Eight medal finals and a farewell 500 meter race to honor Czech sculling great Ondrej Synek brought the racing in Racice to a close.
After an "Olympics Horribilis" in Tokyo, Great Britain seems very much recovered, leading the Medals Table, with wins in the Men's eight today and the Women's and Para fours yesterday. You can see the full medal table here.
Our one "wonk" note on the Table? Check out Romania: just four medals, but all gold, including the two won in the space of about an hour by Romanian Olympic Champion Simona Radis.
Radis, just 23 years old, went straight from the podium after her repeat win in the doubles final into stroke seat of the Romanian eight--and promptly won herself a second Racice gold.
PR1 Men's Single -UKR, ITA, GBR
The Ukrainian Para sculler Roman Polianskyi trailed in the early going, as Italy's Giacomo Perini set the pace and looked to repeat the upset we've mentioned once or twice, when he beat Polianskyi at Europeans. The Paralympic champion in blue and yellow of Ukraine would not be denied here, however, and he overtook the early leader, and his newest rival, for the win.
Polianskyi called it a "good race," saying, "Slava Ukraine [Glory to Ukraine]."
"Exciting race," was Perini's take, "a battle until the end with GB and Ukraine. I had a great feeling on the water, I wanted the gold medal, but I am happy with silver. It has been a great season, now I want to focus on the next steps towards Paris 2024."
Britain's Benjamin Pritchard won the bronze, adding to GB's medal haul in the first final of the day. At the end of the program, Pritchard was still in the mixed zone when the sculling legends came through, and he was congratulated by none other than GB Olympian Alan Campbell; the two had a quiet conversation about their sculling, medalist to medalist.
PR1 Women's Single- NOR, FRA, UKR
Norway's Birgit Skarstein, the Paralympic Champion in her event and dominant enough in this category to get dubbed "The Queen of Norway Rowing" by the commentary team, stormed through the field to win over Nathalie Benoit of France.
Skarstein, who rows a bit lower on the rating off the start, is known for catching up to her competition as she comes down the track; today she was already ahead for good by the 500 meter mark.
"I have so much respect for my competitors," said Skarstein, "and I knew that they were going to start really hard, and for me it was all about not losing track of them and still not exploding myself. When I came to the 500 meter mark, I really felt my body responding in a good way. It was so hard and so much fun at the same time. They were all breathing [down] my neck the whole race and I felt like they could go at any time. I honestly I did anything see who got second and third when we crossed the finish line."
Ukraine's Anna Sheremet took third. In all, the Ukraine team won 7 medals, ranking them sixth, after a full season spent training all over Europe to take refuge from the war.
Men's Double - FRA, ESP, AUS
The final matched the French M2x champions from Tokyo and Croatia's Sinkovic brothers, who won the pair in Tokyo and have since returned to the double, the boat class in which they won their first Olympic Gold. So this final served up both two sets of Tokyo champs and the last two Olympic gold medal doubles.
In the end, though, Frenchmen Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron answered the questions pretty early. Freshly back in the double after a World Cup season the French spent racing in singles while the Croatians were back to winning in the double, Androdias and Boucheron tapped into the form they have shown all week and led a tight field all the way to the line.
Turns out that only the Spanish and the Australians could hang with their pace, and the three medalists pulled away from the Sinkovics, who came fourth--missing the podium for the first time at the World Championships, a streak that goes back to 2009--on this same lake in Racice.
After crossing the line though, the Croatians were clapping for the crews that bested them today and posted this to congratulate the new medalists.
The Spanish poured all they had into their silver medal, which they earned by coming back through Australia in the last 500. When stroke Rodrigo Condé Romero climbed out of the boat and had to lay down on the medals arrival dock. When the medical folks asked if he was okay, his reply was, "more or less."
"I was focused on Matthieu, said Boucheron. "I felt we were good compared to Spain and Australia. It's a bit of a reborn for us after a difficult year. It was our only competition in the double this year, so it's a bit of a surprise to get the gold, but the cohesion in the boat has been fantastic."
