The 2018 World Rowing Under 23 Championships wrapped up in Poznan, Poland yesterday.
The Championships, which took place on Poznan’s Malta Lake, saw five days of racing with finals raced on the last two days. Five under-23 World Best Times were set during the championships, with the fast tail-wind conditions on the final day contributing to three of them.
The men’s eight saw a win and a World Best Time go to the United States when the crew outsprinted Great Britain and Romania to a time more than two seconds faster than the previous World Best time.
World Best Times also went to Great Britain’s Anna Thornton and Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne in the women’s double sculls and Italy’s Stefania Buttignon and Silvia Crosio for their win in the lightweight women’s double sculls.
The United States team topped the medals table with five gold medals and eight medals in total, but it was the Italian team that appeared on the medal podium most often, winning a total of 12 medals, three of them gold. Great Britain ranked third on the medals table and Romania fourth.
Two new boat classes were added to this year’s regatta to create gender equity. There are now 11 boat classes each for men and women. The lightweight women’s pair and the women’s coxed four were added with the winners in both races setting the World Best Time standard. In the lightweight women’s pair the United States crew of Sarah Maietta and Caroline O’Brien finished ahead of Germany and Italy to set the standard. The women’s coxed four title also went to the United States with the crew winning ahead of Italy and Russia.
In the blue ribband men’s and women’s single sculls the men’s title was successfully defended by Canada’s Trevor Jones giving Jones his second under-23 championship title. For the women, newcomer to the single, Samantha Voss of New Zealand outraced last year’s bronze medallist, Emily Kallfelz of the United States to claim the under-23 title.
The World Rowing Under 23 Championships is raced in 22 boat classes and is open to all World Rowing Federation (FISA) member nations for rowers under the age of 23. The under-23s began in 1976 as the ‘Seniors Match’ and then the name was changed to the ‘Nations Cup’ before becoming the World Rowing Under 23 Championships in 2005.
For results, race reports and live blog go to www.worldrowing.com
The 2018 World Rowing season now moves on to the European Championships with the rowing regatta being held in Glasgow, Great Britain. Rowing is part of this inaugural multi-sport event with the regatta taking place from 2-5 August 2018.
Courtesy of World Rowing
