Daily Digest: Capsizes & penalties cause drama in European Beach Sprint Championships

The final day of the European Rowing Coastal and Beach Sprint Championships in La Seyne-Sur-Mer, France saw the knock-out stages of the beach sprint format with new European Beach Sprint Champions being crowned in testing conditions. Across the six boat classes, eight nations picked up medals with Italy taking home an impressive three golds, France keeping two in their country.

Coastal Junior Men’s Solo (CJM1x)

The first boat class to race the “Last 8” was the CJM1x. Spain’s Marcos Delgado Marquez had come in as favourite having won the time trial reasonably comfortably ahead of Lucio Fugazzotto of Italy, but anything could change once the scullers went out head-to-head in the knockout stages. The time trial had played true to form and these top two scullers were the ones who made it through to the medal final. However on this occasion, Fugazzotto handled the conditions just slightly better and got the better of the Spaniard to cross the line just 1.80 seconds ahead and claim the first gold for Italy. In the B final, it was third placed rower from the time trial that claimed the bronze medal, beating Tijmen van der Zee of the Netherlands by 2.20 seconds.

Coastal Mixed Double (CMix2x)

This event had plenty of drama and surprises along the way. Based on the time trial, Great Britain’s Sam Scrimgeour and Laura McKenzie were the favourites having beaten the strong, experienced Spanish duo by 4.72 seconds. The GB duo comfortably saw off opposition from Norway in the first quarterfinal, but in the semifinal, disaster struck. In the final stages of their row back into the shore, they capsized and despite McKenzie’s valiant run to the buzzer, France’s Edwige Alfred and Ludovic Dubuis had taken advantage and progressed to the gold medal final. For Great Britain, it was the Final B and, perhaps still recovering from their ordeal, they lost out to Italy’s Maria Condurso and Giovanni Ficarra by 2,68 seconds. In the gold medal, the French, came up against two familiar names from Spain, Adrian Miramon Quiroga and Nadia Felipe Garcia. The final result was gold for France, as Dubui’s run to the line clocked them in 3.96 seconds ahead of Spain, who took the silver.

Coastal Women’s Solo (CW1x)

Yesterday’s time trial indicated that the rowers from France, Spain and the Netherlands were the ones to watch in this event, having finished in the top three. France’s Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzio had the advantage of one fewer round of racing, having come first in the time trial. In the second quarter-final, Great Britain’s Clare Jamison crossed the line first, ahead of Ireland’s Monika Dukarska, but Jamison was awarded a 10 second time penalty for not correctly navigating the flags on the run back on the beach, meaning it was Dukarska that ended up with the fastest time and progressing through to the semifinals. However, in the first semifinal, Dukarska came up against the talented Ravera-Scaramozzino, who won by 6.81 seconds to go through to the gold medal race where she would meet Dutch athlete Janeke van der Meulen. Janeke had also comfortably won her semifinal, beating Lucie Hernavova of Czechia. The gold medal race was perhaps the closest race of the Championships and required a review after the race. However, it was the French athlete who hit the buzzer first, just 0.18 seconds ahead. In the Final B, there was success again for Dukarska as she overcame opposition from Heranova by 6.04 seconds.

Coastal Junior Mixed Double (CJMix2x)

Based on the time trials, France’s Aurore Combes and Aurelien Martin were the clear favourites having beaten Spain by 11.35 seconds and Italy by 11.81 seconds. However, the time difference between Spain and Italy suggested we could be in for some close racing. The French duo continued their campaign in the first quarterfinal when they comfortably dispatched Ireland. Meanwhile, there were also quarterfinals for Austria, Spain and Italy. Austria’s quest for gold or silver came to an end when they came up against the French boat in the first semifinal whilst the second saw a reverse of the very close time trial result with Italy taking advantage of a mistake by Spain. It was the second final for Lucio Fugazzotto, and he was certainly hoping that his partner, Maria Lanciano would help him achieve another gold. Despite their strong performance in the time trial, the famous Italian sprint kicked in and it was gold for Fugazzotto and Lanciano by 3.70 seconds, and that wasn’t the last we’d see of the Italians! Spain got the better of Austria by just 0.32 seconds in the Final B to claim the bronze medal.

Coastal Junior Women’s Solo (CJW1x)

After disappointment in other boat classes, Great Britain perhaps had their hopes on Evelyn Pakule, who had won her time trial comfortably, and gained direct qualification to the semifinals. The three heats were won by Spain, Italy and France, putting them into the semifinals, alongside Pakule. There was continued domination from the British athlete in the first semifinal as she beat Spain’s Lola Garcia Juan by 9.65 seconds. In the second semifinal, it was a win for Italy’s Maria Lanciano (remember that name from earlier?!) as she beat Agathe Rombaut of France by 1.97 seconds. Based on the time trial times, it was expected that Garcia Juan would beat Rombaut for the bronze medal, and that is exactly what happened, and she won comfortably. The gold medal race was the last race of the Championships and despite the high expectations, Pakule remained composed and secured the gold medal for Great Britain. As is the tradition in beach sprints, Pakule remained on the finish line to congratulate her fellow competitor.

Coastal Men’s Solo (CM1x)

This boat class proved that the time trial results don’t guarantee success in future rounds as none of the top three from the time trial won medals! Based on his tenth place in the time trial, and having to race the second time trial, it was perhaps a surprise to see Germany’s Karl Schulze win his quarterfinal, but he did, knocking Romania’s Florin Bogdan Horodo Teanu (who had won the time trial yesterday) out the competition. Other winners of the quarterfinals were; Italy, Czechia and Portugal, securing their places in the semifinals. In the first semifinal, the very experienced Giovanni Ficarra, who had medalled in the mixed double earlier in the day, got the better of Schulze, to secure a place in the gold medal race. The second semifinal saw Ales Susky of Czechia, who had only finished ninth in the time trial yesterday, over Portugal’s Claudio Rodrigues. However, of course, Susky was about to come up against the might of Ficarra, and the Italian beat by 7.93 seconds to claim a third gold medal for the Italian Team. The Final B had seen Schulze claim bronze, the first medal for Germany.

Closing remarks

In her remarks at the Closing Ceremony, Annamarie Phelps, Chair of the European Rowing Board said,

“We’ve had a fantastic weekend, and an incredible dramatic day. Our rowers have shown us their energy, their skill, their grit, and some true determination today.”

“Many of you will know that this event marks a significant milestone in Beach Sprints. We all have our fingers crossed for a significant decision by the IOC very shortly, and we hope that this will be the last event before that happens.”