The 2017 Junior World Championships is a big one, with record entries in both singles (39 men's and 29 women's) as well as both doubles (28 women's and 27 men's), and participant numbers landing at 742 driven in part by high entry counts in the big boats, with nine women's eights (an event that had withered to three entries not long ago) and 10 men's eights.
As a result of the small boat entry boom, the first day of racing was entirely singles and doubles racing to advance to Friday's quarterfinals (thus avoiding Thursday's reps). In all but the men's single it was top four to advance, so much of the racing was lacking in drama as margins opened up, favored entries shut down in many cases, and twenty crews skipped the reps in the three events.
The men's single offered up the surprise of the day, and it was a good one for US rowing fans, as US sculler Clark Dean dispatched German sculler Moritz Wolff (who in the past year was both the CRASH-B Junior Men's runner-up and 15-16 age group world record holder on the C2) while posting the fastest time of the day by a healthy patch of water.
Dean doesn't get tomorrow off, however, as he is doubling into the USA men's coxed four, which rows in the heats tomorrow; no doubt it provided some incentive to place top two today, but Dean's time might indicate that there is more going on here than just an attempt to skip the reps.
The level of sculling in the men's single seems high this year overall; row2k was posted at the start taking photos so saw only the first 25 strokes or so, but the top scullers look more skilled and more athletic in larger numbers than I can recall.
That said, there were a few scullers who are clearly still learning the sport, certainly as part of FISA's outreach to non-traditional rowing countries. They're getting there; a couple countries that a few years ago could barely get down the course are now boating very competent and even good crews; good to see.
The other three US crews advanced, with the women's single and double placing third, and the men's double placing fourth; times on the day were all over the place, as were ratings and race plans, so we will probably have to wait until Friday to see who is who in these events.
Conditions were very good, if a bit warm (low 80s), with light winds on the racecourse proper making for fair and almost easy conditions. For race by race reports, see FISA's recap here.
Notes from the Course:
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