Ioannis Tsilis and Georgios Tziallas of Greece are the defending under-23 champions and their road to today’s final gave every indication that they had what it would take to defend successfully. But coming out in the lead at the start was Joaquin Iwan and Diego Lopez of Argentina. The confident Greeks let Iwan and Lopez have a small piece of glory before taking over in the lead with a steady and consistent 38 stroke rate. Now in the lead, Tsilis and Tziallas moved into what the course commentator called a “staggering lead.”
Meanwhile, last year’s bronze medallist Charles Burkitt of Great Britain with new partner Ben Smith, was trying to close the gap on Germany who held third. Pulling out a 41 stroke rate sprint, Burkitt and Smith pulled ahead of Germany, but there was not enough race left for the Brits to close on Argentina in second. Remaining at a 38 stroke rate, Greece take gold.
Results: GRE, ARG, GBR, GER, SRB, CANGold: Ioannis TSILIS (GRE)
“The repechage was no problem at all for us. We simply had one bad race. Today the plan was to start off hard and then go directly to full race pace.”
Bronze: Charles BURKITT (GBR)
“The race went as well as we could hope. We haven’t rowed together that much recently. Therefore we are very happy with winning a bronze medal.”
Men’s Double Sculls (BM2x) – Final A
At the finish of the race, three crews that had medalled sat slumped over their oars. No one moved. In one of the closest finishes of the afternoon exhaustion ruled. At the start Martin and Valent Sinkovic rowing for Croatia had the advantage. The Sinkovic brothers warmed up for this regatta by racing at the senior Rowing World Cup. Going into the middle of the race the Sinkovics remained in the lead with Great Britain’s 2007 bronze medallists Charles Cousins and Bill Lucas almost ahead of the Croatians.
Germany and Greece were both also very much on the pace as Cousins and Lucas pushed ahead of the Sinkovics to take the lead. The sprint was on. Germany’s Karl Schulze and Tim Grohmann charged. Croatia and Great Britain did all that they could to hold on. At the line Great Britain had done it. Croatia take second and Germany earn bronze.
Results: GBR, CRO, GER, GRE, ITA, LTU
ightweight Women’s Double Sculls (BLW2x) – Final A
Weighing in two hours before this race, these 12 athletes were now ready for 2000m of tough racing. Greece’s Triantafyllia Kalampoka and Christina Giazitzidou got off to a fast start. The duo have been rowing together since racing in the quad as juniors in 2006. Today their fast start was soon lost to a very strong German crew of Anja Noske and Julia Kroeger.
The Greeks continued to lose ground as Switzerland’s Eliane Waser and Olivia Wyss moved up. Greece, seeing their medal chances slipping away, fought back. Going to the line Germany earn gold, Greece get back into the silver spot and Switzerland earn their only medal of the regatta, bronze.
Results: GER, GRE, SUI, FRA, RUS, GBR
Gold: Julia KROEGER (GER)
“After the German championships we were put together in the double. Both of us already competed last year in different boats.”
Silver: Christina GIAZITZIDOU (GRE)
“We are very happy winning a silver medal. So far we don’t have concrete plans for next year. We might carry on rowing together.”
Bronze: Eliane WASER (CRO)
“Just a week ago we started to row together. During the championships we realized how fast we are. With that experience we hoped for a medal. Winning bronze is great.”
Coming into this final Tamas C. Varga and Peter Galambos of Hungary looked to be the favourites. They had finished second last year and, in the absence of France, had the best pedigree to go for gold. Coming out at the start, however, Varga and Galambos were last. But last in this very tight race was less than a second and a half down. With this in mind, Hungary worked at overtaking boats. First they got their nose ahead of Slovenia and Germany, then Greece to move into third behind Bulgaria and the leading crew, Italy. Davide Riccardi and Francesco Rigon of Italy were fourth in 2007 and they had been leading this race from the start. Hungary continued to sprint.
At the line Italy had remained in first. Hungary had worked their way into silver and Bulgaria’s Zlatko Karaivanov and Vassil Vitanov held on to bronze.
Results: ITA, HUN, BUL, GER, GRE, SLOGold: Francesco RIGON (ITA)
“We finished third in the double last year. It was a very good result to win this year.”
Silver: Tamas C. VARGA (HUN)
“The first 500 was not so good, but we had a very good finish.”
Bronze: Zlatko KARAIVANOV (BUL)
“We had a very good race here! In 2007, we were 7th in the double. To finish 3rd this year was fantastic.”
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