First Finals Day at the Under 23 Championships
A new U23 World Best Time was set on the first day of Finals at the 2010 World Rowing Under 23 Championships held in Brest, Belarus, from 22 to 25 July.
Six boat classes raced for gold this morning, 24 July, with Italy, Germany and the USA each winning gold in two boat classes.
Ashley Kroll and Felice Mueller of the United States (pictured left) finished ahead of the 2009 Under 23 World Champions, Romania, and in the process set a new World Under 23 Best Time of 07:14.07. The former Best Time of 7:14.94 had been set by Romania in 2006. The USA also won gold in the Women's Four.
Italy's under-23 rowers won gold in the Lightweight Women's Quadruple Sculls and in the Men's Coxed Four, while Germany won gold in the Women's Double Sculls and in the Women's Quadruple Sculls.
Tomorrow, 25 July, will be the second and last day of Finals. Crews will line up in 15 boat classes from 10:30 EEST with the aim to become the Under 23 World Champions for 2010.
Over 880 athletes are competing at the 2010 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, representing a total of 58 nations that have entered. Germany and the USA have brought the largest teams to Belarus, each with 69 athletes distributed among 21 boats.
The World Rowing Under 23 Championships is a major stepping stone for athletes participating through FISA's Development Programme. This year, 40 athletes from 11 developing rowing nations are benefitting from the support of the local organising committee and FISA to enable their participation. Several participants from these countries already raced in Lucerne at the final stage of the Rowing World Cup last week-end. Among them Paraguay's Gabriela Mosqueira, who made her first appearance on the World Rowing scene at the 2008 World Rowing Junior Championships and already has several successes at continental events.
The Brest regatta course is one of the training grounds of the two-time Olympic Champion and six-time World Champion single sculler Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch. Karsten was Belarus' first athlete to win an Olympic medal, which made her a national hero and made rowing a major sport in Belarus.
Racing tomorrow can be followed live on www.worldrowing.com thanks to the live audio commentary and live results.
- Links:
- www.worldrowing.com
