Race Report: Debut champions, Paralympic places and Italian lightweights shine

The first medals of the 2023 World Rowing Championships were won on another blustery afternoon on the Ada Ciganlija Regatta course. Meanwhile five more crews secured Paris 2024 quota spots ahead of the Paralympic debut of the PR3 mixed double sculls.

Struzina seizes title for Switzerland

The lead changed hands several times in the final of the lightweight men’s single sculls. The experienced Peter Galambos took out the race hard from lane 6, but by 500m it was Italy’s Niels Torre – world champion last year in the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls – who had his bows in front. Behind Torre Switzerland’s Andri Struzina was looking fairly comfortable in the chop, and he moved up through Galambos in the second quarter of the race.

As Galambos faded, there were three boats in contention for medals: Torre, chased by Struzina, with Artur Mikolajczewski of Poland solidly in third place. Struzina attacked hard in the third 500m and by 1500m had taken the lead from Torre. Torre kept pressing, but Struzina was comfortable with a two-second margin and was able to look back on the field as he claimed his first major title. Torre was second, and Mikolajczewski third.

“It’s undescribable, unbelievable. Calling myself a world champion is nothing I could have imagined at the beginning of the season. Now I have to realise it and it takes some days to really understand what I have achieved,” said Struzina.

McCrohan crowned champion on comeback

Ireland’s Siobhan McCrohan has been away from international rowing for seven years, and has only been training properly since the winter. But the foundations she built as a young athlete paid off on Friday in Belgrade.

As Mexico’s Kenia Lechuga, who famously beat eventual Rio 2016 Olympic women’s single sculls champion Kim Brennan in the wind-affected heats seven years ago, made her move at 500m to chase fast-starting Dutchwoman Martine Veldhuis, McCrohan followed. Through the middle of the race, it was all about Ireland and Mexico and just 0.2 seconds separated McCrohan from Lechuga at 1500m. Meanwhile, Sophia Luwis of the USA had got herself into bronze medal contention.

McCrohan’s final 500m was incredibly strong, and she sculled past Lechuga to take her first medal in a major championships. Lechuga’s silver medal was also a breakthrough performance – her first appearance in a championship final, and a dream come true for the gutsy Mexican. Meanwhile Luwis finished her debut year on the US team with an excellent bronze.

“I only really came back to proper training last winter, so it’s been a surprisingly good improvement curve. I wasn’t looking to get back up to this level again so quickly. I’m still kind of getting used to actually having the speed back,” said McCrohan.

King Corne

Cornelis de Koning’s surname literally translates as “king”, and the sculler definitely reigns over the PR2 men’s single sculls event. He won his fourth title in a row in Belgrade, heading a podium which saw Italy’s Gian Filippo Mirabile and Germany’s Paul Umbach repeat their silver and bronze medals from 2022.

De Koning said he found the conditions tough and it took him some time to find his rhythm, but once he was in that rhythm he extended his lead bit by bit and was never really challenged by his opponents. Mirabile, at the age of 55, was incredibly strong to sit in second.

The 21-year-old Umbach had the most pressure, forced to fend off the faster start from Spain’s Benat Odriozola – also just 21 – but he found more control in the second quarter to put him in a solid bronze-medal position.

De Koning has another medal chance on Saturday in the PR2 mixed double sculls, along with Chantal Haenen.

“Every race is something special, there’s still a medal on the line. It gave us nerves beforehand because I knew I was the favourite for this race, but you still have to do it. I’m mainly just glad I did it,” said de Koning.

Awesome Aussies and an emotional medal for France

The PR3 mixed double sculls final had extra jeopardy, as the top five crews would book their tickets to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. While it was World Best Time holders Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager who were strongest from the start, the other crews showed how much qualification meant with some close racing down the track.

After 500m Australia had established their lead ahead of the USA’s new combination of Gemma Wollenschlaeger and Todd Vogt, with defending champions Laurent Cadot and Elur Alberdi of France in third. But Great Britain were not content to let things sit like that and put in a big push from lane 6 in the middle of the race to move up from fifth to third.

Cadot and Alberdi responded to the challenge from Annabel Caddick and Samuel Murray, drawing level again and then back into third before the line, finishing just 2.5 seconds ahead of the British duo. Germany’s Valentin Luz and Hermine Krumbein were fifth, claiming the last qualifying spot ahead of Brazil. For Alberdi, the medal was extra-special, coming just a couple of months after she finished chemotherapy treatment for a stage-3 cancer.

“We’ve worked so hard over the last 18 months. To get down to this morning waking up knowing today was the day we had to race the final was amazing. To get it done, it’s incredible,” said Altschwager.

Italians claim first gold medals in lightweight pairs

Italian pair Francesco Bardelli and Stefano Pinsone were silver medallists in the lightweight men’s pair at the 2023 World Rowing Under-23 Championships, behind the USA. With the Americans absent from Belgrade, the path was clear for Bardelli and Pinsone to retain the title in this event for Italy.

Hungary’s Bence Szabo and Kalman Furko put the Italians under some pressure in the first half, but their victory was assured. Moldova’s Dmitrii Zincenco and Nichita Naumciuc took bronze by less than two seconds ahead of Israel.

Italy added gold in the lightweight women’s pair; the USA had the best start, but began dropping back after 500m to allow Serena Mossi and Elena Grisoni through. Germany’s Luise Munch and Eva Hohoff won silver in the three-boat race.

“It’s crazy. I can’t believe it. We tried so hard all the year. The under-23 in Plovdiv it wasn’t good, it wasn’t enough, but we knew we could do it. So we trained again, and we said we would do it, and now we are here,” said Bardelli.

Yet another gold for Italy

Italy’s last title of the day was in the lightweight men’s quadruple sculls, which they also won in 2022. They were the fastest starters, and maintained that lead throughout. While only a second separated Germany from the USA at the 500m mark, it was the Germans who found more speed in the middle of the track.

The Italians claimed another gold medal with a big 8.41 second margin over Germany, who took silver.

Italy’s 2-seat Nicolo’ Demiliani said: “We made a good race against the conditions. We train a lot, and there is a lot of competition between us in Italy.”

Double gold for Ukraine

The day’s racing concluded with finals for the PR3 men’s pair and PR2 women’s single sculls. The former was a two-boat race between 2022 bronze medallists Ukraine – with one returnee from that crew, Andrii Syvykh – and the new German combination.

Germany’s Daniel Mueller and Moritz Hagen had a brave start and had established a two-second lead at 500m, but Syvykh and Ivan Kupriichuk stayed consistent and had just pushed ahead by the halfway point. The second half was all about Ukraine, and they took the win.

“I’m very tired. It’s very bad weather,” Syvykh said simply, afterwards.

Racing concluded as Ukraine’s Anna Aisanova rowed over solo to claim the PR2 women’s single sculls title, following the withdrawal of Türkiye’s Nursan Sen after entries had closed.