Eight Olympic and two Paralympic event finals here on Saturday, but--as surely befits a post-Olympic Worlds--just four repeat winners from Tokyo: the British Para Four, New Zealand's Women's Pair, Ireland's Light Men's Double and the Chinese Women's Quads.
Those four crews, dominant since 2019, if not earlier, through both the Covid year and delayed Olympics so surprised no one with their wins here. The drama in this finals came down to seeing which crews had the form to chase the champions and whether the fields had closed any of the gaps we saw last year in Tokyo.
Across the other events, new winners were the theme of the day, and several crews--like GB's Light Women's Double and Poland's Men's Quad, redeemed Tokyo disappoints with Racice golds.
Para PR2 Double - UKR, POL, FRA
Ukraine won the first medal of the day, as Iaroslav Koiuda and Svitlana Bohuslavska moved steadily through the field to know early leader Poland into silver medal position. France took third.
Through an interpreter, Bohuslavska said it meant a great deal for her to win for Ukraine and. to see the Ukrainian colors raised. Koiuda expressed his thanks to their supporters and to the soldiers fighting to keep save the country.
The pair has been training in Nancy, France and also wanted to thank Sebastian Bell and the rowing community there for helping them continue to train.
Para PR3 Four - GBR, GER, FRA
There is not a more dominant crew in World Rowing that the Britain's Para Four, but for good measure today, they set a Worlds Best Time on the way to gold
(And, of course, it is likely the time they beat was their own, given their decade or so of owning this event.)
"We push ourselves internally," said strokeman Ollie Stanhope, "so we don't really don't really care what the rest of the world are doing. We set our levels off of each other and make sure we work off each other."
The four rowers in the crew all collected their second gold of the week today: Stanhope and Edward Fuller won in the PR3 Pair yesterday, as did Giedre Rakauskaite and Francesca Allen in the Women's PR3 pair.
Women's Pair - NZL, NED, USA
New Zealand's Olympic champions, Grace Prendergast and Kerri Williams, rowed a flat, powerful rhythm to walk away from a three-way battle between the Dutch, the Americans, and the British--one that Romania tried to crash in a closing sprint that nearly put them ahead of of GB and onto the podium with NED and USA.
"Every time you win it feels a bit different," said Grace Prendergast. "This one, we had a quite a different buildup and, this being the year after the Olympics, I feel like the pair field seemed really strong this year and there's a lot of new combinations, so it was just as exciting and just as satisfying."
The Kiwis mentioned that they have been rowing together for eight years now, but they did not get back together in the pair this season until the summer: Prendergast was at Cambridge this year, studying and winning The Boat Race.
You can read row2k's interview with the US bronze medalists, Claire Collins and Maddie Wanamaker in Saturday's US Report.
Men's Pair - ROU, ESP, GBR
Romania, second at the Olympics a year ago, came good today with the win, with surprising Spain taking silver.
Sergiu Bejan, the Romanian stroke, called it an "amazing race."
"The last 200m was very compacted," he said, adding, "We are so proud because in Romania this is the first medal for this category."
Romania's last pair win was at the 1984 Olympics, so this is indeed the first time they have won at a World Championship.
Spain's pair has been in the hunt over the last quadrennial, and made the Tokyo final, but out of the medals--until this year. Second at two World Cups and third at Europeans, the Spainish completed their run on the podium here by taking silver ahead of the British pair.
"It is our first medal at the World Championships and it is just incredible," said Spain's Jaime Canalejo Pazos, "We made the most of the whole regatta and it has been a fantastic experience. The last 500 we thought about our families and friends, all the training we put in, and we're so delighted with that result."
Light Women's Double - GBR, USA, IRL
Imogen Grant and Emily Craig went from Olympic fourth to first place here, getting away early and not looking back. They won by a bit more than three seconds over the USA, who had nearly three seconds over third place Ireland.
"In racing, nothing's given to you, you have to earn it, said Grant. "I'm just really grateful that the training we've done has paid off."
"We've trained to ride the red line," added Craig. "It was incredibly hard, but my god, we're used to making it incredibly hard. Absolute credit to the other crews: that was some of our best rowing, and we had to perform in order to get that medal."
The US Crew, interviewed in our US report, also moved up from their spot in Tokyo--fifth--to win silver here.
Meanwhile the Irish, who missed the Olympic Final and were second to the Swiss in the B Final, climbed the furthest here to reach the podium.
"In Tokyo, I felt like we were so young," said Margaret Cremen, "and we just enjoyed the whole experience. We learned so much from that regatta, watching the US, the Dutch, the Romanians and everyone in that a final on that last day of the Olympics. I was so nervous and I wasn't even in the race! I don't know if I'm able!
"This time around, we were ready to race and really excited. The first thing was getting to the A Final; we got to the A Final. The next thing was putting out our best performance, and really was our best performance and we couldn't have asked for more. The lightweight events are so competitive that you don't know who's going to win a medal, who's going to be on top this year. So we're so excited to qualification next year and see what we can really do."
