The first World Rowing Championships since 2019 got underway in cool but calm conditions this morning in Racice, Czech Republic. After two hours of exciting heats for the single scullers, we moved on to bigger boats with the lightweight men’s double sculls, the men’s pair and the men’s double sculls. Racice’s “Labe Arena”saw a reasonably strong tail wind providing fast racing conditions.

Fastest time for reigning World Champion

Germany’s Oliver Zeidler posted the fastest time across the six heats of the men’s single sculls, completing the course in 6:46.31. The winners of the remaining heats were perhaps as expected with 2022 European Champion Melvin Twellaar winning heat two, and the reigning Olympic Champion Stefanos Ntouskos winning heat three. Great Britain’s Graeme Thomas posted the second fastest time across the six heats, winning heat four in 6:49.93, while Kristian Vasilev and Benjamin Davison won heats 5 and 6 respectively. With the top three from each heat progressing to the quarterfinals, the remaining scullers will contest the repechages tomorrow afternoon.

The M1x is the largest boat class here at the #WRChamps with 35 competitors. They kicked racing off this morning with their heats, the top 3 from each race progressing through to the Quarterfinals.

Here is the breakdown by finish times across all six heats 💪 pic.twitter.com/xLIAWQFUjP

— World Rowing (@WorldRowing) September 18, 2022

Olympic Champion back on the scene!

In her first international appearance since she won Olympic Gold in Tokyo, New Zealand’s Emma Twigg dominated her heat of the women’s single sculls this morning, finishing in a time of 7:31.92. Australia’s Tara Rigney posted the fastest time across the four heats, clocking 7:30.16 in heat one. Meanwhile, youngsters Karolien Florijn and Alexandra Foester won heats two and three respectively. The progression system of the women’s single scullers means that those four scullers will progress directly to the semifinals while the remaining scullers will need to take part in tomorrow’s reps.

Three Scullers for Iran

Iran has three scullers entered in this Championships, all of whom commenced their racing today. First to race was Masha Javer in the women’s single sculls. Javer finished fifth in heat one. It was a second place finish for Amirhossein Mahmoodpour in his heat of the lightweight men’s single sculls, securing him a place in the quarterfinals. Finally, Nazanin Malaei led her heat of the women’s single sculls for the first half of the race, dropping back to third place in the second half. Nazanin was one of the big stories of last year’s Olympic Games when she did something that no other Iranian women had done before, and finished in the top 12 at the Olympic Games.

Irish kept under pressure by Czechs in lightweight men’s double sculls

With the two hours of heats of the single sculls out of the way, attention moved to the lightweight men’s double sculls which, with 29 entries, had five heats. The reigning Olympic, World and European Champions Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan of Ireland set the fastest time across the heats, completing the course in 6:15.11. However, they were kept under pressure by Czechs Jiri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil, who led for the first half of the race. The Italian duo of Pietro Ruta and Stefano Oppo, who won silver behind Ireland at the recent European Rowing Championships, won heat one, meanwhile, Switzerland’s Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada Ireland, who took bronze at the Europeans, won heat four in a time of 6:16.70. In a fiercely competitive boat class, we look forward to the further rounds of racing.

Spain field fastest time in men’s pair

Jaime Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez, who finished sixth at last year’s Olympic Games, posted the fastest time across the four heats of the men’s pair this morning, finishing in a time of 6:23.81. In the race before, Marius Cozmiuc and Sergiu Bejan of Romania, who won gold at the recent European Rowing Championships, crossed the line first. Their time was 6:27.74. At the Europeans, Romania finished ahead of Great Britain and here in Racice, the British duo of Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George also won their heat in 6:29.74, so we could be in for some exciting racing in the semifinals on Thursday. The fourth and final heat was won by Australia’s Harley Moore and Alexander Hill who overhauled Poland in the closing stages to clock a time of 6:34.83.

Sinkovic’s strike again

The five heats of the men’s double sculls concluded today’s racing. With four out of five in each of the heats progressing to the quarterfinals, they were all a race in which not to be last! Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia continue to appear untouchable in this boat class and they clocked the fastest time across the heats, winning the fourth in 6:12.72. However, Lithuania’s winning time in heat two wasn’t that much slower, Armandas Kelmelis and Dovydas Nemeravicius clocked a time of 6:14.61. The final heat saw the return of the Olympic champions from France. Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias won heat five in 6:18.41.

Racing resumes tomorrow, 19 September, at 9:30 CET. You can find the full programme on worldrowing.com

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