Rowers 18 years and under racing at the 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic looked to be cherishing the sunny conditions on the Racice regatta course. After two days of ongoing rain these B-finals – the race for place seven to 12 in the world – enjoyed clearing skies and flat water. A mixture of results in comparison to yesterday’s semifinals showed that rowers had reacted to weather conditions in a variety of ways.

Junior Men’s Coxed Four (JM4+) – Final B

Germany may be the reigning World Champions in this event, but this year they made it only as far as the Final B with their chance of racing to number seven in the world. To their credit, Germany missed out on competing in Final A by 9/100th of a second when they finished fourth in Saturday’s semifinal. Today they made the best of the situation and led from start to finish. Behind Germany, Croatia and the Czech Republic had a tight battle going on with Croatia getting the advantage in the second half of the race.

Meanwhile the slow starting Serbians had been working their way through the field from the very back. Serbia’s coxswain, Filip Lekic is just 11 years old but he must have been saying all of the right things as he brought his crew through the entire field and then closed on the Germans. Germany had just enough of a lead to hold off Serbia.

Results: GER, SRB, CRO, CZE, RSA, FRA

Junior Women’s Single Sculls (JW1x) – Final B

PHOTO:IGOR MEIJER” border=”0″ height=”280″ src=”/display/modules/media/cropimage.php?mediaid=362144&x0=102&y0=-1&x1=252&y1=279&zoom=1″ title=”Igor Meijer” width=”150″ />After two false starts this race got away cleanly and to the advantage of Lithuania. The 16 year old Milda Valciukaite of Lithuania is at her first junior championships and she showed strong evidence that she is a sculler to watch. Valciukaite started off in the lead and battled with Adeline Seydoux of Switzerland for the majority of the race. But coming into the final sprint Seydoux all but ran out of steam. Hungary’s Krisztina Gyimes, who had been sitting back in the field, suddenly unleashed a massive sprint at the 1700m mark. Seydoux had nothing left to give. Valciukaite held on. Valciukaite made it to the line first and can claim the seventh overall spot in the world.

Results: LTU, HUN, SUI, USA, SLO, NOR

Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x) – Final B

It takes a certain personality to be a single sculler. Perhaps not a lone wolf, but being very self motivated and wanting to be fully responsible for your actions, plays an important role. Today six single scullers lined up aiming to be seventh in the world. At the start Portugal’s Tome Perdigao, Serbia and Estonia were the fastest. Estonia, however, soon fell off the pace leaving it up to Aleksandar Filipovic of Serbia to keep the pressure on Perdigao.

Perdigao raced last year in the quad, finishing in the Final E. The single must be the boat that suits him as he showed his speed today. But a strong piece in the third 500 by Filipovic gave the Serbian the lead. Perdigao fought back. Both Filipovic and Perdigao looked exhausted coming into the final sprint. They had been neck-and-neck for the entire race and the strain was showing. Lithuania’s Zygimantas Galisanskis saw his chance, but had left it a little too late. Perdigao got the lead back from Filipovic with just three strokes left to row.

Results: POR, SRB, LTU, IRL, CRO, EST

Junior Men’s Pair (JM2-) – Final B

Ogeday Girisken of Turkey hugs his coach before the start in the junior men's pairs semifinal during the World Rowing Junior Championships held in Racice (CZE) on August 7, 2010. (Photo by Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)In one of the closest races of the day, Spain and Turkey took it to a photo finish that left the finishing judges guessing. The race opened with four crews within a second of each other and a quarter of the race rowed. Turkey’s Onat Kazakli and Ogeday Girisken had a small advantage. This, however, soon slipped away as Spain and South Africa pushed past with strong pieces in the second 500. Turkey held on, but Spain remained in the lead.

There was just 500m left to row and Spain and Turkey had now moved away from the rest of the field and were going stroke for stroke against each other. With 250m left to row Spain still had a small advantage. Kazakli and Girisken fought back. It was anyone’s guess at the line. The finishing judges had to decide.

Results: TUR, ESP, CRO, RSA, HUN, RUS

Junior Women’s Double Sculls (JW2x) – Final B

The style of Luliana-Madalina Iacob and Maria-Evelina Cogianu of Romania may not be the most stylish, but it was getting them down the 2000m Racice course at a very good pace. The pace of the Romanian’s was such that no other crew could even get close to them. Romania had missed out on making the A-final by less than a second so they were showing their skills today in the B-final.

Korea sat comfortably in second and posed very little threat to Romania. Coming into the line Romania crossed with an open water gap while Korea had to deal with a last minute flurry from Norway. The Norwegians had left the flurry too late and Korea earn eighth in the world.

Results: ROM, KOR, NOR, BEL, LAT, JPN

Junior Men’s Double Sculls (JM2x) – Final B

This race turned out to be all about Slovenia. Jan Kanduc and Jernej Markovc of Slovenia may have come last in their semifinal yesterday, but today they were on fire, rowing a beautifully even-split race. There was nothing the rest of the field could do. Both Kanduc and Markovc are at their first international rowing event and if they can repeat this kind of race they will have a great future. By the half way point Kanduc and Markovc had a clear water lead which grew and grew as they raced to the finish line.

Results: SLO, HUN, NZL, SUI, DEN, BLR

Junior Men’s Quadruple Sculls (JM4x) – Final B

Start of the junior men's quadruple sculls Final B at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice (CZE) on August 8, 2010.This race received the most cheering of the morning as these six crews raced to the line in twos. Australia and Ukraine were neck-and-neck at the head of the field, only separated by 4/100th of a second at the line. Greece and Belarus crossed the line practically on top of each other and Russia and Austria were separated by barely a bow ball at the line. This was the state of affairs after 2000m of rowing and it brought the crowd to their feet on this non-rainy day.

Australia, who raced in the Final A last year led for the majority of the race but lost it in the final sprint to Ukraine. Belarus managed to just hold off Greece right at the end and it was hard to tell who had the edge between Austria and Russia. This was the finishing judge’s decision:

Results: UKR, AUS, BLR, GRE, RUS, AUT

Junior Men’s Eight (JM8+) – Final B

A beautifully rowed race by Canada had them leading from start to finish. Canada got off to a fast start and earned nearly a boat length with just 60 strokes rowed. The Canadians continued to power forward moving out to clear water by the half way point. This left Russia, Spain and New Zealand to duke it out for the lesser positions. A very strong finish by Russia gave them the second place, or eighth overall at this regatta. Canada can feel proud of their finishing time of 5:50.

Results: CAN, RUS, NZL, ESP, FRA, UKR