"We know that our finish is very strong," said Aleix Garcia Pujolar of Spain, who raced in Racice as a U23 athlete just last year. "We like to have contact with our rivals, then we know, in the last 500, we can pass them."
Romero called it "an intense year," after he recovered a bit:
"Lots of emotions with the silver medal for the pair yesterday and us today. We had a lot of envy, we fought for the gold but are super happy with the silver."
"We have to give it to the French," said Australia's Caleb Antill. "They looked really good all regatta; they're the Olympic champion for a reason. Big ups to them, and then the Spanish were just too quick to the line. We got past them for a bit, but their signature is to be quick to the line and we couldn't quite hold them off."
Women's Double - ROU, NED, IRL
Romania's Olympic Champions pulled off the same trick as the French: Simona Radis and Ancuta Bodnar repeated their winning ways from Tokyo, leading the whole way, paced only by the Dutch.
"We were the favorites," said Radis, "so we wanted the gold medal, but as you saw, it was hard race. The Netherlands was really new for us. We are happy, because these girls help us improve for the future. We need to work more carefully, and I'm sure the results will come."
The Dutch are a new combination with Laila Youssifou coming in from the Dutch Olympic quad to join Roos De Jong, the bronze medalist in this event from Tokyo.
The Irish took third, with 2019 W1x Champ Sunita Puspure in the stroke seat. As she gave her interview, just before the Women's Single final came down she was still, she noted with a laugh, the reigning W1x world champions for a "few more minutes"--a title she's held, due to the pandemic, since 2019, whew.
Puspure and Zoe Hyde earned their medal by outlasting the other noted single sculler in the race: Magdelana Lobnig, whose "for fun" row in the double this year nearly landed the Austrians on the podium.
"With 250 to go, " said Puspure, "I just put my head down, pushed the legs as hard as I could. I'm sure it was pretty ugly to look at, but with about five strokes to go, I could see that we were edging out."
"Its a different challenge," she said when asked about racing in a crew instead of the single. "You can't really compare it."
Men's Eight - GBR, NED, AUS
For the Men's Eights, the stage might have seemed set for a new nation to rise, with no New Zealand eight to defend last year's gold--and possibly no Kiwi eight likely to materialize this quadrennial--plus the absence of Germany, who missed the eights final for the first time in 23 years.
In the end, though, it was "just" a return to form--and to the top of the podium--for Great Britain, another of the great eights nations. The British came in as favorites, unbeaten this year and sometimes touted as perhaps one of the best GB eights ever.
The mark on their back did not bother the British one bit, according to two-seat Morgan Bolding:
"Our aim going into the race was to make it a one lane race: we wanted to row the best rates we had. If we do that and get beaten, then there's nothing we could do. We gave it absolutely everything for the first 1500, and if the Dutch had come with more legs than us, then they would have beaten us. We got to the 1500 like we wanted to, it got us a bit of a lead, and then we just emptied the tank from there. It came together as we wanted."
"The Brits have been in a league of their own all season," said Dutch bow man Niki van Sprang.
The Dutch won their silver after coming through the reps, having been surprised in their heat by Canada, who won that first round to set the boatyard buzzing, but faded to fifth here in the final behind the USA.
"We knew that coming into the regatta that we weren't in the best shape yet," said van Sprang. "Obviously you want to win the heat, but at the same time, five days off in the middle of a regatta is a long time. We just took it as an opportunity to get into rhythm, and this [final] was definitely the best race of the regatta for us." Australia won the bronze, with a young crew, and stroke Jackson Kench said afterwards: "We're going to go home, and we've got a lot of work to do, but every step is a step towards the Olympics.
"The Men's Eight is always a spectacle," Kench added. "We had to double check where we finished. Such a high quality field, anyone could have finished in the medal."
The USA, in fourth ahead of Canada and Romania, made up a lot of ground on Australia in the last quarter, but ran out of track before the could grab a spot on the podium.
Women's Single - NED, NZL, AUS
Karolien Florijn has been unbeatable all season in Europe and the only question here was whether Emma Twigg, in her first regatta back to racing since winning gold in Tokyo, would prove too savvy and quick for the young Dutchwoman.