Light Men's Double - IRL, ITA, UKR
The Irish rowing, and comedy, duo of Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy looked untouchable all week, and they came through to the lead for good in the second 500 to win going away. They were three seconds clear of the Italians overhauling the Ukrainians for silver, but the UKR light double came in third for Ukraine's second trip to the podium today.
The Irish also had the quote of the day, by Paul O'Donovan himself:
"End of a good year, I guess! We train pretty hard, our technique is improving a bit. Last year we were focusing on the biceps, if people don't think they are big enough now, they will be pretty afraid when they see us next year. You will need a pretty wide angle on your camera!"
Women's Four - GBR, NED, AUS
Great Britain tracked down the fast starting Aussies and took control of the race in the early going. GB's Rebecca Shorten called the race "amazing."
"Each race we knew we had to improve to stay on top of the field, and this race, we had to keep our head down, make sure we didn't move from our position. This has been a long year, long season, and next year with the Olympic Qualification it will be another huge one. But right now, I am a bit speechless!"
The second place Dutch were battling so hard in the pack that they did not even know the color of the medal they won until they got into the mix zone and heard it from the World Rowing camera crew
"We came from a long way [back]," said Tinka Offereins, "fourth or something, and I just thought, 'No way: we're so fit, we're so strong' and we just kept going."
Australia took third, shutting out China, the Romanians, and Ireland, the Tokyo bronze medalists.
Men's Four - GBR, AUS, NED
The British won the four with a spare: David Ambler came into the crew for Matthew Aldridge on Monday, and will leave Racice as a World Champion. It is his first Senior gold medal (he has 2 golds and a silver from his fairly recent U23 days).
"[It's] quite an awesome team to be part of," Ambler said, "Amazing to be part of such a successful program. Testament to the strength of the team. Matt went down with illness, bit of a stressful surprise, not an ideal situation, but you're prepared for that as a sub. I am glad we got the result."
Australia--with three of their four Tokyo Olympians on board--led in the first half, but could not match GB's third 500, though they did hold off the Dutch, who harried them all the way down the course.
"It was our best row of the week," said Ralf Rienks from the Dutch. "We knew all the other crews would be quick, GB and Australia were just too good for us today. We can be very happy with that performance. We have put the two strong guys in the middle of the boat so the two brothers don't have to fight !"
Women's Quad - CHN, NED, GBR
Much like their four, the Dutch quad moved up from back in the pack in lane 6 to challenge for the lead and push China right to the line.
China stayed good and passed the test, but the event is certainly coming up to the level set by the Olympic Champions, and these finals in the Women's quad are getting tighter.
"Everything is possible on the starting line, said Bente Paulis, the Dutch stroke. "We wanted to stay cool, and not lose too much energy at the start, as we have the tendency to start really fast. Our middle part was really good, and we could sprint and challenge the Chinese at the end. Delighted with that performance."
Men's Quad - POL, GBR, ITA
We saw a straight swap of places in the Men's quad: Poland up to gold from fourth last year, and the Dutch out of the medals, into fourth, after gold last year. Britain came second again, just as they had in Tokyo, but seemed pleased with the result after what one of them called a "topsy-turvy" season that had seen them take fourth at Europeans.
Italy, the Euros winner, came third, as Poland broke throiugh for a win that eluded them in Munich.
"Special for us, in front of our families," said Fabian Baranski about winning here in Racice. "We are World Champions! Competition was strong, but we're happy that we won the rematch from the Europeans with Italy."
Notes From the Course
An Aussie Tradition: We spotted some numbers on the Aussie unis that did not match, so we asked a few helpful Australians what they meant. We now know that each Australian rower earns a number based on their first time on the team, assigned in order of when they first cross a finish line at the World Championships. (i.e. so a stroke's number is 4 higher than the bows if all four rowers are rookies) The guys we asked reckon the team is somewhere in the 900s now, and here you can see #s 723, 835, and 876 in the Aussie W4-.
All Together With the Lads: the Irish Light Women's Double went straight from their medal ceremony to greet the Irish Light Men's Double, and the two crews did an interview for the TV folks all together. Not to be out done the British did the same thing a few events later, with their two gold medal fours.
Now, or Later? The first awards ceremony should have been for the first A Final, the PR2 Double, but a mix up as to where the para-athletes would land sent them all the way back to the boating area, and off the carefully scripted ceremony schedule. They were told to come back at the after the last event of the day, but one silver lining of that kerfuffle was that the Polish paras happened to be on hand in the Mix Zone to congratulate the winners of that last race: their Polish countrymen in the Men's Quad
Will Row for Donuts! Someone brought GB's Imogen Grant a full box of "You're...Awesome" donuts on the medal stand. Nice!
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