First step for Youth Olympic Games qualification

In 12 of the junior finals, nations got a chance to qualify spots for next year’s YOG based on their final ranking, with the number of places qualifying per event depending on the pre-determined performance criteria. Importantly, it is the nation that is qualified, not the rowers, so the rowers that end up being selected to race at the YOG may be different than those who raced at the 2013 Junior Championships.

Twenty-one nations qualified including: United States, Italy, Germany, Australia, Romania, Spain, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Norway, Cuba, Great Britain, Belarus, France, Brazil and Sweden.

Rowing at the YOG consists of four events; the men’s and women’s single sculls and the men’s and women’s pair. There are spots for a total of 96 athletes with each nation having a quota of one women’s and one men’s boat. If a qualification place is not used by the qualifying nation, the place will be allocated to the next country with the highest ranked boat from the Junior Championships.

There are further qualification spots coming from three Continental Qualification Regattas – from Asia, Africa and Latin America. There are also three male and three female ‘universality’ places to be allocated.

For athletes to be eligible to race at the YOG they must be born between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1997.

The YOG will take place for the second time in Nanjing. It was first held in Singapore in 2010.