Daily Digest: Heats Concluded at 2022 World Rowing Championships

The Labe Arena in Racice, Czech Republic once again provided good racing conditions, fortunately drier than yesterday as racing continued at the 2022 World Rowing Championships. Today’s racing programme began with heats for the remaining Para boat classes before progressing to repechages. The session concluded with the first sighting of the eights.

Seconds separate heats in PR1 men’s single sculls

There was just 0.5 seconds between the the times of the first two heats in the PR1 men’s single sculls indicating we could be in for some very close semifinals on Friday. Paralympic Champion and reigning World Champion Roman Polianskyi of Ukraine won heat one in 9:24.11 and shortly later, Erik Horrie clocked 9:24.61, winning heat two. Italy’s Giacomo Perini, who beat Polianskyi at the recent European Rowing Championships, won the third heat in 9:26.01.

Paralympic Champion fastest PR1 women’s sculler

After the excitement of the PR1 men’s single sculls, the women’s races were equally as close! Paralympic Champion and reigning World Champion Birgit Skarstein of Norway won the first heat in 10:16.28 to take the single direct qualification place for the final. In the second heat, Ukrainian Anna Sheremet, who was fourth in Tokyo, took the single qualifying place direct to the final, clocking 10:16.52. The remainder of the scullers will need to contest the repechage tomorrow morning to find out who else will progress to Sunday’s final which could be a very close one!

Strong Ukrainian para contingent

After their success in the single sculls, the Ukraine continued to perform well in the para boat classes when Svitlana Bohuslavska and Iaroslav Koiuda clocked the fastest time across the two heats winning heat one in 8:25.21. Heat two was won by Jolanta Majka and Michal Gadowski of Poland who completed the course in 8:26.79.  Those two boats along with the Netherlands and France will progress directly to the final, which will take place on Saturday.

Nazanin Malaei secures top-12 place in lightweight women’s single sculls.

She was one of the biggest stories of last year’s Olympic Games when she made the top 12 in the women’s single sculls and now Iranian Nazanin Malaei has made the top 12 in the lightweight single sculls at the World Championships! She will race next in the semifinal on Thursday.

Olympic Champions nearly miss out on qualification

It was already a surprise to see Italy’s Valentini Rodini and Federica Cesarini having to race the repechage in the lightweight women’s double sculls as they are Olympic Champions from Tokyo last year. Then, at moments throughout the repechage, it looked as though they may not even make the semifinals! It came down to a photo finish between Italy and Poland and Rodini and Cesarini were confirmed as having secured the second qualification place, behind Greece, by just 0.03 seconds.

Great Britain and Canada secure direct qualification to men’s eight final

The Great Britain men’s eight is unbeaten so far this season and looked comfortable as they crossed the line at the front of the field to take the single qualifying place direct to the final. Their time was 5:31.29. The second heat was a much closer affair the whole race, and was a battle to the line with Canada eventually taking the honours, clocking 5:30.39, less than a second ahead of the Netherlands. The remaining crews will race the repechage on Friday to decide who will join Great Britain and Canada in Sunday’s final.

USA beat the Olympic Champions in women’s eight

With the rain coming down on the Labe Arena, the preliminary race of the women’s eight brought the third day of racing to a close. The Canadian crew, with four retainers from last years Olympic gold medal winning boat, got out of the start quickest and sat at the front of the field for more than the first half of the race. However, the USA, who had a slow start, worked their way through the field and were at the front of the pack in the second half of the race, and remained there to the line. Their win, in a time of 6:10.91 was a great way for Jessica Thoennes to celebrate her 27th birthday!

With the heats now completed, focus will move to quarter finals and reps. Racing resumes tomorrow, 21 September, at 9:30 CET. You can find the full programme on worldrowing.com

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