Mixing university and rowing in Szeged

Following 12 events raced over three days, the finals day went the way of Italy who came out at the top of the medals table after winning three golds. Finishing times were on the slow side as finalists battled headwinds and rather difficult conditions, especially in the first 1000m of the rowing course. Following Italy on the medals table, Great Britain finished second with two gold medals, including the blue riband event, the men’s eight. Poland was third overall.

Participants included a number of World and Under 23 medallists. In the women’s single sculls Jitka Antosova of the Czech Republic won over Agata Gramatyka of Poland. Antosova is a World Champion at the under 23 level while Gramatyka was the winner of the single sculls at the University Championships two years ago. World Cup medallist and Under 23 Champion, Laura Schiavone of Italy finished third.

The lightweight women’s double was a tight battle at the end between four international rowers – Magdalena Kemnitz and Weronika Derecz of Poland and Great Britain’s Laura Greenhalgh and Andrea Dennis. Kemnitz and Derecz won in the final sprint.

The men’s single sculls attracted the most entries with 16 countries lining up. Italy’s Frederico Ustolin caused an upset by beating the statuesque Olympian Karsten Brodowski of Germany. Canada’s Michael Braithwaite finished third ahead of Juho Karppinen of Finland. Ustolin was presented with a handmade bow for his win. The bow represents the time of the ‘Magyars’ who were famous and feared for their bow and arrows.

In the lightweight men’s single sculls, Lukas Babac of Slovakia beat Great Britain’s Ben Rowe to the line with Romania taking third. Babac has been competing internationally for seven years.

China won its first university championship title when Jin Long and Yi He finished first in the men’s double sculls ahead of Germany and Australia.

The Szeged rowing course is on a reservoir which was built in 1981. It is the sports centre for rowing and canoeing in the region with the Hungarian National Championships both in rowing and canoeing held there annually. The venue also hosts the Simady Bela International Memorial Regatta every May.  In 1989 Szeged hosted the World Rowing Junior Championships.

The next World University Rowing Championships will be in Banyoles, Spain in 2012.  During the closing ceremony Verena Burk, of the International University Sports Federation, (FISU) handed over the FISU flag to the president of the Organising Committee of Banyoles.

FISU is the governing body for the summer and winter Universiades and the World University Championships. The Universiade is held every two years and the summer Universiade has 13 compulsory sports and up to three optional sports. Rowing is an optional sport. The World University Championships are organised every year for sports that are not compulsory in the Universiade programme.