Racing for what is going to be a long, full week of combined U23 and U19 World Championships got off to a fast and furious start Monday evening: with 5 minute centers--which will be the norm all week apart from the A Finals--for the U23 Singles heats and two new World's Best Times, all in the midst of Europe's massive heat wave.
?? It's a hot one in Varese! Racing gets underway in 30 minutes with the Heats in the Under 23 Single Sculls ?? #WRUCHVarese #WRU23CH pic.twitter.com/4q2W2i2qJb
- World Rowing (@WorldRowing) July 25, 2022
Need more "whew it's hot" proof? Check out USA LM1x Nick Aronow wetting down ahead of his heat in the heat.
With the way World Rowing has woven the U23 and U19 Championships together--putting the older athletes on track for A Finals on Friday and Saturday and the juniors for a Sunday round of medal finals--the four U23 events with the biggest subscriptions (21 or more) had to get right down to racing on Monday, just 3 hours after the 1400 CET draw.
Those entry-heavy events were, of course, all four U23 Singles--Heavy and Light--and their "Monday Night Lights" session got things started with a bang that included a World's Best Time in the very first race of the week by Greece's Evangelia Anastasiadou, whose 7:24.59 in the BLW1x shaved nearly 4 seconds off the old mark. The night ended--almost--in the same world-time-beating fashion, when Germany's Alexandra Foerster set a new WBT of 7:27.01 in her event, the BW1x, in the second-to-last race of the evening.
In both of those races, the USA sculler in the event was in the field. For Izzie Begley in the LW1x, there was only 1 to qualify and Anastasiadou (GRE) made quick work of sealing up that spot with her record time. Begley came fifth and will race the Repechage on Tuesday afternoon.
In the Open Women's Single, it was two to advance for USA's Ella Barry, but only the open-weight Greek sculler--Dimitra Eleni Kontou--had the pace to stay within 3 seconds of Foester and she grabbed the second spot. Like Begley, Barry will head to a Tuesday Rep, and there Barry--the 2-time U19 national champ, who is only just finishing a freshman year at Princeton--will look to move on to a semi in her event.
In the Light Men's Single, another member of Princeton's Class of '25, Nick Aronow, also faced a tough lightweight single 1-to-advance progression. Taking third behind Belgium's Tibo Vyvey and Swiss sculler Gian Struzina, Aronow stayed ahead of both Brazil and Puerto Rico. More importantly, he got his first race out of the way cleanly in this, his second go-round as the USA's BLM1x.
"Always nice to get the first race out of your system," Aronow told row2k afterwards. "There were great conditions to get a better feel for the course as well as the competition. I'm super excited to race against some more tough competition tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to get myself into the A/B semis. Overall I'm just pumped to throw down another piece tomorrow."
The one US sculler to earn himself a spot to move directly on to the next round was Isaiah Harrison. Back in October, fresh off his win at the Head of the Charles, Harrison had talked about his goals of stepping up to race the U23's in this, his first year of being too old to defend--or improve on--his u19 bronze from 2021.
Today, he made good on those goals, booking a spot in the quarterfinals with a solid third place behind Australia's Cormac Kennedy-Leverett and Brazil's Tomas Levy. Just 19, Harrison was the youngest sculler to advance in his heat--and both the Australian and Brazilian had raced at the U23 level in previous years. Also a bit more experienced? The Italian sculler that Harrison led to the line: Gennaro Di Mauro, whose last international race was the Tokyo Olympics, where he took 2nd in the B Final.
"The race went well," said Harrison. "I really enjoyed it, and am super excited to be racing here at U23. God's blessed me so much with the opportunity to be here and race as a 19 year old.
"I was really excited to be racing in the heat that I was, especially against Italy and Australia. I'm really happy with the race and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to racing on Wednesday."
While Harrison gets a day of rest Tuesday, the rest of the USA's U23 contingent will get down to racing with heats in all boats and preliminary races for the BW4+ and BWLW4x in the morning, and then the reps for Begley, Aronow, and Barry in the afternoon.
All the morning racing will be in the books by 6:30 or so Eastern, so you can head right to results--listed by event under the Results tab--here on the World Rowing site...or you can look for the Daily Results Summary when we get it and put it up on the row2k results page later in the day. The Singles Reps go off between 9 and 10 am Eastern.
Notes From The Course
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