Down the track, Florijn--a silver medalist in Tokyo with the Dutch four--got away and set the pace all the way to win, but Twigg showed flashes of her own greatness, reeling in Australian Tara Rigney to earn a silver in what wound up being just her third race since her Olympic final, after illness and COVID scrubbed her planned World Cup and Henley appearances.
"I had never raced Emma Twigg," said Florijn, when asked if have the Olympic Champion in the final had worried her. "I was really nervous, but I was also so excited. I'm so happy to be here to race all the best rowers in the world.
"I still haven't realized I have won. It means so much to me. I respect Emma so much and the other single scullers. It is surreal, I am so happy."
The Dutch Men's eight certainly realized she was winning: they were cheering her on as she finished her race while they waited for their own medals.
"I heard so much noise, it was amazing with the crowd," said Florijn. "I heard 'Karolien! Karolien!' and I thought, Yeah, that's me!'"
For Twigg, silver was all right: "I've got to be happy with it, to be honest. I had a bit of a break after Tokyo and things slowed down a bit. My wife just had a baby, so I've had all sorts of things going on this year. I raced my best race and and Karolien had a better one, so there's the way that the cookie crumbles sometimes."
When asked about whether she will keep training, towards Paris, Twigg said: "I gave myself to the end of this year to have a think about things; I always said that I'd row for a year after Tokyo for the enjoyment of it, so this winter, we'll have a think about it."
Until then, Twigg will be busy: she plans to race both the Coastal and Beach Sprints Championships next month in Wales, and then head off to Boston for the Charles and Philadelphia for the Gold Cup racing.
Men's Single - GER, NED, GBR
For all of Melvin Twellaar's speed this season and here in Racice, the Dutch two-fer in the singles events was not to be, as the big German Ollie Zeidler won going away today, returning to the form of his 2019 victory as he made up for his shaky start in the heat and exorcised the demons of his B Final finish in Tokyo all in one masterful row.
Perhaps even more importantly, Zeidler delivered Germany its lone gold medal of these championships, a very rare bright spot in what may have been the German Federation's worst performance at a World Championship in generations.
He also made up for his own a very disappointing finish to his final at Europeans on his home water in Munich, where he faded to fourth in the last 500 meters after leading the field.
"After Munich, we took a look at few things," said Zeidler, "because it's pretty unnatural for me to just not be able to go hard when I want to. The doctors said I had COVID after-effects in my lungs, fairly typical symptoms, so I got treatment. I have been running from appointment to appointment these past 4-5 weeks, but today was the reward for having worked on all the parts of my approach.
"I have been saying that I really need to have a race success at some point. I started working towards this after the Olympics; there were some OK results in there, but no really 'punch' anywhere. This is a result I have been waiting for for a while now, and I finally got it.
"First and foremost, I've demonstrated that my father and I are doing great work in a non-national team training center. My dad is not a national team coach is showing everyone how it's done right. We're trying to focus on doing professional work in Munich [Zeidler's home base], and we just do a lot differently than the German rowing federation does."
Twellaar, the European Champ, called the race "really tough."
"I tried several times to compete with Zeidler," he said. "His start was really good. Of course he is world champion. I was going for my best and maximum race and I am happy with that. But of course I was hoping for a bit more"
Britain's Graham Thomas took third in a strong finish, just ahead of New Zealand's Jordan Parry, and the gap from first to fourth was just under four seconds; Olympic champ Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece was sixth.
Thomas, who had a very good sense of Twellar's speed from the Europeans final in Munich, talked about his strategy today:
"In Munich, we said let's just hammer it out and go with the fastest guys and see what happens, but I ran out of gas, 250 meters from the line. Today, it was a more [seeing that] on paper, I'm the third fastest going in, so is it, defend the bronze? But that's always a bad tactic, defense, so I did my best to do what I could to go with Melvin, knowing that I'm probably not his level. In parts, I was close but the Kiwis [like Parry] have a great sprint finish, and I didn't want to get mowed through on the line. In the end, it was bloody close."
