First Gold Medals at World Rowing Cup III are Awarded

All eyes were on the semifinals and first round of A-finals for today’s racing at World Rowing Cup III in Sabaudia, Italy. Jumping fish made for a great picture in this nature reserve venue. After a cloudy start, the sun broke through with perfect flat water conditions.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Semifinals
Germany and the Netherlands 1 looked to be the favourites in Semifinal One after winning their respective heats yesterday. Pia Greiten of Germany and Sophie Souwer of Netherlands 1 lined up next door to each other. At the start Netherlands 2 moved quickly, but it was Great Britain’s Lola Anderson that got to the 500m mark first. She was the Under-23 gold medallist in the Women’s Quad back in 2019. Greiten and Souwer then began to move. Both were rating 33, but Anderson remained in front.

Anderson remained strong as Souwer looked to be the closest challenger to Anderson. Rating 31 strokes per minute, Anderson was underrating Souwer and still in the lead coming into the final sprint. Souwer then went into a piece and closed on Anderson. Souwer went to 35 strokes per minute and overtook Anderson to finish first.

For Semifinal Two the fastest qualifiers from the heats were Ukraine and France. Ukraine’s Diana Dymchenko is known for her coastal rowing talent and has made Sabaudia her home. She was in the lead at the start. Great Britain 2 of Kathryn Wilkinson-Feller followed closely. The Brit continued to challenge the more experienced Dymchenko with Namibia’s Maike Diekmann in third. Diekmann has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games and she will be the first ever Namibian rower at the Olympics. Dymchenko then managed to get a slight edge over Wilkinson-Feller. Coming into the final sprint France and Sweden challenged each other to get into a qualifying spot, as the crews tightened up. Diekmann overtook Wilkinson-Feller with Sweden having a blistering sprint finish to finish third.

Qualifiers: NED1, GBR1, GER, UKR, NAM, SWE

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Semifinals
For Semifinal One, the two-metre-tall Gennaro di Mauro of Italy 2 lined up next to World silver medallist Sverri Nielsen of Denmark 1. Nielsen looked confident as he went away with a slight lead. Di Mauro slotted into second with Poland 2 following very closely. Nielsen then took a boat length lead and looked like he was commanding the race from the front. Di Mauro held on to second but kept a wary eye on Piotr Plominski of Poland 2. Then Poland 1 made a huge move in the third quarter. Rating 36, Natan Wegrzycki-Szmczyk of Poland 1 went after Poland 2 and overtook him to get into third.

Nielsen, rating 36, looked totally in charge as he led the fleet home to finish first in a time of 6:56.2. The young di Mauro held on to second with Poland 1 in third.

Semifinal Two had the fastest qualifier from the heats, Kjetil Borch of Norway. Today Borch had to face the World and European Champion, Oliver Zeidler of Germany as well as 2016 Olympic silver medallist Damir Martin of Croatia. Zeidler had the best speed at the start and this got him to the first 500m mark out in front. At 41 strokes per minute Zeidler got the lead. He’s been working on his starts and it looked to have paid off. Following very closely were Borch and Martin, with George Bourne of Great Britain holding on.

Zeidler went through the half way point in the lead, but, surprisingly, Zeidler’s lead was not big. Borch and Martin were both sticking with Zeidler like glue. This was a bit of a new experience for Zeidler. Could he handle it. Martin then went ahead of Borch and closed on Zeidler who wasn’t looking so comfortable. Borch remained in third but did not look like he was able to change this position. Zeidler now began to move and got a bit of an edge over Martin. Martin remained in contact with Zeidler, but Zeidler was able to hold him off. What a great race by Martin.

Qualifiers: DEN1, ITA2, POL1, GER1, CRO, NOR

Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls (LW1x) – Final
With six boats entered, the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls had a test race yesterday. Today they lined up to go after medals.  Sofia Meakin of Switzerland looked to be the one to beat after finishing in front with Martine Veldhuis of the Netherlands 1 in second during yesterday’s races. Veldhuis ,who is the 2020 European Champion, was the first out of the blocks. Then local favourite Paola Piazzolla of Italy 1 got her nose in front. But Veldhuis was right with Piazzolla and the two now began a stroke-for-stroke fight for the lead.

