Daily Digest: Last final places secured at 2023 European Rowing Championships

Slovenia’s Lake Bled once again delivered ideal racing conditions as the third day of the 2023 European Rowing Championships got underway.

First B-Finals completed

Today’s session of racing started with five B-Finals. There was disaster for the Czech Republic in the women’s quadruple sculls as they suffered a broken oar lock. Romania took the win in that one. Meanwhile, the men’s quad was a much closer affair and we saw Norway secure first place,  just 0.81 seconds ahead of Germany. The lightweight women’s double sculls was won by Italy, the crew containing the reigning Olympic Champion in this boat class, Federica Cesarini. Moments later, Spain secured a win and seventh place overall in the lightweight men’s double sculls.

Tight times across the men’s pair semis

The first semifinal saw a win for Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George of Great Britain in a time of 6:30.07 while behind GB there was a battle for second place.  Romania’s Marius Cozmiuc and Sergiu Bejan took the second qualifying place, and the Stankunas brothers worked their way through the field to secure the third qualifying place for Lithuania ahead of Denmark’s Olympic bronze medallists Joachim Sutton and Fred Vystavel. Dovydas and Domantas Stankunas took silver at the World Rowing U23 Championships last year, so it is impressive to see them performing at the senior level this season. In the second semifinal, Switzerland’s Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich led from the start and clocked a time of 6:30.26. Their time being just 0.19 slower than GB suggests we should expect an exciting final tomorrow. Spain and Serbia took the other two qualifying places from the second semifinal.

Sinkovic brothers establish dominance

Martin and Valent Sinkovic cruised to victory in the first semifinal of the men’s double sculls, clocking a time of 6:17.55 with Ireland and Belgium taking the two other qualifying places for tomorrow’s final. There was a huge shock in the second semifinal as the reigning Olympic Champions in this boat class missed out on a place in the final. France’s Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias will need to settle for a place in the B-Final tomorrow. It was the Netherlands, Italy and Spain that took the three qualifying places and will be in the race for medals. The Netherlands time of 6:17.91 was. once again, very close to the winning time of the first semifinal. Bring on the final!

Strong line-up of finalists confirmed in men’s single sculls

It was Bulgaria’s Kristian Vasilev that had the fastest start in semifinal 1, but Denmark’s Olympian Sverri Nielsen soon came through and then led to the finish, clocking 7:00.67, narrowly ahead of Lithuania’s Dovydas Nemeravicius. Vasilev held on to take the third qualifying place. In the second semifinal the reigning World Champion Oliver Zeidler led reigning Olympic Champion Stefanos Ntouskos to the finish, Zeidler clocking 6:57.17. The Dutch sculler Lennart van Lierop, who has moved over from sweep rowing this season, took the third qualifying place.

Florijn is flying

Semifinal 1 of the women’s single sculls saw a win for one of the youngest scullers in this field, Aurelia-Maxima Janzen. The Swiss sculler clocked a time of 7:38.14 with Bulgarian Desislava Angelova taking second place and Serbia’s Olympian Jovana Arsic the third qualifying place. Moments later, in the second semifinal, the reigning World and European Champion in this class, Karolien Florijn absolutely dominated, suggesting she will be looking to defend her title in the final tomorrow. Dutch sculler Florijn’s finish time was 7:31.79 which was comfortably ahead of Lithuania’s Ieva Adomaviciute and Virginia Diaz Rivas of Spain, who took the remaining two qualifying places. Diaz Rivas picked up gold at the World Rowing Cup in Zagreb just a few weeks ago and will be hoping for another medal tomorrow.