Women's Eight - ROM, NED, CAN
The Romanians, with newly-reminted W2x gold medalist Radis subbed into the stroke seat, took off like the new crew that they were, leading the field to every mark to win. In fact, the women's eight was a straight drag race: with the exception of the Dutch pulling off their customary late move to edge ahead of Canada for the silver, the crews were in the same order at the finish as they were at the 500.
Unfortunately for the USA, they meant they ran in fourth most of the way and, though they had contact with the Dutch and Canada, the Americans never really got back on terms to hunt for a medal.
There was a lot of doubling up with in these women's eights--the Romanians, Dutch, and Americans all planned to use their top athletes for the eights final--but the most significant "doubler" Radis was a last-minute substitution.
"I got the news in the morning," she told row2k, "so I didn't know I would compete in the eight. First I was thinking about my double, because it's the most important one and after I won the gold, I just told myself that I have one more. I took it as a new chance and with my team, because I have a strong team behind me; I did it again and I'm going home with two golds."
Radis, whose Instagram lists her (many) medals in her bio, laughed when asked if she would have a lot of updating to do now:
"After every championship, I need to change my Instagram, and now I have a lot to change."
The Dutch also doubled successfully, in their case the entire eight - all of whom came from winning silvers in the pair, four, and double into the Dutch eight.
"I think the entire [regatta], we were quite lucky that there was only six entries, so that we didn't have heats or repechages," said Hermine Catherine Drenth, who won silver in the four a day earlier. So we could really focused on our main event: the other boats were our main events. We didn't really train in the eight: between Europeans and now we have had [maybe] five sessions. Seeing that we won all the silver medals yesterday and today, we had a lot of confidence in ourselves and in our bodies. We were totally confident in the W2x that they could do another 2k: in training you always do two times 2k, so it will be fine."
"The vibe was really good," added Benthe Boonstra, also from the four. "We're really confident in our own numbers, and you just take that with you into the eights race." Yeah.
Canada won in Tokyo, but their gold medal coxswain Kristin Kit noted that this was a new crew, in a new year, excited to be on the podium once again.
"We've had a really tumultuous year and we've just had a lot of a lot of challenges," she said "Essentially, we really focused with our coach Carol Love on creating a culture that we could all buy into. Obviously, you never know what's going to happen when you get to a World Championship start line. So we just took care of the controllables: being as present and focused as we could be for every day.
"Something that we learned from last year [in Tokyo], the few of us that are leftover, is it doesn't need to be perfect to be the best."
Notes From the Course
More Birthdays: This time on the podium, where Romanian W2x bow seat Ancuta Bodnar got a birthday cake to go along with her gold medal.
The Quiet Irishman: The normally loquacious Paul O'Donovan made headlines of a different sort on Saturday when he went near-mute: offering up a a pithy two words-- "Yeah, alright"--when asked how it felt to win a fifth championship. The Irish tabloids ran with the story (was it rude, was it funny), so it might be worth a google; here is the video.
The Dutch and Their Bikes: We saw a new look in the mix zone today, with cool down bikes brought in for the Dutch W2x medalists doubling into the eight. The Dutch duo did their whole World Rowing interview on bikes and then, as Dutch do, rode actual bikes over to the launch dock, as you can see in this tweet, while some team support folks rowed the double back.
"Yeah, We've Been Here Before" Moment: When the organizers tried to line the Dutch Women's Eight up in the wrong spot for the walk to the medal ceremony, the Dutch called them on it: "No, No, we go here: we've been here before" said one, pointing to the proper spot at the back of the line, where the silver medalists go. They would know: they'd been there just twenty-fours hours before to get their Pair and Four silvers, and just an hour before in the double.
The Grand Finale: Five sculling legends joined Ondrej Synek for the final "race" of the regatta, a 500 meter piece that was, according to one former champion, maybe 400 meters too long.
Alan Campbell, Itzok Cop, Mahe Drysdale, Lassi Karonen, Olaf Tufte joined Synek here, and the organizers had provided them with custom unis and everything. You can watch the race replay here.
Synek crossed the line first in what may have been a planned move--though Olaf Tufte was quick to laugh and say, "that never happened: we raced flat out and Ondrej again was the strongest man in the end."
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