Thrilling racing for Day 2 of the 2022 World Rowing Virtual Indoor Championships

The 2022 World Rowing Virtual Indoor Championships continued to cover the globe on the second day of exciting racing. We saw determined rowers across a range of time zones in rowing clubs, living rooms, garages and balconies, often decorated proudly with their country’s flags and cheered on by supporters. More World Records were also broken on the second day.

After the first false start of the day, Javier Reja Munoz from Spain broke the World Record in the PR1 500m sprint category with a time of 1:38.4, with Milan Lackovic from Slovakia breaking his record in the PR3 category with a time of 1:19.3 and USA’s Matthew Houser likewise doing to the same in the PR3-II category with a time of 1:30.5.

Higher up in the age group categories, Canada showed its pedigree with Richard Stout breaking a World Record in the men’s 70-74 2000m category by almost two seconds with a time of 6:50.2, twenty-five seconds clear of his field. Fellow Canadian Alida Kingswood, who started her race with purpose with a rate of 45 strokes per minute, kept a promise to herself of breaking a World Record at the age of 90, when she achieved a time of 10:29.3 in the women’s 90-94 2000m race, bettering the previous fastest ever time by over two minutes!

Dean Smith was the oldest athlete on the day to break a World Record, with the veteran finishing the men’s 95-99 2000m in an impressive 10:14.5.

The first race of the day commenced with the fiercely competitive under-19 women 2000 m. With the leader swapped multiple times, Doris Meinbek of Estonia jumped to the lead halfway and held on, becoming World Champion with a time of 6:55.9, followed by Lina Kühn from Switzerland and Aicha Abdeaziz from Tunisia.

The under-19 men 2000m was won by Nicola Speziani from Italy, utilising a retro high body lean to becoming World Champion, beating his own qualification time of 6:10.0. Rainer Oras from Estonia came second, and Mattius Durhuus from Denmark took the third podium spot.

The under-23 lightweight women 2000m came next, offering a nail-biting competition throughout the race, with the top five being within 10 metres of each other near the halfway point. Justine Touzot from the USA eventually won out in 7:22.7, squeezing out against Fehervari Eszter from Tunisia, who was less than a second behind and Zammeli Sara from Tunisia taking third.

The under-23 lightweight men 2000m was likewise a close race, with two Uruguayan compatriots leading the race from the start. Felipe Kluver’s late sprint earned him the gold medal with a time of 6:19.6 over Leandro Joaquin Rodas Correa, with Canada’s Stephen Harris’s dogged row winning him bronze.

The under-23 women 2000m was dominated by Alexandra Föster from Germany who won with a massive margin of over 110 metres at 6:41.6, with Doris Meinbek from Estonia showing resilience winning silver, having raced already, winning in the under-19 women’s race half an hour earlier. Diana Bulaŝa from Latvia secured bronze.

The under-23 men 2000m comprised of a very fast field, with four athletes under the elite 6-minute mark. Isaiah Harrison from the USA rowed consistently to win, with Ivan Corsunov from Moldova’s late sprint sneaking in to grab silver over Belgium Tristan Vandenbussche, who had to settle for third.

The lightweight women 2000m witnessed a clean sweep for China, with Min Yang, Jiaqui Zou and Lai Weijuan taking up the top three podium spots, respectively, led by Yang’s winning time of 7:06.9.

The lightweight men 2000m was led from start to finish by Germany’s Florian Roller, who becomes world champion for a second year in a row, with a blistering speed of 6:07.6, with Sid Ali Boudina from Algeria narrowly seeing Ahmet Rapi from Sweden to make up silver and bronze.

In the three-minute team test mixed race, Egypt won with a distance of 977m, followed by the Finland team, who’s performance was undoubtedly spurred on with an enthusiastic live drummer acting as a chief cheerleader. British Army A came third.

The excitement continued as we moved on to the age category races.

A tense race in the Masters 30-39 2000m led to James Wade from Great Britain holding off a late charge by USA’s Kyle Larson to win by a fraction of a second with a time of 6:03.3, with bronze being shared by New Zealand’s Andrew Tomlinson and USA’s Dan Bennett.

There were also fireworks in the Masters lightweight 50-54 2000m, with Germán Rendo Ximeno from Spain winning a hard-fought duel with Hungary’s Zsolt Darvas at a time of 6:37.5. Iñigo Martinez De Alegria took home the bronze.

For the open women 2000m, China took on a second clean sweep for the podium, emulating their lightweight women, with Zhang Peixin becoming world champion despite rowing at times with an impressively low average stroke rate below 30. Lv Yang came second and Xu Xingye third. Olena Buryak of Ukraine, who was sadly absent because of the current security situation, was also awarded the bronze medal, based on her qualifying time.

The fastest and most thrilling race was reserved for the men’s 2000m Open. Belgium’s Ward Lemmelijn, spurred on by a substantial supporting crowd, sat second for most of the race before dropping his split to 1:22 in a huge surge in the final stages to overhaul Russia’s Alexander Vyazovkin to become World Champion with a time of 5:41.7. Joel Naukkarinen from Finland made up the third podium spot.

An incredible weekend of racing!