Daily Digest: U19 semifinals complete and finalists confirmed

The last of the semifinals for the U19 competitors were completed today in St Catharines. With just the top three in each progressing into tomorrow’ medal finals, competition was fierce with crews sometimes missing out be split seconds.

Ireland hold off Hungary

There was a premature celebration from Hungary as they thought they had crossed the line in the all-important top three, but unfortunately not – Ireland had beaten to the line to finish behind Italy and Czechia and secure the three qualification places for the medal final. In the second semifinal, Germany led from the start and looked comfortable for qualification. Poland and the Netherlands took the remaining places to complete the line-up for tomorrow’s final.

GB and Greece prepare to go head-to-head again

At last year’s World Rowing U19 Championships, Great Britain took gold in the women’s double sculls and Greece took silver. Both have secured their places in tomorrow’s final – but will the order be the same? Greece, with Gavriela Lioliou from last year’s boat, clocked 7:07.23 in the first semifinal. Meanwhile, the British duo were both in different boats last year; Olivia Cheesmur in the quad, which won bronze, and Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank in the four which took silver. Their time today was 7:06.89 – so we’re expecting a great race between those two boats in particular tomorrow. Italy also qualified for the final – Matilde Paoletti won silver in the quadruple sculls last year.

0.41 seconds between qualifying or not

The first semifinal of the U19 men’s double sculls was a tense one between the two crews from Oceania. While Greece and Germany secured the first two places for tomorrow’s medal final, Australia just managed to avoid being overtaken by New Zealand in the closing stages. The Australian crew contains Luca Free, son of four-time Olympian, Duncan. The Greek crew which won and clocked the fastest time across the two semifinals contains the only medallist from this boat class last year, Nikolas Cholopoulos. Despite being only 17 years old, Nokolaos already has much international racing experience. In the second semifinal, France, AIN, and Italy took the three places to confirm the order for tomorrow’s medal final.

Makrygiannis on the hunt for gold

Greece’s Panagiotis Makrygiannis won silver in the U19 men’s single sculls last year. Today he comfortably won the first semifinal after overtaking the AIN sculler, Maksim Hrybouski in the final quarter of the race to win by 4.31 seconds and clock the fastest time across the two semifinals, 6:55.86. Following in the footsteps of Olli Zeidler and Timo Strache (who won gold in the U23 men’s single sculls yesterday), Ole Hohensee absolutely dominated the second semifinal, finishing 7.73 seconds ahead of William Rogers of Australia with the Swiss sculler, William Mcclean completing the line-up for the final.

Ifteni back for more

Romania’s Bianca Camelia Ifteni is reigning World Champion in the u19 women’s single sculls and she looked strong in today’s semifinal as she sculled to a win finishing over four seconds ahead of South Africa’s Daniela Price-Hughes. Ifteni’s time was comfortably the fastest across the two semifinals so she’s looking good to defend her title tomorrow. Brazilian Jennifer Almeida is making her international debut here in St Catharines but had a very mature sculls in the second semifinal. Working her way through the field, Almedia was third at 500m and had got to second place by halfway, holding that position at 1,500m. In the final quarter of the race, she passed Austria’s Maria Hauser to take the win.