Small boat racing helps select French 2013 team

Held at Brive-la-Gaillarde the championships had events in the single and pair for lightweight and heavyweight rowers.

One of the major upsets of the regatta was Matthieu Androdias beating Jean-Baptiste Macquet for the first time in the men’s single sculls. Androdias, 22, raced in the men’s quadruple sculls at the London Olympics while former World Champion and two-time Olympian, Macquet ended up in second behind Androdias. Macquet was five seconds back and Hugo Boucheron was in third. Boucheron, 19, is an up-and-coming rower who won silver in the men’s double at the 2011 World Rowing Junior Championships.

The men’s pair was much more predictable with reigning Olympic silver medallists, Dorian Mortelette and Germain Chardin winning. This is their fourth national title together. Mortelette and Chardin won gold last month at the first stage of the Samsung World Rowing Cup in Sydney where they beat fellow French rowers, Benjamin Lang and Julien Despres who finished third. In Brive-la-Gaillarde Lang and Despres were second.

In the lightweight men’s pair Franck Solforosi and Guillaume Raineau dominated with an easy win. Solforosi was part of the lightweight men’s four that raced at the London Olympics while Raineau, an Olympian from Beijing, raced in the lightweight single last season.
The women’s single sculls was won by Marie Jacquet who was five seconds ahead of her nearest rival, Marie Le Nepvou. Jacquet, 19, raced last year in the junior single for France. She finished eighth at the World Rowing Junior Championships. In the lightweight women’s single sculls race, Julie Marechal finished first and earned her first national title in the lightweight single.

Lightweight sensation, Jeremie Azou, not surprisingly, won the lightweight men’s single sculls. Azou’s winning time was just one second slower than men’s single winner, Androdias. In second behind Azou was his London Olympic doubles partner, Staney Delayre. Delayre and Azou were fourth in London and their one-two placing at this regatta ensures that they will be selected as the French lightweight men’s double sculls for this year. Delayre declared that he and Azou would be aiming for the World title at the 2013 World Rowing Championships.

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