Early taste of 2016 racing at Memorial Paolo d'Aloja

The racing schedule included 16 senior boat classes and six junior boat classes. Athletes and crews had the opportunity to qualify for two finals, one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.

The largest entries were recorded in the men’s single sculls on both days of finals with 33 contestants on Saturday and 23 on Sunday. The women’s single sculls was the most popular female boat class, with 29 boats racing on Saturday and 22 on Sunday. 

For both finals days, athletes enjoyed summer temperatures with a tail wind on Saturday and on Sunday, calm, still conditions.

A broad international reach in the men’s single sculls finished with Robert Ven of Finland crossing the line first in Sunday’s final. Bendeguez Petervari-Molnar of Hungary followed in second with Rolandas Mascinskas of Lithuania in third. Petervari-Molnar has been seen most recently racing in the men’s double sculls, which is also Mascinskas’s main boat class. Last year Mascinskas finished second at the World Rowing Championships in the double.

On the previous day in the men’s single, Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania finished first over Ven with Petervari-Molnar in third. Griskonis is the 2015 World Championship bronze medallist in the single.

The women’s single sculls was won by Canada’s Carling Zeeman. Zeeman has been training most recently in New Zealand with 2014 World Champion, Emma Twigg. Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece was second with Anna Kravchenko of Ukraine in third. Zeeman also won on day two.

Current World Record holder on the indoor rowing machine, Olena Buryak of Ukraine, raced in the women’s double sculls with Anastasiia Kozhenkova to a win ahead of Laura Schiavone and Giada Colombo of Italy. Ukraine also finished third and fourth with Canada’s lightweight combination of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee in fifth. On day two Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania won over Ukraine.

For day three Griskonis teamed up with Saulius Ritter to win the men’s double sculls. This pushed locals, Francesco Fossi and Romano Battisti into second with Spain in third. Lithuania also won on day two, this time with the combination of Mascinskas and Ritter. Both days Fossi and Battisti had to settle for second.

Five-time Olympian Alessio Sartori has not been racing since the 2012 Olympic Games, but he showed up in three-seat of the Italian men’s quadruple sculls. The Italian boat had a very tight race with Canada. In the end Canada won out, finishing less than half a second ahead of Italy. Lithuania was in third. But on day two it was Lithuania who won with Canada and Italy following in second and third respectively.

Italy’s Niccolo Mornati, who finished fifth in the men’s pair at the 2015 World Rowing Championships, raced at the Memorial with Simone Venier. The pair took gold on Sunday and silver on Saturday, behind another Italian crew hailing from Italy’s men’s eight – Giovanni Abagnale and Domenico Montrone.

The 2015 World Champions in the men’s four, Marco Di Costanzo, Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo and Giuseppe Vicino, took gold in both A-finals ahead of the Canadian line-up of William Crothers, Tim Schrijver, Kai Langerfeld and Conlin MacCabe that finished fourth in Aiguebelette last year. 

Overall 13 countries won medals with Italy the stand-out nation at the head of the medals table. Greece was second and Canada third.

For full results and rankings, please click here. http://www.memorialdaloja.org/results.shtml