Racing Resumes for the 2024 World Rowing Championships

With adverse weather causing the cancellation of Monday’s racing at the 2024 World Rowing Championships, there was a further delay on Tuesday morning due to strong winds, but the action finally got started ninety minutes later than originally scheduled, starting with preliminary races and heats in the U23 boat classes.

After five preliminary races in the U23 boat classes which will be used to seed the lanes for the finals, a series of heats began and, in some cases, racing for direct qualification for places in medal finals. The wind was the opposite direct to Sunday – meaning fast times were unlikely, but the racing was no less intense.

Great Britain’s Holly Youd and Anna Grace looked impressive in the first heat of the U23 women’s pair leading for the majority of the race although the previous World Rowing U19 medalists from France, Lea Hersovici and Fleur Vaucoret came past in the final stages. Their times were both faster than the winning time posted by Germany in heat two.

The changes to the race schedule meant two races in the same day for some of the U23 men’s pairs. While eight crews secured their places in the semifinals from the four heats, the rest had to race the repechage at the end of the racing day. The final four places were confirmed in the last two races, and the semifinals will take place on Wednesday.

Today’s racing session saw the senior lightweight women’s single sculls racing for the first time, where the field of 22 included seven rowers who raced at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just a couple of weeks ago. It was therefore perhaps no surprise to see Greece’s Zoi Fitsiou and Romania’s Ionela Cozmiuc winning heats two and three respectively – they are both medallists from the lightweight women’s double sculls in Paris. The third heat was dominated by Ireland’s Siobhan McCrohan, who is the reigning World Champion in this boat class.

One non-Paralympic boat class is being contested at these Championships and the preliminary race in the PR3 men’s pair today resulted in a win for Italy over Japan; they’ll race again in the final on Saturday 24 August.

The penultimate boat class of the day to race was the U23 women’s eight. With the USA and Great Britain having already secured their place in the medal race from the heats on Sunday, the other five crews were racing for the four remaining places in the A-final. Despite a slow start from Romania, it was disappointment for the home nation on the finish line when Canada was the only crew to miss out on progression.

Another full day of racing for the World Rowing Championships lies ahead on Wednesday with the first U19 rowers starting their competition. Racing will start at 09:30 EST with the U19 heats beginning at 10:34 local time. The full day of racing will be livestreamed on World Rowing’s YouTube Channel.

For start lists, race reports, results and photos, go to www.worldrowing.com

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