A Year In Review – Elite and Para rowing

With Final Olympic and Paralympic qualification places still up for grabs, the season got underway at the start of April with the European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Varese. It was at this regatta, that Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos and Russia’s Hanna Prakhatsen won the men’s and women’s single sculls respectively, and secured places for the Olympic Regatta. Both of these athletes would go on to pick up medals in Tokyo later in the year.

 

 

Hot on the heels of the Qualification Regatta, Varese hosted the European Rowing Championships where 18 nations picked up medals with Great Britain, who had been absent in 2020, topping the medal table.

Lake Jarun in Zagreb, Croatia was the destination for the first World Cup of the 2021 season. Home favourites Martin and Valent Sinkovic followed up their gold at the European Rowing Championships with a dominating performance in the men’s pair, proving they were a boat to watch for the remainder of the season. Meanwhile, fellow Croatian siblings, Ivana and Josipa Jurkovic won the women’s pair. It was a successful regatta overall for France, who established themselves at the top of the overall World Rowing Cup series standings, after picking up seven medals.

 

 

The Asia and Oceania Olympic and Qualification Regatta was the last of the four continental qualification regattas and it was held at the Olympic venue of the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo. Eyes were then all on Lucerne for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, the last opportunity to qualify boats for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The regatta attracted a record entry with over 400 athletes from 49 nations travelling to Switzerland to compete for a ticket to Tokyo.

For all boat classes except the lightweight women’s double sculls, there was just two qualification places available. An empty spot following the Americas Olympic Qualification Regatta meant that three places were available for the lightweight double sculls and the final was one of the closest races of the day. It was the United States, Switzerland and Ireland that finished in the all-important top 3.

 

 

The final results had all five continents represented on the Victory Pontoon with South Africa winning the men’s four, and Ireland the women’s four. Meanwhile, whilst Romania had qualified both a men’s and women’s eight, they didn’t win either category. China had turned up with a new line-up women’s eight and dominated the race whereas on the men’s side, New Zealand’s eight was filled with big names including double Olympic Champion, Hamish Bond, and they led the race from the start.

A number of athletes stayed on in Lucerne after the Final Qualification Regatta to race at World Rowing Cup 2. 41 countries took part with big entries from the Netherlands, Great Britain and host nation, Switzerland. Great Britain and China finished joint top of the medal table with three golds each. Great Britain picked up their third gold in the last race of the regatta, the men’s eight, when they beat the World Champion German crew on the final stroke, by just 0.03 seconds.

 

 

With Olympic Qualification confirmed, attention moved to the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta, which was held at the start of June in Gavirate, Italy. Five nations earned qualification invitations at the Regatta with Brazil claiming two of the six available places across the four boat classes.

The anticipation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games continued to build when Italy’s Sabaudia hosted the third World Rowing Cup of the season. Many nations, including Italy, chose to use the regatta to start the journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, entering a number of under-23 crews. For others, it was the last test before the focus moved on to Tokyo. Whilst Italy topped the medal table this time, Germany had sent consistently strong teams to all three World Cups and moved to the top of the overall standing at the end of the series.

 

 

Olympic Games

Finally, the moment arrived. At 08:30 local time on Friday 23 July 2021, the first race of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Regatta left the start line, and we were in for an exciting Games. The Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo provided fast conditions and during the six days of racing, we would see several World and Olympic Best Times get broken, some for multiple times.

The women’s four featured in the programme for just the second time, having last been included in 1992. Australia came out on top in the final, pipping the Netherlands by 0.34 seconds and setting a new Olympic Best Time. Ireland, who had come through the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, took bronze. Australia also took gold in the men’s four, preventing Great Britain from defending their title for a sixth successive time.

 

 

New Zealand went one better than Australia on the gold medal tally, collecting three, in addition to two silver, to put them at the top of the medal table. Particularly impressive was the performance of Kiwis Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler who took gold in the women’s pair and just over 24 hours later, silver in the women’s eight. Canada beat them to the line in the eight by less than a second. Meanwhile, whilst some were perhaps expecting a showdown between Germany and Great Britain in the men’s eight, it was New Zealand that broke clear from the pack with 1,000m to go to win the first Olympic Champion eights title for their country since 1972. It went to a photo finish for the silver medal with Germany getting the better of Great Britain by 0.13 seconds.

 

 

Paralympic Games

Rowing returned to Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway just a few weeks later ready for the Paralympic Games. 25 nations had qualified boats for the Tokyo Paralympic Games with Ukraine, United States and Brazil qualifying boats in all four boat classes.

First to be crowned Paralympic champion this year was Norway’s Birgit Skarstein who absolutely dominated the field in the PR1 women’s single sculls. This was shortly followed by Ukrainian Roman Polianskyi successfully defending his Paralympic title winning the PR1 men’s single sculls.

 

 

Great Britain defended their Paralympic titles in both the PR2 mixed double sculls and the PR3 coxed four. These two gold medals put them at the top of the medal table. France was the only other nation to pick up two medals with bronze for Nathalie Benoit in the PR1 women’s single sculls and a bronze for their PR3 coxed four.

 

 

Whilst the 2021 season was due to feature a World Rowing Championships in October, with the ongoing implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Shanghai Organising Committee proposed to cancel the event with the World Rowing Executive Committee accepting the proposal.

Next on the calendar

As we start to look ahead towards the 2022 Season, a full series of events is planned starting with World Cup 1 in Belgrade, Serbia 27-29 May and culminating with the World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic from 18-25 September. This will be complimented by our events for U19s, U23s, masters and coastal and indoor rowers throughout the season.