightweight men’s pair.

The Linz/Ottensheim regatta course was built back in 1972 on an arm of the Danube River. Recent renovations and dredging has widened the course to eight lanes, bringing it up to international regatta standards. Last year’s Rowing World Cup was the first FISA-sanctioned event held on this course since 1998 and was the test event for this year’s World Rowing Championships.

Daily race reports, complete results, and final points and rankings are available on www.worldrowing.com.
 

For more information:
FISA media officer
Débora Feutren
Mobile: +41 79 793 5600
E-mail: debora.feutren@fisa.org