Winning streaks broken on day 1 of the 2024 European Rowing Championships

The first day of the 2024 European Rowing Championships in Szeged, Hungary, produced both surprise victories and continued dominance in both Olympic and Paralympic boat classes.

Perini and Polianskyi restart rivalry

European champion Giacomo Perini of Italy and Ukrainian world and Paralympic champion Roman Polianskyi look like the scullers to beat once again in the PR1 men’s single sculls, both winning their heats comfortably. In the PR1 women’s single sculls preliminary race, Birgit Skarstein’s winning streak was however snapped as Israeli Moran Samuel led from start to finish; the Norwegian will have a fight on her hands to retain her European title in the final.

A winning welcome for Daviet

With several new line-ups appearing for the first time in the PR2 mixed double sculls, the heats were a chance to see what their speed was like. France’s Perle Bouge and Benjamin Daviet won heat 1 in the debut race for five-time Paralympic Winter Games champion Daviet, ahead of the Netherlands as Esther van der Loos returned after eight years away from the international scene. In heat 2, world champions Great Britain cruised to a big win ahead of the field.

European champions on track in pairs

European champions Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel dominated their heat of the women’s pair to qualify comfortably for the final, along with Great Britain. In heat 1, it was the Greek duo of Evangelia Anastasiadou and Christina Bourmpou who took the win over Croatia. Anastasiadou won silver in the lightweight women’s single sculls at last year’s European championships, but is continuing to adapt well to sweep. On the men’s side, Swiss duo Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich also won their heat to start their European title defence in style. Great Britain and Romania won heats 1 and 2 respectively.

Norway snap Romania’s five-year winning streak

Romania have been the dominant women’s double sculls crew for five years, but Norway’s new combination of Thea Helseth and Inger Kavlie showed no fear in taking out their heat to beat Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis by more than a second, forcing the defending champions to the repechage. Lithuania won heat 1 comfortably. In the men’s heats, Germany outsprinted Romania in heat 2, both progressing to the semifinals. Italy, silver medallists last year, looked good winning heat 1 and Spain won heat 3.

All about Britain in the fours

Great Britain’s men’s and women’s fours both won their opening races. The men were pressed by France in their heat after a slow start that had them third at the 500m mark; both boats progress to the final. In heat 2, Italy came out on top ahead of Romania in a slower race than heat 1. The women raced a preliminary race, and the British took a four-second win over the defending European champions Romania.

German scullers lead the way

German single scullers Alexandra Foester and Oliver Zeidler both won their heats, with Zeidler looking dominant as ever and Foester working her way through the field after a slow start to secure one of the places in the final. Also looking good was Serbia’s Jovana Arsic, who won heat 2. Greek Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos skipped World Rowing Cup I, and last week was part of the lighting ceremony for the Olympic torch, and he won heat 2 in a great race. Britain’s George Bourne took heat 3 of the men’s single sculls after rowing through Croatian Damir Martin, and Dane Sverri Nielsen won heat 4. Behind Zeidler in heat 1, it was Lithuania’s Giedrius Bieliauskas who emerged on the right side of the sprint finish, pushing Gennaro di Mauro of Italy into the repechage.

Swiss scull to a win

Swiss European champions Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada won heat 2 of the lightweight men’s double sculls with a relatively comfortable 3.5 second margin over Norway; they will be joined in the final by Italy, who won heat 1. On the women’s side, Romania’s Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc made a good start to their project after van Groningen rejoined Cozmiuc, three years on from their sixth place in Tokyo, with a huge win over Italy. Greece won heat 2, with Great Britain in the repechage after the substitution on medical grounds of Emily Craig for Olivia Bates.

Ukraine strong again in women’s quads

Ukraine won the women’s quadruple sculls at World Rowing Cup I in Varese with two strong rows, defeating the world gold and silver medallists from Belgrade. In Szeged they seem to be on the same form, winning heat 1 by nearly 8 seconds ahead of France. Great Britain turned around their fourth place in Varese with victory over Germany in heat 2. The men’s quadruple sculls heats were all closer, with the Polish European champions taking heat 2 by 2 seconds ahead of Italy, and Britain beating Estonia by 1 second in heat 1.

Britain earn first scalps in eights

Both the eights races in Szeged are straight finals, and in both the preliminary races it was Great Britain who got their bows in front ahead of Romania. While the British men held on for a victory that was somewhat larger than last year’s European Rowing Championships final photo finish, the Romanian women were not content to allow their British competitors to cross the line first, and they won the sprint.

Struzina into repechage

World champion and European silver medallist Andri Struzina of Switzerland looked like he would qualify directly for the final in the heats of the lightweight men’s single sculls, sitting in second behind Ireland’s Jacob McCarthy, but he could not deal with the pace in the last 500m and finish fourth as Hungary’s Peter Galambos sprinted through to take second. Italy’s Niels Torre and Belgian Marlon Colpaert qualified from heat 1. In the women’s preliminary race, individual neutral athlete Alena Furman took the win.

Racing continues tomorrow, 26 April, from 10:10 CET. Follow all the action on worldrowing.com