SEVILLE, Spain -- Maite Urtasun (Riverside, N.J.) and Anna Mickelson (Bellevue, Wash.) returned to the site of their world championships’ victory in the women’s eight and came home with another gold medal, this time in the women’s pair 500-meter event, at the IX FISA Team Cup Regatta held February 22-23 on the Guadalquivir River.
In Saturday’s 1,000-meter women’s pair race, the U.S. duo struggled as the women were competing for the first time in 2003 and the first time together as a pair. However, Urtasun and Mickelson came back in strong fashion on Sunday, winning the 500-meter race by 0.39 seconds. The duo clocked a 1:43.46 to defeat the second-place Chinese pair of Cong Huanling and Li Na Xiao, which clocked a 1:43.85. China’s Cheng Ran and Feng Xuebing finished third in a time of 1:44.24. Huanling and Na Xiao had won the 1,000-meter race by 2.42 seconds.
Both Urtasun and Mickelson have fond memories of Seville as the duo helped the U.S. women’s eight win a gold medal at the 2002 FISA World Championships last September. The victory was the first for a U.S. women’s eight since 1995.