Romania wins big at European Rowing Under 23 Championships

Belarus came second after taking three gold and three silver medals, with Greece finishing in third, also with three gold medals, two silver and two bronze.

Romania’s success reached across both men’s and women’s events, but was particularly striking in the sweep events. They won both the men’s and women’s eights in convincing fashion. The women’s eight finished seven seconds ahead of second-placed France, who in turn finished ahead of Germany. The Romanian men’s eight won with a three second lead ahead of Ukraine and Great Britain.

Half of the Romanian women’s eight proved their dominance by also winning earlier in the day in the women’s four, while their coxswain Roxana-Iuliana Anghel claimed her second gold medal by leading the women’s coxed four to victory. The women wrapped up their sweeping dominance by taking a bronze in the women’s pair.

The Romanian men managed to pull off the sweep-boat hat trick, winning not only the men’s eight, but also men’s four, men’s coxed four and men’s pair. Coxswain, Adrian Munteanu competed twice winning in both the eight and coxed four.

Belarus and Greece also did well on the medals table. Belarus picked up gold medals in the men’s quadruple sculls, men’s double and the lightweight women’s pair. Greece won the lightweight men’s double, the women’s pair and the women’s single. Anneta Kyridou blew away the field in the women’s single sculls. Kyridou comes out of the gold medal winning women’s double from the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

The men’s single sculls earned Ireland its only medal of the weekend. Ronan Byrne beat Russia’s Alexander Vyazovkin and Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos. Byrne recently finished with a silver medal at the World Rowing Championships in Linz-Ottensheim in the men’s double and earned the boat a qualification spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

This year’s event saw impressive numbers competing with 30 participating nations and nearly 500 athletes. It is the third year of the European Rowing Under 23 Championships. They were created in 2017 to continue to support young athletes in the transition from junior to senior-level elite rowing. It drew upon the success of the other European Rowing events which include the European Rowing Championships, European Rowing Junior Championships and European Rowing Indoor Championships.

Next year, the European Rowing Under 23 Championships will take place in Duisburg, Germany from 5-6 September, 2020.

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