On the final day in Plodiv, the USA made the most of the two A Finals on the docket for team, winning medals in both: a third straight gold in the Women's Eight, and a silver in the Men's eight for the fourth U23 Championships in a row, a streak that goes back to 2019.
The US team ended the weekend with five medals--two gold, a silver, and two bronze--and in fifth place on the medals table. Italy topped the standings, largely thanks to the four golds they won on Saturday. You can read the row2k Saturday report here.
In all, ten separate nations took wins on the last day, which we will look in more detail below, and all but three had--like the US--just a single gold medal performance. Britain and Germany won two men's events each, while Poland won the Women's Four and Men's Single. As a result very women's race saw a different nation on the podium, from Türkiye and Greece in the Light Women's events to Poland and the USA in the big boat sweep events, the Four and the Eight.
One note from the course up front here, because it will get a mention in the interviews below: wafting on the slight tailwind today was the smell and smoke of a fire burning just off the course up near the start. The athletes could smell it at the line, and you can see the plume of smoke in some of the medal ceremony photos. We even heard reports about one of the hotels temporarily not letting folks back in after the racing due to concerns about the air quality. Not something you hear about at regattas too often.
Emphatic Win for USA Women's Eight
The USA kept its hold on the U23 Women's eight with another gold medal, and the entire performance was a 180 from how they won their heat to start the week.
That opening race had been a patient, strike at the right moment effort, and involved dropping the fastest split of the entire race in the last 500 to pip Germany and grab the win to go direct to the final.
On Sunday, the US women were clearly taking no chances: they took off like a rocket in the final, never really dropping below 39 on the rating through the entire middle thousand, and working their way to an open water margin by the time they hit 500 to go. The US owned the race from pillar to post, leaving Germany to control the race for the silver--a step up from bronze last year which clearly delighted the smiling Germans on the podium later--and the photo finish in this race was for the bronze. There, Canada rose up to deny the British by just 0.06, a pretty nice turnaround for the Canadians--celebrating here--whose crew missed out on the A final altogether a year ago in Varese by three-tenths of a second.
Watch the video replay of the full race here.
The only returning member of the US crew, Hannah Heideveld, sat in seven seat, and talked about how this year's crew went through the week after winning her second U23 gold for the USA:
"Reflecting on our performance from our race in the heats 3 days ago, we were happy with our race plan execution and going straight to the final," Heideveld said.
"For the final, we managed to get off the start faster, and then we stayed internal as we had confidence in our base speed for the middle of the race. I’ve been very grateful to row this boat category a second time with success, and my teammates this year have made this experience another special one. Being a returner for this boat category, I had some sense of what was ahead but every year the field is competitive, which is part of the sport."
"Having Coach Sarah Trowbridge inspired me and my teammates," Heideveld added. "She brings passion and energy, and our crew as a whole felt well-led heading into this regatta."
While Heideveld had a lot of new boatmates this year, the voice in the stern was pretty familiar: Heideveld and coxswain Victoria Grieder, who added a U23 gold today to the U19 championship she won in 2021, are teammates at Rutgers.
"Having a teammate cox our boat has been special," said Heideveld, "and I had a lot of confidence with the choices and calls she made. Victoria also has experience racing internationally, as do some other rowers in our boat, and we had a good balance of experience and newer rowers, which brought an ambitious spirit everyday!"
While winning this particular event is a bit of a habit for the Americans—they have won it now 11 times since the US started racing it in 2006 and have never failed to medal--the other teams in the medals this year were thrilled with their spots on the podium and especially Germany which moved up to silver from a 2022 bronze, and was clearly amongst the crews ready to be on the podium all week--indeed they were the crew that pushed the Americans in the opening heat, and nearly pulled off the win in that round.
"We have grow together a lot over the last month and have become a strong team," said Olivia Clotten, the six seat of the German eight. "That definitely helped us during this race."
"The first 500 meters were really challenging, as something near the course was on fire and a lot of smoke was on the course. Our coxswain did a great job helping us through this part of the race. We followed our race plan, and then tried to hang on to the US as much as we could.
