U19 Daily Digest: A-Final places all confirmed

This morning was the turn of the Under 19 rowers to race for places in tomorrow’s finals. With the prospect of racing for a medal in their mind, the athletes pushed their limits with crowds being treated to incredibly close races and another World Championship Best Time.

Italian brothers sprint to win men’s pair semifinal

Marco and Luca Vicino, twin from Italy became World Champions in the coxed four last year and are looking to do the same in the pair this year. In a well-paced race, they moved through the field to win the first semifinal in a time of 6:40.83. Slovakia finished second and Serbia third. However, Romania won the second semifinal in an even faster time, finishing in 6:38.05. With Germany finishing second, Turkey, who had traded places with Greece throughout, took the third qualifying place.

GBR dominate men’s four 

Great Britain was the clear leader in the first semifinal of the under 19 men’s four, dominating the race throughout and winding down before the finish. Romania and Germany took the other two qualifying places. GB’s time was 6:05.75. They are holders of the World Championships Best Time in this boat class from 2018 and might be hoping to beat it tomorrow. To the delight of the home supporters, Italy led the second semifinal off the start but then got overhauled by Denmark, who finished in a time of 6:09.91.

0.05 seconds difference between women’s quad semis

Germany, who sat in second for more than half of the race, won the first semifinal of the women’s quads in a time of 6:36.59, crossing the line 0.83 seconds ahead of Romania with the Netherlands in third. Remarkably, Great Britain’s winning time in the second semifinal was just 0.05 seconds slower. Tomorrow’s final is set to be epic! Great Britain led their race from the front, and finished ahead of the USA and Poland.

Photo finish for men’s quad

The crowds were kept in suspense in both semifinals of the men’s quadruple sculls as fractions of a second divided the third and fourth placed crews – the all-important division between progressing to the medal race, or not. In the first semifinal, Italy won in 5:57.87 with Greece in second. Poland took the third qualifying place, just 0.29 seconds ahead of Switzerland. The Czechs took the win in semifinal 2, clocking 5:55.39. With Germany in second place, a photo finish was required to confirm the third place qualifier again with Great Britain getting it by less than half a second ahead of the USA.

Natsioula and Dalidou smash World Championship Best Time

Greece’s Styliani Natsioula and Sofia Dalidou won the women’s double scull at the European Rowing U19 Championships by an incredible 10 seconds and are hoping to repeat that performance here in Varese. They won their semifinal convincingly in a time of 6:57.95, finishing 8.69 seconds ahead of Germany. Their time smashed the previous World Championship Best Time of 7:03.18 which has stood since 2009. In the second semifinal, defending champion in this boat class, Lotta van Westreenen and her Dutch partner Anna Menke also won convincingly, clocking 7:11.98. We’re all set for a fast final tomorrow!

Chute shoots through, again!

It was another phenomenal scull for Great Britain’s Marcus Chute. While Italy’s Marco Prati led throughout, Chute, who was sitting in fifth place for the first half of the race, sculled his way through the field to take second place in the first semifinal of the Under 19 men’s single sculls. China’s Zhiwei Ou took the third qualifying place. Conrad Cornelius of Germany won the second semifinal. Although it was a slower race than the previous one, it was a close one with Cornelius crossing the line just 0.41 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Boris Taeldeman with Peter Strecansky of Slovakia finishing third.

Don’t miss a moment of the week’s action! Here’s how you can follow the racing:

Our LIVE TRACKER and LIVE AUDIO will be available for all races on worldrowing.com.

LIVE VIDEO will be available from Friday, 29 July to Sunday, 31 July, and will start 5minutes before the start of the first race.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok for behind the scenes interviews, live updates, racing updates, photos and more.

Join the conversation!

Use the hashtags #WRUCHVarese, #WRU19CH, and #WRU23CH on social media, and tag us in your content!

📱 IG: @worldrowingofficial

📱 Twitter: @WorldRowing

📱 TikTok: @worldrowing

📱 Facebook: World Rowing