14th WUC Rowing – Overview Day 1 of Competitions

POZNAN – The rivalry on the Malta Regatta Course has begun! On Friday, 2 September, the participants of the 14th World University Rowing Championship were competing in the morning and the afternoon sessions trying to reach the semi-finals and the finals.

There were 24 heats in the schedule of morning session. The first to compete were the men who took part in the pair’s competition. Three best teams from each heat gained a spot in the semi-finals. The winners of first heat were Angus Moore and Nathan Bowden (Australia). In the second race the fastest were rowers from China: Yujie Shao and Jian Ma. In the third heat Jakub Podrazil and Lukas Helesic from Czech Republic were victorious.

In the next competition, men’s double sculls, the winners of heats who were William Mure and Max McQueeney (Australia) and Timo Piontek and Stephan Krueger (Germany) got promoted directly to final A. Remaining crews will have a chance for the promotion in repechages.

In the women’s double sculls, the two first crews from each heat moved up to the final A. The first place in the first race was taken by Lenka Antonosova and Kristyna Fleissnerova (Czech Republic) before Paola Piazzolla and Eleonora Trivella (Italy). In the second heat Polish Olga Michałkiewicz and Katarzyna Zillmann and Dutch Rosa Bas and Roos de Jong made it to the final.

Next came the time for women’s single sculls. In the first heat Polish Krystyna Lemańczyk won, in the second one Austrian Lisa Farthofer was the fastest. Both were awarded with promotion to the final.

One of the most interesting events during the WUC will definitely be men’s single sculls competition. On the Friday morning all favourites, including 2014 World University Champion Bendeguz Petervari-Molnar (Hungary) and bronze medallist of U-23 World Championships Michal Plocek (Czech Republic) got promoted to the semi-finals.

In women’s lightweight single sculls Amy James (Australia), Luisa Sophie Werner (Germany), Anja Manoutscheri (Austria) and Patricia Mara (Canada) ended the elimination session with a promotion to the finals.

In men’s lightweight single sculls contest Federico Ghzeri (Italy), Jerzy Kowalski (Poland), Matthew Christie (Canada), Jakob Zwölfer (Austria), Daniel Matyasovszki (Hungary) and James Brittain (South Africa) promoted to the semi-finals.

Anastasiia Lebedeva and Anastasia Ianina (Russia), Monika Kowalska and Martyna Mikołajaczak (Poland), Federica Cesarini and Valentina Rodini (Italy), Annabel Gibson and Sophie Jerapetritis (Australia) will fight for the medals in the lightweight women’s double sculls competition. 

In the lightweight men’s double sculls contest Matteo Mulas and Andrea Fois (Italy), Johannes Ursprung and Cedric Kulbach (Germany) were unexcelled in their heats.

United Kingdom and Italy turned out to be the best in the men’s four races and can start their preparations for the final.

In the men’s lightweight four ‘race for lanes’ the first place belonged to the French crew who was faster than the British and the Polish.

The afternoon session began with women’s double sculls race for lanes in which Polish Olympians from Rio de Janeiro Anna Wierzbowska and Maria Wierzbowska were unbeatable. They led from the beginning and are definitely a big gold medal hope for the home team.

In the next event women’s four crews from Italy, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom were awarded with promotion to the final.

In men’s eight the Polish crew won the first heat whereas the French crew was the best in the second race.

Then, rowers were competing in repechage and fighting for promotion to the semi-finals. In men’s single sculls Alberic Cormerais (France), Bastiaan Collette (Netherlands) and Andrew Potter (New Zealand) took first three places and were advanced to the next round. In the men’s lightweight single Marek Reznak (Slovakia), Jan Hajek (Czech Republic), Christopher Beck (Ireland), Joonas Petajaniemi (Finland), Hamish Parry (Australia) and Erik Dekker (Netherlands) were successful and made it to the semi-finals. In the last race of Friday’s competition, men’s pair Anatole Ryngaert and Thomas Cousin (France), Rafał Kowalczyk and Damian Rosolski (Poland), Markus Ritson and Daniel Liik (Estonia) managed to move up to the semi-finals.

Today, Saturday 3 September, is the day of repechages and semi-finals.

(Source: WUC Rowing OC)

NEWSLETTER

Newsletter N°3

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