Prague puts on a show as indoor rowing champions win again

The 2024 World Rowing Indoor Championships, presented by Concept2, came to a close on Saturday with two fantastic races in the Versa Challenge. Before then, Ward Lemmelijn of Belgium and Czechia Pavlína Flamíková’s titles in the men’s and women’s 23-39 2000m races highlighted a packed day of racing.

Naukkarinen and Gilmore defend Versa Challenge titles

The first Versa Challenge round in the morning was all about power and pace – with the rate for the 20-minute piece descending from 37 to 18. That posed intriguing questions for the athletes with regard to tactics. In both the men’s and women’s races, the winner on the power side chose to go all-out in the first minute to bank a big distance before sacrificing consistency to save energy, while the most consistent rowers did not go for the furthest distances.

The second challenge was the knockout sprint pyramid. Ella Fox, who saved energy in Power and Pace, looked immensely strong in the 200m heat, but backed off in the semifinal against Charlotte Dixon of Great Britain. With Dixon unable to overhaul the USA’s Elizabeth Gilmore in total points, the 800m final was a relaxed affair. Similarly in the men’s event, overall leader Joel Naukkarinen of Finland did not need an extra 800m in his legs and in their semifinal he was content to let Briton Cameron Buchan pick up a couple of extra points ahead of the final event.

In the final, the Chase, Naukkarinen made no mistakes and had soon extended his lead. Buchan looked calm in maintaining second place, while Poland’s Maciej Zawojski overtook Norwegian Anders Meskestad Jacobsen to win bronze.

Gilmore also held on for gold, defending her title in style. The race for the minor medals was superb, with Dixon holding on ahead of Morgan McGrath before British wild card Jessica Eddie pushed back against a surging Anna Muehle to first stay in fourth and then move through McGrath in the final sprint for bronze.

Naukkarinen said: “I’m very happy about this accomplishment. This is absolutely the most interesting and best indoor rowing race that I know, so exciting and it has all the interesting parts of this sport.”

Gilmore said: “I feel great, it was a lot of fun. It’s really fun having competitions that play to different peoples’ strengths. There’s a good amount of luck involved with it; I try to be as versatile as I can try to be.”

Lemmelijn gives his all

Belgium’s Ward Lemmelijn was determined to not only regain his World Rowing Indoor Championship title this year, but also try and break Josh Dunkley-Smith’s world record of 5:35.8. He achieved the former, winning decisively in 5:43.2, but missed the latter. Michał Szpakowski of Poland was second, racing virtually, with Jakub Podrazil of Czechia winning bronze at home. Lemmelijn had nothing left at the end, but will surely be back to target that record again.

One-two for Czechia’s women

Czech Pavlína Flamíková’s training was disrupted by a car crash at the start of the season, but she has bounced back impressively and won the women’s 23-39 2000m. Kathryn Mole of Great Britain led out the race, before being caught by Flamíková and then fellow Czech Anna Šantrůčková. With 300m to go the three leaders were on similar splits and sprinting for the finish. But the two Czechs had a bit more in the tank and Flamíková took the win in 6:47.6, followed by Šantrůčková in 6:49.4 and Mole taking bronze in 6:50.5.

Flamíková said: “The finish was too hard, but I’m very happy and proud of me. I have a lot of feelings but I’m very happy because my mum and dad and my friends are here. I’m very happy because I win and I’m rowing at home.”

Bittersweet silver for Simanek

Czechia’s Jiri Simanek had a title to defend in the lightweight men’s 23-39 2000m, but fell very slightly short after a superb race. Britain’s Daniel Jones led out, but Germany’s Florian Roller (racing virtually) took the lead with 500m to go, chased hard by Simanek in the hall with pain on his face. Roller was able to hold on, winning in 6:09.7 as Simanek took silver in a personal best of 6:10.9. Poland’s Jerzy Kowalski had a good finish to win bronze. Simanek said the time mattered more to him than the result, and he was also happy to beat the time of his doubles partner Miroslav Vrastil.

Simanek said: “I had planned that I would go 6:12, not get much worse from the last year, but it was completely different. I did my personal best and that’s why I’m happy. It’s bittersweet because I got second and last year I had a worse time and I was first, but on the erg it doesn’t matter much to me the place.”

Föster adds indoor gold to medal collection

Germany’s Alexandra Föster has already shone on the world stage with world under-19 and under-23 titles in the women’s single sculls and success at senior level too. Competing virtually, she added gold in the women’s 21-22 2000m category with a controlled, even-paced row – adding to her under-19 title from 2020. Behind her, there was a tie for silver between Belgium’s Mazarine Guilbert (also racing virtually) and Czechia’s Marie Doležalová – both athletes posting 6:58.1.

Fast and furious over 500m

Much of the morning’s racing was taken up with 500m sprints, first for the para and junior athletes and then for those aged 40 and over. Three records were set during the course of the racing: Egypt’s Alaa Ibrahim won the men’s PR1 500m in 1:43.1, a world record for the 30-39 age group in this category. Denmark’s Merete Boldt beat her own world record, rowing a 1:55.1 for women aged 75-79, and Britain’s Valerie Coleman set a record for heavyweight women aged 95-99, finishing in 2:57.8. There were also two ties for gold. In the men’s 55-59 500m, as Germany’s Dirk Möller and Australian Mark both posted 1:19.4, and in the men’s 75-59 category, Denmark’s Fleming Mathiesen and Germany’s Knuth Willi Draeger both finished in 1:45.2.