On the fifth day of the Combined Senior, U23 and U19 World Rowing Championships in St. Catharines, Canada, the first eight sets of medals in the U23 boat classes were awarded.
The morning session saw the final heats and preliminary heats for the U19s, followed by several repechages in the afternoon. The U19 medal finals will all take place on the last day of competition, Sunday 25 August.
After the U19 races concluded for the day, the sold-out crowd at the Craig Swayze Memorial Grandstand witnessed eight fantastic finals in the U23 boat classes, with six nations taking U23 World Championship titles and two World Championship best times being broken.
New Zealand became the first nation to win a gold medal when they beat the USA in the women’s coxed four on the home straight, but the USA made amends immediately afterwards in the men’s U23 coxed four when they prevented Italy from defending their title.
In the men’s lightweight pairs, Manuel Fernandez Antri and Felipe Guerra of Chile took home fantastic gold medals, while Germany defeated host nation Canada in both the women’s lightweight quadruple sculls and the men’s quadruple sculls.
Great Britain took gold in the women’s under-23 pairs as Anna Grace and Holly Youd quickly took the lead at 45 beats per minute and held that position until the end. Spain took silver while France, who were in fifth place with less than 500m to go, took bronze.
It was the second gold medal of the day for New Zealand as Joshua Vodanovich and Oliver Welch held off the challenge of Germany’s Tobias Stangemann and Johannes Benien in the 2,000m. The teams were never separated by more than a second and the intensity of the race allowed New Zealand to set a new World Championship best of 0.29 seconds as they crossed the finish line 0.92 seconds ahead of Germany.
The final race of the day was the women’s U23 quadruple sculls. Despite a very fast start from Poland, defending champions Romania levelled exactly at 1,000m and then began to pull away. Romania kept the lead and took gold, defending the world title and their incredible sprint to the finish line allowed them to set a new world championship best, beating the previous time by 2.33 seconds. Poland took silver, while Great Britain held off a charge from Germany to take bronze.
There’s plenty of action to come in St. Catharines, with three days of racing left. Friday’s schedule, which begins at 9:30 a.m. EST, concludes with medal races in the remaining 13 U23 boat classes, which begin at 2 p.m. local time.
Start lists, race reports, results and photos can be found at www.worldrowing.com
