A loud and friendly crowd came to support their favourite athletes who competed over two days of racing with heats and repechages on the first day followed by semifinals and finals on the second day.

Of the 13 boat classes contested, Italy had entries in all 13. Belarus brought the next biggest team with entries in ten boat classes. The Czech Republic, Romania and Russia all entered boat in nine races and France and Poland also had large teams.

Overall 450 athletes competed in 152 crews making it a record entry for the European Rowing Junior Championships. This larger number can partly be explained by the earlier date of the event now that it has been brought forward to May and also the more central position of Belgium to other European countries.

Not only had the number of countries and athletes increased, but also the level of competition was better this year as there were many more intense races and closer finishes. The junior men’s double sculls wan one of the most competitive boat classes. It had the largest number of entries at 23 nation and in the final it took a photo finish between Poland and Lithuania to decide the bronze medal winner. After waiting two tensed minutes the crews were credited with exactly the same time and two bronze medals were presented.

There was some other very close finished for the medals like Italy’s gold in the junior women’s four was won in 07:04.00 while France took silver in 07:04.01.

Overall Romania was the most successful nation on the medals table. Romania scored gold in six events including both the men’s and women’s pair, the women’s double, men’s four, women’s quadruple sculls and the women’s eight. The medals were spread among 16 nations with Azerbaijan picking up one in the men’s single sculls. Azerbaijan’s Boris Yotov then went on a couple of weeks later to finish second in the men’s double sculls at the senior version – the European Rowing Championships.

The organising committee’s goal was to create the best conditions possible for the athletes to compete, but also to create a festive and friendly atmosphere. A lot of the competitors as well as team managers, participated actively in the social media, especially Facebook which made it a real global European event even for those at home.

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Yuliya Bichyk

Big numbers and Romanian success at European Junior Champs

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