Early season burn-up at FISA Team Cup

Often used as a break from long, hard, winter training rows, the FISA Team Cup in Seville, Spain, goes to the other extreme. Raced over two days, day one is a burning 1,000m race distance, and then day two shortens to a quick, intense 500m sprint race format.

Rowers from 17 nations competed and on day one they were lucky enough to strike a break in the recent rainy conditions. However, day two turned on the strong winds and heavy rain. This caused the junior events to be cancelled, but the rest of the programme was completed and favourable conditions during the finals saw six Team Cup records be broken. Most athletes raced on both days with the results reflecting the different distances and conditions. 

Under sunshine and little wind, Frida Svensson of Sweden took the top spot in the women’s single over 1,000m on day one. This is the fourth consecutive year that Svensson has won the single and she went on to win the 500m sprint the next day. In both of these races Estonia’s Kaisa Pajusalu followed Svensson home, while Laura Milani (ITA) came third over the shorter distance and Elisabetta Sancassani took third in the 1,000m distance.
Estonia’s Tonu Endrekson dominated the men’s single while Valentinos Sofokleous of Cyprus held off Spanish competition on both days to secure two silver medals.

The Italian men battled it out in the double. Over the 1,000m distance veterans Simone Venier and Alessio Sartori took line honours ahead of team mates Domenico Montrone and Matteo Stefanini. But Montrone and Stefanini got the better of Venier and Sartori in the 500m dash.

Portugal’s top boat, 2008 Olympians Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes showed that they are back together and back with speed. The duo finished first over 500m but then in the 1000m race Spain’s Arnan Bertran and Daniel Sigurbjonsson raced Fraga and Mendes to the line winning by just 23/100 of a second.

On day one the top team for Spanish regions went to Catalonia with Andalusia second followed by Galicia in third. The overall team points had Spain in first, Italy in second and Sweden in third.

For more information and results: www.deporteandaluz.com and www.fisateamcup.es

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