Gold rush for Italy at European Junior Championships

Of the 13 boat classes on the programme, the men’s single sculls had the highest number of entries with 20 boats competing. In the women’s field, the single sculls and double sculls both saw 16 crews lining up.

Italy came out on top with a total of six medals won, including four gold. Germany followed with four medals, three of which were gold. Romania finished third on the medals table, with seven medals including two golds. Of the 31 nations participating, 16 medalled.

The Italian golds began with success in the men’s coxed four, followed by the women’s four. Then Andrea Cattaneo and Emanuele Fiume won the men’s double sculls by leading from start to finish. Cattaneo is already a junior World Champion in the men’s coxed four. Then Giacomo Gentili dominated the men’s single sculls to secure Italy’s fourth gold medal.

For Germany, the gold medals came in the men’s and women’s pairs races. Carolin Dold and Leah Labudde won for the women with Olaf Roggensack and René Schmela taking the men’s pair. Roggensack and Schmela were part of the gold medal crew that raced in the men’s four at last year’s World Rowing Junior Championships.  The third German gold came in the women’s double sculls, with  Annemieke Schanze and Frieda Haemmerling having a convincing win. Schanze and Haemmerling also had 2014 success with silver in the women’s quadruple sculls from last year’s World junior champs.

Romania’s gold medal women’s eight, was stacked with a number of international medallists. This included Roxana Parascanu (a World Junior Champion in the women’s pair in 2014 and in the women’s eight in 2013) as well as Anamaria Zaharia and Andrea Budeanu who both won bronze in the women’s eight at last year’s World Rowing Junior Championships.

Last year’s bronze medallist at the junior worlds in the women’s single sculls, Marieke Heleen Anne Keijser from the Netherlands, took gold in this boat class in Racice.

In 2016, the European Rowing Junior Championships will take place in Trakai, Lithuania from 21 to 22 May.

For full results, click here.