"In the second 1000m, we focused on moving away from the other crews as much as possible, so that we didn’t need to rely on our sprint. Our goal was to reach the podium, so winning the silver medal was just amazing.
"Before today, we talked a lot about trusting each other" she added. "We also trusted in our abilities to row a good race, and our a coach has always helped to get the best out of us. He has been very important for us. He had a lot of trust in us, which gave us a lot of confidence. Our women’s sweeping program has improved a lot in the last year and has gotten a lot more competitive."
USA Men's 8 Floors It, Seals Up Silver
Racing from the outside lane after going through--and winning--the Rep, the US men come off the line high and stayed there, and grabbed the early lead from the Germans.
That fast start put the Americans in first at the 1000, and into the conversation for medals. From there, only GB had a complete answer, countering with a mid-race pace that put the GB bow ahead for good.
The win for the British continues a streak as long as the US's string of silvers: GB's last defeat in the race was in 2018, when they came second to the USA.
In the closing strokes, Germany very nearly caught back up to the Americans as well--and in fact as we will hear below, some of the athletes were not sure at the line--but the US strategy of hitting the gas early did pay off with a silver, by a .09 sliver over the Germans.
Watch the video replay of the full race here.
"Today's race was probably the most exciting and nail-biting championship race I have been a part of," said Jack DiGiovanni , the coxswain who raced here in the eight for the second year in a row. "Such great competition," he added.
"We stayed on our toes the entire week and we were really working and making adjustments until the last moments before the race. This crew has dealt with adversity at several junctures this summer, and I am so proud of them for rowing to a silver medal in the final strokes of the race. The belief in each other and support for each other really came together in this final race, and we came through that line together."
Only one rower in the crew returned with DiGiovanni from last year's silver medal crew, Jacob Hudgins, and the coxswain credited the experience Hudgins brought to this, his third U23 campaign in the eight: "Jacob Hudgins was an amazing leader within the crew, and his several years of experience in this 8+ guided us very well throughout the summer."
Hudgins talked about how this final piece made the regatta:
"It was a really great way for us to finish off the regatta," Hudgins said. "Coming out of the heats we thought we weren’t aggressive enough in the first 1k, so instead of thinking about shifting to race pace we thought about driving the boat to peak speed for the first 250 and then trying to hold speed as best as possible through the whole piece.
"The rep was a good step forward with the first 1k being faster, but we really wanted to hold onto speed better in the third 500. And I think in the final we wanted to sit at the line knowing we could get out fast and not let the speed of the boat drop.
"I think we did a really good job of keeping that speed up and unfortunately in the last 500 we fell off the pace, but hung on for dear life as the Germans charged. We knew coming into the regatta that we were capable of putting together a really fast piece, and I think we showed that through the 1500 which we were really happy about.
"To be honest I thought we lost to the Germans when it finished," Hudgins admitted, "so finding out we beat them was crazy. The British were better than us, so congrats to them on the win. And in terms of our result I’ll leave this regatta happy about the way we pushed through the heat and the rep to produce a piece that was much more indicative of our capabilities."
Both athletes were quick to credit the coach of this year's boat, John Graves, and DiGiovanni said having Graves lead the group was "an amazing experience."
"John Graves did a great job with this camp and is an incredible coach," added Hudgins. "He should get so much credit for this and is an amazing guy who gave us the confidence we needed at the line."
Placement Finals
US athletes rowed in six B Finals to start the last day of racing, where the Women's Double and Men's Quad each matched the US finish from last year: 10th for the W2x and 11th for the M4x.
Katelin Gildersleeve took second in the Women's Single B Final, for eighth overall, in her first crack at the U23 single--she won a bronze as the USA's U19 sculler in 2019 and finished 6th in the U23 quad last year.
Gildersleeve's placement is the highest US finish in the event since the three year string of medals by Emily Kallfelz, who now rows on the senior US team, in 2017-2019.
Christoph Karleskind in the LM1x, who started the week with a bang in winning his heat, took 10th overall today, as did the Women's Four, while the Light Women's Double finished in 12th place for the regatta.
