Daily Digest: World Rowing Coastal Championships begin in Genoa

The first of two events in Genoa, Italy, the coastal championships began today with heats across three of the boat classes – the women’s quadruple sculls, the men’s double sculls, and the women’s solo. Crews faced challenging conditions off the beach of San Nazaro beach as they raced for places in the finals.

Eyes on the Olympians

There were many familiar names in the coastal women’s quadruple sculls from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Hawkes Bay Rowing Club (NZL01) claimed the win in the first race of the championships when they crossed the line 15 seconds clear of the crew from Ulmer Ruderclub  Donau (GER03). Three out of the five members of the New Zealand crew won an Olympic medal in Paris a few weeks ago!

There were more familiar names in the second heat as the crew from Ukraine is their crew that finished fifth in the women’s quadruple sculls in Paris. They are here in Genoa representing the Central Sports Club of the Army of Ukraine. However, while the strong crew led for the majority of the race, there was disaster for them in the latter stages. The crew missed one of the turning markers and had return to take it. During that they were judged by the Umpire to have caused interference and were awarded a time penalty. The crew failed to complete fully the requirements of the time penalty and were subsequently excluded. While UKR01 were returning to the turning marker, IRL02 were able to take the lead and the crew from Kincasslagh Rowing Club crossed the line first.

Familiar names in solos

The first heat of the women’s solo was won by Monika Dukarska of Kilorglin Rowing Club (IRL01) who was last year’s winner in this boat class – she finished 21 seconds ahead of Eeva Karppinen of Neste Rowing Club RY (FIN01) who just missed out on the podium last year, when she finished fourth. The second heat saw a win for last year’s silver medallist, Diana Dymchenko (AZE01), representing Baku Rowing Club while New Zealand’s Jackie Kiddle, who raced in the lightweight double sculls at the Paris Olympic Games a few weeks ago, took second place. A less-familiar name was the winner of the third and final heat – at least less familiar on the coastal scene. Raminta Morkunaite of the Lithuanian Rowing Team has raced previously at World Rowing Junior and U23 Championships and it looks like she can do well on the sea too! She was the winner of heat 3, finishing ahead of Annelise Hahl of the USA.

Exclusions in CM2x

There were multiple crews excluded across the three heats of the coastal men’s double sculls for various reasons including causing severe collisions and failing to fulfil the penalties. However, those that had success included the Dutch duo of Leonard van Lierop and Finn Florijn who were the winners of heat one, having worked their way through the field in the second half of the race. While New Zealand 01 was one of the boats that was excluded in heat one, New Zealand 02 took the win in heat two when Matt Dunham and Finlay Hamill crossed the line almost 27 seconds ahead of the experienced American duo of Kory Rogers and Christopher Bak Next Level Rowing, who are the reigning Champions! Last year’s silver medallists, Dennis Gustavsson and Eskil Borgh of Sweden took the win in the third heat.

Technical installation failure

It was observed that during Races 5 and 6, due to a technical installation failure, the Turning Point 1 mark had moved. It was determined that this technical installation failure did not affect the races and all crews completed the full course. The results of these races were not affected. The Turning Point 1 mark was reset to the correct position before Race 7.

More to come tomorrow

It was just a half day of racing today, but we have a full schedule ahead tomorrow. Racing will start at 08:00 CET with the remainder of the heats running throughout the day, the last scheduled to start at 15:00. Three B finals will be held at 16:00, 16:30 and 17:00 for the boat classes that raced today.