U19 & U23 Daily Digest: Tight margins at World Rowing U19 & U23 Championships

With a change of schedule due to forecast adverse weather, this morning’s racing session featured a mix of quaterfinals for the under 19s and semifinals for the under 23s.  As competitors in the small boats were looking to progress to the next stages of the competition, margins were tight with under 0.25 seconds dividing those who qualified and those who did not more than once.

Less than quarter of a second divides qualifiers

With 27 entries, the Under 19 men’s double sculls required quarter finals which were held this morning. In each of the four quarterfinals, the top three crews were looking to progress to the semifinals. The first one was the quickest with Germany’s Jakob Geyer and Ole Hanack winning in a time of 6:22.10. In that same race, Ireland missed out on qualification by just 0.24 seconds.

Tight times across Under 19 men’s singles

Times were tight across the races with France’s Pierre Molins winning the first quarterfinal in 7:04.31 just before Germany’s Cornelius Cornelius Conrad took the second quarterfinal in 7:04.70. Marco Prati, representing Italy led the third quarterfinal from the start, and wasn’t really challenged. He posted a time of 7:06.17. In the last of the quarterfinals, Slovakia’s took the win in a time of 7:04.82, finishing just 0.50 seconds ahead of GB’s Marcus Chute. The times indicate we could be in for some close semifinals tomorrow!

Under 23 women’s scullers race to the wire

Racing went straight from under 19 quarterfinals into semifinals for the under 23 single scullers. Places were traded throughout semifinal one; whilst the Greek sculler Dimitra Eleni Kontou led for the first quarter, it was Great Britain’s Lauren Henry than then led the middle of the race. Dovile Rimkute of Lithuania had gradually worked her way through the pack to take the lead in the final quarter and win in a time of 7:33.39. The second semifinal came down to the wire, and was much quicker. Ireland’s Alison Bergin was the fastest in the first half of the race and whilst Germany’s Alexandra Foester has the fastest third 500m and briefly took the lead, Bergin came back again in the closing stages to take the win with a new World Championships Best Time of 7:24.89. Swiss sculler Aurelia-Maxima Janzen took the third qualifying place, just 0.8 seconds ahead of Spain.

Photo finish for U23 men’s single sculls

One of the favourites in the boat class, Emil Neykov, from Bulgaria, led the first semifinal to beyond the 500m mark. He is reigning U23 Champion in this title and looking to defend that position. However, German sculler Jonas Gelsen eventually moved into the front of the pack and held that position to the line, finishing over a second ahead of Neykov at the line. Further back, Italy’s Gennaro di Maurao delighted the home supporters when he pushed Great Britain’s Calum Dixon out of the qualification places by 0.18 Dixon has performed well at the World Rowing Cups this season so was expected to make the A Final.

In semifinal two, Australia’s Cormac Kennedy-Leverett led from the start with Romain Harat of France holding second place. Isaiah Harrison of the USA, who took bronze in the single scull at last year’s World Rowing Junior Championships, took the third qualifying place. The first semifinal was won in 6:48.52 and the second in 6:48.99, suggesting we could be in for a real battle for the gold medal tomorrow.

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