Intense racing at the 2023 European Rowing Indoor Championships in Paris

The 2023 European Rowing Indoor Championships took place last Saturday and Sunday at the Stade de Coubertin in Paris, France. The event was also a sanctioned event for the 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships presented by Concept 2 which will take place 25-26 February in Mississauga Toronto, Canada.

With events ranging from under 17 to masters ages 90-94 and everything in between, the two days of racing were full of excitement. Competitors came from all across Europe, with athletes from Germany, Czech Republic, Malta, Ukraine, Spain and Italy.

The French national rowing team put forward some of their strongest members in hopes of medals. But in both the men’s and women’s open events, they couldn’t bring home gold. The men’s event was an incredible battle between Hungary’s Marton Szabo and Finland’s Joel Naukkarinen, with Szabo overtaking Naukkarinen in the last three strokes and winning by 0.5 seconds in a very fast time of 5:51.0.

The women’s open event featured a good portion of the French national team – including former European Rowing Champion and Olympian Elodie Ravera. But first to cross the line was former German national team member Juliane Faralisch, in a time of 6:37.6. In the open lightweight women’s category, the two silver medallists from Tokyo, Laura Tarantola and Claire Bové, had to settle for silver and bronze behind their teammate Aurelie Morizot.

The day’s events also included PR1, PR2 and PR3 para-rowing classifications. Saturday, the men’s PR3 event saw recent World Rowing champion Laurent Cadot from France finish in a time of 6:18.2 to win gold, ahead of a 15-rower field.  And on the women’s side, three French Paralympians took gold medals – Nathalie Benoit in the PR1, Perle Bouge in the PR2 and Margot Boulet in the PR3 category.

On Friday, the athletes competed on the 500m distance. The open men’s race went to Vincent Matz of France, ahead of Switzerland’s Loïc Schalbetter, while the open women’s race was won by Julie Voirin, member of the French national team. The public also had the chance to cheer on former French Olympians such as Yves Hocdé, gold medallist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in the Lightweight Men’s Four, or Frédéric Kowal, bronze medallist in Atlanta in the Men’s Double Sculls.

For full results, please visit here.
For more information here.

The European Rowing Indoor Championships provide a stepping stone to the World Rowing Indoor Championships presented by Concept 2, which are set to take place from 25-26 February, 2023 in Mississauga, Toronto, Canada. For more information, here.

To rewatch the 2023 edition of the European Rowing Indoor Championships, click here.