"VAN" (Sports Desk - 28.04.2024) :: The 2024 European Rowing Championships, and the World Rowing European Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, are being held at the Szeged National Canoeing and Rowing Olympic Centre from 25 to 28 April.
The first day of finals at the 2024 European Rowing Championships saw crews from seven nations win titles, with Great Britain ending the day on top of the medal table. There was also a surprise for Ukraine's Dariia Kotyk. Her PR3 mixed double sculls partner Stanislav Samoliuk proposed to her on the podium after they won bronze: she said yes.
In total, 13 nations stood on the podium in Szeged, Hungary, in an exciting day of racing where also tickets for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games were secured by Switzerland and Spain.
British crews won four of the 10 finals – the women’s four and quadruple sculls, men’s eight and PR3 mixed double sculls.
The British men’s eight was the only one of their gold medallist crews to lead through each marker. The women’s four had to work through the fast-starting Romanians, the quadruple sculls crew took more than 1500m to overtake Ukraine, and Sam Murray and Annie Caddick in the PR3 mixed double sculls only emerged at the head of a close race after more than 500m.
But the men’s eight, which closed the day’s racing, almost saw an upset after Germany on the outside challenged hard in the third 500m. The ‘Deutschland-Achter’ has been rebuilding and the crew looks like it is regaining its form just in time for the Olympic Games.
The British men’s eight was one of three crews to retain European titles. The others were the Swiss lightweight men’s double sculls crew and Norway’s Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion Birgit Skarstein in the PR1 women’s single sculls.
Switzerland’s Jan Schaeuble and Raphael Ahumada rowed a strong race to take a good win in the lightweight men’s double sculls. They will be conscious though that the Irish world and Olympic champions are absent, due to Fintan McCarthy being sidelined for medical reasons.
Skarstein was beaten for the first time in more than 30 outings in Thursday’s preliminary race, but she rowed a tactically superb final, working her way through the pack to win her fourth straight European title. In the PR1 men’s single sculls, Ukraine’s Roman Polianskyi added European gold to his world and Paralympic titles, overturning last year’s result when he was beaten by Italy’s Giacomo Perini – second on Saturday.
In the World Rowing European Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta, Switzerland’s Claire Ghiringhelli and Spain’s Javier Garcia Martinez took the sole tickets to Paris in the PR1 women’s and men’s single sculls. Ghiringhelli will be the first Swiss rower ever to race at the Paralympic Games.
Racing in Szeged concludes on Sunday, 28 April, with finals in 12 events.
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