The 2011 edition of the new launched European Rowing Championships, in its fifth year, came to an end today in Plovdiv, Bulgaria after three days of racing. Medals were awarded in the 14 Olympic boat classes.
The Greek squad won the overall medals tally this year, winning three gold medals, in the lightweight women's double, the men's four (Stergios Papachristos, Ioannis Tsilis, Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou) and the men's pair (Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas) as well as silver in the lightweight men's double sculls (Eleftherios Konsolas and Panagiotis Magdanis).
Greece's Alexandra Tsiavou won her fifth European gold in a row in the lightweight women's double sculls. This year, on the calm waters of Plovdiv's beautiful regatta course, Tsiavou rowed with her 2011 World Champion partner Christina Giazitzidou. Giazitzidou has won the lightweight double with Tsiavou at European level for the last three years.
In the men's pair, the Gkountoulas twins were racing against Niccolo Mornati and Lorenzo Carboncini of Italy. The Italians had beaten Greece out of the medals at the 2011 World Rowing Championships earlier this month. But this time Greece turned the tables, pushing Italy into the silver medal spot.
Italy finished second overall on the medals table with wins in the lightweight men's double sculls and the lightweight men's four. The Italians also picked up silver in the men's pair and three bronze medals.
Third overall on the medals table was Ukraine with wo gold medals - in the women's double sculls (Kozhenkova and Dementieva) and the women's quadruple sculls (Tarasenko, Kolesnikova, Huba and Spiryukhova).
Five wins can also be attributed to the Romanian women's eight who made it a clean sweep by taking their fifth gold in a row. Four of those wins have included Teodora Gidoiu sitting in the coxswain seat. Romania's Camelia Lupascu and Nicoleta Albu won their third European title in a row in the women's pair.
In the other three "blue riband" events, Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic completely dominated the women's single sculls leaving the rest of the field to race for the lesser medals. This European Champion title for Knapkova comes on the back of her becoming the World Champion in the single earlier this month.
Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania was first in the men's single sculls with Germany's Falko Nolte taking silver. The men's eight went to Poland who come to Plovdiv after finishing fifth at the World Rowing Championships.
Next year the European Rowing Championships will be held in Varese, Italy from 14 to 16 September 2012, following the London Olympic Games.
Detailed Results
Summaries & Rankings
Race reports
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