Early-season speed tested in Italy

The first international regatta of the 2023 season took place over the weekend in Piediluco, Italy, with crews from the host country, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania among those testing early combinations in the Memorial Paolo d’Aloja.

After three days of intense racing in near-perfect conditions Italy came out on top of the rankings to take the overall trophy, winning 21 gold medals, four silver and nine bronze, ahead of the Netherlands and Romania.

Italian victors included the Men’s Pair of Matteo Lodo and Giuseppe Vicino, who won on both Saturday and Sunday. Lodo and Vicino have won plenty of medals in this boat class but spent the 2021 season in the Men’s Four, winning bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and taking European bronze in the Men’s Eight last year.

“We are back together after a few years and we immediately found harmony in the boat and won both yesterday’s and today’s race. It was not easy, but we always stayed in the lead,” said Lodo.

The Italian Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls crew of Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo – a fixture on medal podiums for several years – was split up for this regatta. Oppo, partnered with 2022 World Champion in the Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls, Gabriel Soares, was triumphant both days while Ruta and Niels Torre picked up bronze on Saturday and silver on Sunday. Greeks Petros Gkaidatzis and Antonios Papakonstantinou completed the podium.

Italian Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls Olympic Champions Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini won two bronze medals in tight races. Greece’s Dimitra Elena Kontou and Zoi Fitsiou took gold on Saturday and silver the following day, while Italy’s Stefania Buttignon and Silvia Crosio set up an intriguing battle for seats in this boat class by backing up Saturday’s silver with a win on Sunday.

The 2022 World and European silver medallists Roos de Jong and Laila Youssifou continued a strong showing in the Women’s Double Sculls with double gold, ahead of Lithuania and Romania. Donata Karaliene sat at bow in the Lithuanian boat both days, but Dovile Rimkute and Ieva Adomaviciute swapped between the double and single sculls.

The latter event was won by Azerbaijan’s Diana Dymchenko on Saturday, but she dropped off the podium on Sunday. Jovana Arsic of Serbia stepped up from silver to gold, while Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Anna Prakaten won bronze twice for Uzbekistan.

Olympic Men’s Single Sculls champion Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece was also in action, but after silver on Saturday finished sixth on Sunday. Lithuania’s Dovydas Nemeravicius, stepping into a single after spending most of his career in crew boats, showed potential in this class with two golds.

Strong Dutch crews won both the Men’s and Women’s Fours twice over. The Dutch women also won both Women’s Quadruple Sculls gold medals, with different line-ups racing the two days; Sunday’s crew included 2022 world single sculls champion Karolien Florijn.

The Netherlands’ Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester also looked good in the Women’s Pair. They were edged out of gold on Saturday by 0.1 seconds by Ireland’s Tara Hanlon and Fiona Murtagh, but got revenge on Sunday with a 4.2 second win over the women in green.

Italy head coach Francesco Cattaneo said the regatta had been a great opportunity for nations to test out different combinations ahead of the 2023 European Rowing Championships in Bled at the end of May.