Daily Digest: Last of the heats in St Catharines

Day five of competition in St Catharines, Canada started with minor finals for the U23 boat classes before moving into the last of the heats for the U19s. It was perhaps the best day so far in terms of conditions with flat water and a very slight tail wind.

Preliminary races for coxed fours

The U19 action started with preliminary races for the women’s and men’s coxed fours. The USA are defending champions in the women’s boat class, but Italy got the better of them today. However, in the men’s four, where Italy are defending Champions, it was the American crew that crossed the line first, with Italy taking third place, behind Australia. They’ll all race again in the final on Sunday, 25 August.

Reversal of Europeans result in women’s pair

Italy and Great Britain took the top two places in heat one to qualify direct the final in the U19 women’s pair while in the second heat there was a reversal of the result from the European U19s earlier this year. Romania and Greece both had a slower first half with AIN leading until halfway but it was then the impressive Romanian pairing of Iulica Maria Ursu and Gabriela Tivodariu who took the lead with the Greek’s Nefeli Ntara and Dimitra Papaioannou crossing the line second – a reversal of the order from the European Rowing U19 Championships earlier this year – we’ll see them go against each other again int he final on Sunday!

GB looking to improve on silver

Great Britain took a comfortable win in heat one of the U19 women’s four, clearly keen to better their silver medal from last year’s World Rowing UI19 Championships. While they looked well in control, beating Italy by nearly five seconds to secure the single direct qualification place for the final, the winning time posted by Czechia in the second heat was even faster – although only by two seconds. Those two boats will go direct to Sunday’s final while the rest will contest the repechage tomorrow for the remaining four places in the medal race.

Reigning Champions into repechage

With two direct qualification places for Sunday’s finals from each of the heats in the U19 men’s four, it was Italy and China securing progression from the first heat – with Italy clocking the fastest time across both. Romania, who are defending champions were pushed into third place and will need to race the repechage. Meanwhile, Great Britain, who missed out on a medal in this boat class last year, looked impressive today and cruised to a win in the second heat, finishing nearly five seconds clear of Czechia. Two more crews will look to book a place in the final from the repechage which will be held tomorrow (Friday) morning.

Heats completed 

The last heats of the championships were in the U19 women’s quadruple sculls. Germany are the reigning champions in this boat class but will need to race the repechage to have a chance of defending their title as they were beaten by last year’s silver medallists, Italy to take the sole direct qualification place from the second heat. A few minutes before, an impressive looking boat from Poland had comfortably won the first heat to book their place in the final.

USA and GB share wins in eights

With six entries in each of the U19 women’s and men’s eights, preliminary races were held. Great Britain are defending champions in both and while the USA got the better of them in today’s preliminary race for the women, the British men’s eight looked very comfortable, finishing over two seconds ahead of the American crew.

U19 repechages concluded 

Ahead of the first medal races of the Championships, the remaining U19 repechages were completed with crews securing their places in latter rounds of racing. Find out what happened in the medal races in our race report.