Daily Digest: The 2023 World Rowing Under 23 Championships get Underway!

A little earlier than originally planned, due to the forecast heat, the first day of racing at the 2023 World Rowing Under 23 Championships got underway this morning with Heats and Preliminary races. With direct qualification places for Finals up for grabs, it was clear that many crews were keen to avoid having to do more racing than necessary as both the conditions and the racing were hot.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Australia took the first race win of the Championships when they led the Preliminary Race of the women’s coxed four from the start. All five crews will progress through to the Final, which will be the first medal race of the Championships on Saturday morning. The results from this preliminary race will be used to seed the lanes.

Preliminary races for lightweight pairs

While Italy showed their dominance in the Preliminary Race of the lightweight women’s pairs, there was a fantastic battle between Italy and Serbia in the lightweight men’s pair in the early stages. We then saw the familiar Italian sprint as they went for home. Meanwhile, the boat from the USA went with them to overtake Serbia in the closing stages. We look forward to an exciting final on Saturday!

Lithuania looking for gold in women’s pair

They were our ones to watch earlier in the week and our prediction was right, as Martyna Kazlauskaite and Kamile Karalikaite led Heat One of the women’s pair all of the way. Behind them, Spain pipped Canada by 0.17 seconds to take the second direct qualification for the A-Final, leaving Canada needing to race the repechage tomorrow. However, the Netherlands crew in Heat two looked equally impressive and their time was just over a second quicker than the time posted by Lithuania. There could be fireworks in the Final!

Close times in men’s pair

There was absolute delight for the home supporters as Bulgaria’s Tsvetomir Malinov and Ivan Yankulov worked their way through the field from 5th at 500m to win Heat One of the men’s pair ahead of Romania. While Great Britain led the second Heat from the start, we once again saw the familiar Italian sprint which allowed Luca Vicino and Marco Vicino to win, finishing 0.27 seconds ahead of the Brits. Both boats will progress to the Semifinals. In the third Heat, it was another win for Australia with Germany narrowly beating New Zealand to take the second direct qualification place. Italy’s sprint had set the fastest time across the three heats, 6:35.64. 

Single qualification place = all to play for

With just one crew progressing direct to the Final from each of the two Heats in the women’s quad, it was all to play for. Romania were the class act in the first Heat, and took the single qualifying place clocking 6:23.50. They took silver last year and the crew, completely unchanged, will be looking to go one better this year.  In Heat Two, Germany looked impressive out the front of the field in the early stages, but it was then Lithuania who had moved through the field and comfortably won, in a time of 6:27.33.

Struzina targeting gold

Switzerland’s Gian Struzina won silver in the lightweight men’s single sculls at last year’s World Rowing U23 Championships and his campaign to go one better got underway when he set the fastest time across the four Heats, clocking 7:06.30. Gian will be looking to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Andri, who became an U23 World Champion back in 2017 and is still competing regularly today. However, the winning times of 7:07.35 from the USA’s Christoph Karleskind and 7:07.28 from Germany’s Moritz Kuepper in Heats One and Three respectively, prove that Struzina is going to be fiercely challenged in the later rounds of racing.

Biggest boat class

The men’s single sculls was the last boat class to race today, and it is the biggest of this year’s Championships with 23 nations represented. Across the four Heats, just one sculler from each progressed directly to the Semifinals. Poland’s Piotr Plominski, who has raced all of the World Rowing Cups this season, led the first Heat much of the way but seemed to fade in the closing stages allowing Germany’s Paul Berghoff to scull through and take the single qualification place. In the second Heat, Ireland’s Andrew Sheehan had a fast start but was soon overhauled by Italy’s Leanoardo Tedoldi, who secured his place in the Semis. Great Britain’s Miles Devereux clocked the fastest time across the Heats when he posted 6:58.45, having controlled the race from the start. He’ll certainly be one to keep an eye on in the Final. In the fourth and final Heat, a strong final quarter of the race from Spaniard Koxme Burutaran secured him the win and forcing the rest of the field into the Repechages.

Racing tomorrow

We’ll get underway again at 09:00 EEST (8:00 CET) tomorrow with the rest of the Heats, followed by a block of Repechages.

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