Daily Digest: Spain and Tunisia victorious as beach sprint titles defended

The first medals were won in Saundersfoot on Saturday on a day when the sun mostly shone but the wind picked up in the afternoon. Tunisia and Spain ended the day dominant, each with two gold medals, while hosts Great Britain won three silvers.

Tunisia take first title

After a series of exciting races, it was Mohamed Rayen Hafsa (TUN) who came out on top in the Under 19 Coastal Men’s Solo (CJM1x). Hafsa landed just before James Cox (GBR) in the final race and threw himself across the line one second ahead of his competitor to take the title, to the delight of his support team. Brian O’Leary (USA) took bronze, ahead of an exhausted Evan Cailhau (FRA) who had earlier secured his place in the semifinals in an incredibly tight race with Sweden’s Simon Karlsson.

Belhaje Mohamed makes it two in a row

Tunisia took their second gold in a row when Hela Belhaje Mohamed defended her Under 19 Coastal Women’s Solo (CJW1x) title. Belhaje Mohamed won each of her races by a decisive margin, although the effort left her exhausted at the end. Great Britain’s Isla MacCallum was delighted with silver, which she won after a close semifinal with Maxence Dupuis (FRA), saying afterwards: “Each race got better and better. I just can’t believe what’s happened.” There were also tears of joy for bronze medallist Federica Chisena (ITA), who beat Dupuis in the B-Final.

Coastal experience beats international power

The Spanish Coastal Mixed Quadruple Sculls (CMix4x+) crew, cheered on by a big group of supporters, showed their experience in beating the powerful flat-water converts from New Zealand to gold. The crew from Málaga were slick around the turns, and the chasing Kiwis could not quite catch up, falling short by 0.6 seconds. For four members of the Spanish crew – Ramon Gomez Cotilla, Teresa Diaz Moreno, Celia Miguel Gomez and coxswain Felipe Mendez Tome – it was a second title in a row in this event. In the bronze medal race the USA beat France by 3.6 seconds.

Double-double in the double for Spain

The Coastal Mixed Double Sculls (CMix2x) had to race twice on Saturday – first in the morning’s repechages, and then in the knockout races leading to the medals. Defending champions Ander Martin and Esther Briz Zamorano made short work of the repechage and each of their knockout races, and beat Great Britain by 5 seconds in the final. In their turn, Great Britain’s Charles Cousins and Clare Jamison sneaked into the medal races after both rowers sprinted from the boat in their quarterfinal against Tunisia – Cousins’ superior speed taking him across the line 0.12 seconds ahead. In the B-final, Edwige Alfred and Ludovic Dubuis (FRA) beat Canada’s Aubrey Oldham and Sarah Pidgen to bronze, clinching France’s first medal of the championships.

Ficarra through with no mistakes

In the second time trial for the Coastal Men’s Solo (CM1x) defending champion Giovanni Ficarra (ITA) made up for a sub-par race yesterday and topped the standings by almost 4 seconds over Michail Kalentzis (GRE). Kealan Mannix (IRL) was the unlucky ninth, missing out on tomorrow’s repechages.

Maryam Abdellatif (EGY) was the fastest boat in the second time trial of the Coastal Women’s Solo, 0.4 seconds ahead of Cassidy Norton (USA). Patricia Batista (POR) finished eighth, edging out Majdouline El Allaoui (MAR) by 0.1 seconds.