Meakin, who won World Cup gold earlier this season, was keeping up with the leading fight and these three boats managed to move away from the rest of the field. Veldhuis now had a bit of a lead with the final sprint coming into view. There was still very little in it as Meakin did a push. Veldhuis reacted and Piazzolla stuck in there. Piazzolla went to 39 with Meakin down on 33. Velhuis had won with Piazzolla snatching second.

Results: NED1, ITA1, SUI, POL, NED, GER

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Final
It was oh so close in the test race yesterday between Hungary and Italy 2. Similar action was expected today in Sabaudia. Italy 2 of Alessandro Durante and Giovanni Ficarra took an absolutely flying start. Their strategy must have been take the lead and hold on. They rated 38 strokes per minute to keep the lead. But then Hungary, the 2021 European Champions, started to come back. Durante and Ficarra had built up quite a lead by this stage and Hungary’s Bence Szabo and Kaiman Furko would have to work very hard to catch them.

Italy 2 weren’t settling and were now up at 39 with Hungary chasing hard at 38. With 500m left to race Italy 2 had just over a boat length lead and were still on 39. Hungary did a move and went to 45, Italy 2 reacted back. The line was in view and Italy 1 was coming up on Hungary. At the line Durante and Ficarra had done it. But the margin was tight – just 0.15 of a second separated the top two crews.

Results: ITA2, HUN, ITA1

Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls (LW4x) – Final
Despite just being two boats, it was very close in yesterday’s test race. Italy and the Netherlands faced each other again today to go after medals. Italy, although quite young, has much for experience with members of the boat European Champions from 2020 and World Champions from 2019. The Dutch, in contrast, came together just weeks ago and were drawn from club crews.

Italy shot out quickly and in no time had half a boat length lead over the Netherlands. Italians are known for their fast starts and, if paced correctly, they can hold on to the end. Italy was still out in front but both boats were travelling at the same speed. This meant that Italy could not move any further in front of the Netherlands. Italy had a great rhythm as they moved through to the final sprint, now with a very handy lead. There was nothing that the Netherlands could do. Gold for Italy.

Results: ITA, NED

Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) – Final
It was practically a walkover for Italy yesterday in the race for lanes against the Netherlands. What could the Dutch do today to reverse this result? The Italians have been successful in the boat class for a number of years and must feel some claim to leading it. Italy left the starting blocks at 50 strokes per minute and in no time they had half a boat length lead. Two of their boat members had gold from the 2021 European Championships, but the crew has not remained the same since that April regatta.

Coming through the middle of the race Italy had earned an open water lead over the Dutch with a 38 stroke rate pace. The Dutch were rating a lot lower and continued to slip behind the Italians. In a faster time than yesterday, Italy took the gold.

Results: ITA, NED

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Final
The winners of yesterday’s heats were Slovenia’s Rajko Hrvat and Martino Goretti of Italy 2. They faced each other today, as well as Niels Torre of Italy 1, who won at World Rowing Cup II. Goretti, the 2019 World Champion, got away the quickest with Torre the closest challenger. Behind them it was a practical line between the remaining four scullers. Goretti was at 36 strokes per minute and still in the lead.

Torre and Goretti went neck-and-neck through the middle of the race as Hrvat slotted into third just ahead of Sweden and Hungary 1. Hrvat has been racing internationally since 2006 but hasn’t had such a good season this year. Then Torre did a piece and pulled into the lead over Goretti. There was 300m left to go and Torre and Goretti were at each other with every stroke. Hrvat was holding on to this battle. At the line Torre had won after a great finishing sprint.

Results: ITA1, ITA2, SLO, HUN, NOR, SWE