Vast spread of medals at World Rowing Under 23 Championships

The 2021 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Racice, Czech Republic started with 55 countries arriving and ended with 23 countries departing home medals.

Leading the way on the medals table was Italy with four gold medals and 11 medals overall. Italy was just ahead of Germany in second which won three golds and 12 medals overall. Despite coming to Racice with a small team of seven boats, Great Britain performed very well by winning four medals – three of them gold. Greece had a great regatta with four medals, two of them gold.

For Italy three of their medals came in lightweight events with one of the highlights being Silvia Crosio in the lightweight women’s single sculls. Crosio rowed a beautiful race and won by a handy margin over Evangelia Anastasiadou of Greece and Russia’s Aleksandra Fomina.

For Germany one of its three golds came in the women’s single sculls. The 2019 junior champion in this boat class, Alexandra Foester rowed to gold over Switzerland’s Aurelia-Maxima Jansen in silver with bronze going to Katherine Williams of South Africa.

Germany’s 12 medal haul also included a bronze in the men’s eight. The eight was won by Great Britain with the United States in second in a very tight race that left everyone guessing.

The rowers enjoyed five days of racing with excellent rowing conditions. This meant the timetable could go ahead as planned in an atmosphere that specified no spectators due to Covid-19 restrictions. This did not stop everyone at the regatta course getting behind the Czech Republic boat in the men’s quadruple sculls. This was the Czechs’ flagship boat and they did what they came to do by winning gold for their country.