Back to business with the SilverSkiff

Nearly 500 single scullers took to the waters of the River Po to race the 11km distance with Germany’s Jost Schoemann-Finck finishing the fastest overall, coming in at 41:39. Schoemann-Finck is a regular on the German national team and this year competed internationally in the lightweight men’s eight winning gold at the World Rowing Championships. Schoemann-Finck’s brother Matthias was fourth overall.

Italy’s under-23 rower Francesco Pegoraro finished second and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia third despite receiving a 20-second penalty for a traffic violation. Sinkovic is part of Croatia’s men’s quad that won Olympic silver in London. Sinkovic’s fellow quad members all competed with Damir Martin coming in sixth, David Sain seventh and Martin Sinkovic 18^th.

In the women’s category the fastest overall was Germany’s Lena Mueller who finished in a time of 47:11. Like the men’s winner, Mueller is also a lightweight on the German national team. Mueller raced at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the lightweight women’s double sculls where she finished sixth overall. Second was Kristztina Gyimes of Hungary. Gyimes raced in the single at this year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Femke Dekker of the Netherlands also competed, finishing third, only six seconds behind Gyimes.

The SilverSkiff  Regatta includes a KinderSkiff event for juniors which is raced the day before over a shorter distance of 4,000m. This year just over 200 youngsters took part. The SilverSkiff also includes masters divisions and for the first time this year the SilverSkiff included adaptive rowing. Competitors came from 22 countries including Costa Rica, Israel and Macedonia.

Masters competitor Carlo Zezza from the United States flipped after colliding with something in the water. Zezza, 76, a regular in this event, got back in his boat and went on to win in his category.

Finishing in the top three spots meant winning gold coins. First place for both the men and women was 800 Euros in gold coins, second was 400 Euros and third place was 300 Euros.The SilverSkiff began in 1992 when 12 rowers participated. It has grown most years since, with 2010 peaking at 700 competitors. The race is just for single scullers and participants start at 20 second intervals. The 11km course is an up-and-back course with competitors turning around a buoy. This year competitors were able to row with the current after the turn, thus making the return trip about twice as fast.

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