Many Nations, Many Anthems
10 nations medaled, to include Poland's Piotr Plominski in the Men's Single and Swiss sculler Aurelia-Maxima Janzen with her Macon blades, winning a U23 gold at just 19 (to go along with her U19 gold from 2021). Britain and Germany were the only nations to win more than one event: the Men's Four and Eight for GB, and the Men's Quad and Light Double for Germany. Italy, who grabbed 4 golds on Saturday added just one more today: Giovanni Borgonovo's in the Light Men's Single.
You can check out the full medal standings from the regatta on this pdf.
Among the many nations to hear their anthem was Ireland, and the Irish had themselves quite a day: gold in the Men's Double, silver in both the Men's and Women's Singles with Andrew Sheehan and Alison Bergin, and a near miss with their Men's Light Double which was charging back into the medals before a little digger in the closing strokes dropped them back to fourth.
row2k caught up with Brian Colsh and Konan Pazzaia from the Irish boat that led the charge today, the Men's Double.
"It was a good race for us," said Colsh. "We were both nervous going into the race but we had confidence from the results of the previous rounds building into the race. We knew it wasn't going to be easy from any country in the race.
"We were expecting Poland to be quick out of the start so we had to stay with them from the start and trust our fitness to push away at the 3rd 500. We were expecting a tail wind but turned out to be a cross head which was unexpected but we adapted very well to the conditions."
Colsh and Pazzaia took third in this event in 2022--before heading to the Racice Worlds with the Irish team to race the single and double, respectively--so taking gold ahead of Poland was a good step up in their second go at U23s.
Notes from the Course
More Family Ties - we talked in yesterday notes about a few of the athletes racing here whose parents have a bit of Worlds and Olympics experience, and one of those kids who definitely heard a few rowing stories growing up won himself a medal today: Emil Neykov, the son of Bulgarian Olympic legend--and now fellow single sculler--Rumyana Neykova. The five time Olympian and 2008 W1x champion was on hand to help give out medals today, so she was there when Neykov won his bronze in the Men's Single on home waters.
Be Careful What You Ask - World Rowing thought it would be fun to do some social media trivia about rowing. One of their questions: “How many medals events are there at U23s?”. First response? “Too many.”
Just in Time - the photo bibs--and, we presume, the luggage of the World Rowing staffer who packed them--finally arrived...on the last day. That cut down on the uncredentialled folks who may have snuck in for photo ops with the medalists yesterday and, thanks to the puff of tailwind today, the bibs wound up being not as hot to wear as they would have been earlier in the week. So, basically, it all worked out.
Power Breathing - row2k catches a lot of stuff on photo duty up at the start, and earlier this week we heard the bow seat of the French LW2x doing something that sounded a whole lot like the hyperventilating exercises that free divers do to increase the oxygen in the blood. It may have worked: France made the A Final, but the French did fade to fifth in the end. In that one, it was hard keeping up with the Greek duo of Evangelia Anastasiadou and Dimitra Eleni Kontou--who made the final at the Senior Worlds last year--as they put down a new U23 World Champs best time of 6:50.13 to win the gold, and lower the old mark by a four seconds and change.
Hearing the Hooter? The finish line announcer kept referring to the beep at the start as the "hooter" which we got a laugh out of every time because, well, we thought was something else entirely:
Favorite Call of the Week - That came from the coaching peloton for the Men's Quad, where one coach was very clearly yelling, "Stay high mother f-ers"--might have been a non-native English speaker with a Spotify playlist that is heavy on the *Explicit* tag; be careful where you learn languages...
Speaking of Language(s) - before any folks reading this might be headed to U19s, Worlds, or thinking about reconvening for U23s next year, here is your PSA reminder that there is always somebody on the other team who speaks your language, and knows when you might be doing some trash talking. We heard about a few teams getting caught out when they thought no one else could understand them this week--happens every year.
Keep Feeding the Fishes - During the week, we learned that they have a ton of fish in the lake to keep the weeds and algae away--who probably welcome any nervous hurling at the start.
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