Historic moments in A-finals at junior championships

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

Switzerland has never competed in this event before at a junior world championship. This year they put together a little piece of magic. Coming into this final Switzerland had not lost a race and were viewed as the favourites. They had, however, not yet met the Italians. Italy won bronze last year and came to these finals as the winner of the opposing semifinal to the Swiss.
Switzerland and Italy were the two crews that moved out of the start with the fastest pace, Switzerland just ahead of Italy. By the half way point Louis Margot, Markus Kessler, Alex Pluess, Augustin Maillefer and coxswain Marco Brechbuehl of Switzerland had moved to more than a boat length lead over Italy and they were not slowing down. Italy looked to have no reply and now had to deal with the ever-closer Australia.

Out in front the Swiss were enjoying themselves and they came into the final sprint in a comfortable position. Meanwhile Italy and Australia were giving it their all as they raced to the line within inches of each other. Italy got there just a smidgen in front, moving up one position from 2009, while Australia drops down one position from last year.

The gold for Switzerland is the first gold for the country since 1994 at the junior level. There was no denying the tears of joy by Brechbuehl as he stood on the winners podium.

Results: SUI, ITA, AUS, UKR, USA, NZL

Alex Pluess (SUI) – Gold
“It was the best race I ever had. We were in front after the start and after 500 meters I knew that we had won it.”

Jack Alpe (AUS) – Bronze
“A good, hard race. The boys fought hard.”

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

Annick Taselaar of the Netherlands shot out of the starting blocks like a woman possessed and had earned a full boat length lead before the 300m mark. This was quite a surprise as Taselaar did 

not come into this race as one of the favourites. That honour belonged to Judith Sievers of Germany and Laura Oprea of Romania. Had Taselaar gone out too fast? Despite her early speed 

Taselaar still had the lead at the half way point, but now Sievers was closing fast.

Sievers, looking calm and measured, then made her move at the 1000m point. Taselaar tried to hold on but it was not long before she was slipping back behind Sievers. Meanwhile Aikaterini Nikolaidou of Greece and Oprea had been working steadily away tracking each other from lanes two and three respectively. Taselaar was under threat. Having nothing more to give in the final sprint Taselaar missed out on a medal with Sievers taking gold, Oprea in second and Nikolaidou in third. Germany’s new single sculler had kept the World Champion title with her country. The 16 year old Oprea wins silver in her first international event.

Results: GER, ROU, GRE, NED, LAT, AZE

Judith Sievers (GER) – Gold
“It was very tough, but I am very happy! I am so proud to be World Champion, that was what I wanted to become since I was young. It would be great to continue as senior, though it’s very tough.”

Aikaterini Nikolaidou (GRE) – Bronze
“I’m very, very happy. It’s been a hard year for me and I so much wanted this medal. It’s great!”

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

Last year a surprised Felix Bach of Germany marched away with the gold medal in this event. A year older and wiser, Bach won gold again this year continuing to add only wins to his international record. Bach did the winning in pure style taking off at the head of the field and dropping Andrew Campbell of the United States through the second 500. By the middle of the race Bach had built up a clear water lead, his strong, unconventional style working well for him.

At the line Italy had held onto second, albeit only just and France earn gold. This is Socha’s first international regatta while Kober is at her second junior champs.

Results: FRA, ITA, GER, AUS, GRE, NED

Daphine Socha (FRA) – Gold
“I am very happy. It’s wonderful. It’s a lot for me and my friend, my double partner. I hope to come back next year…maybe in this, maybe in a quad.”

 Elena Coletti (ITA) – Silver
"We were aiming for our maximum and it was silver today. We knew the French would be very strong and today we were not able to catch them."

 Shirin Brockmann (GER) – Bronze
“I think we had a good race. We are not going to start at the Youth Olympics, but the Olympics 2012 in London are our aim for next year.”

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

Germany are the reigning World Champions of this event and this year’s crew of Stephan Riemekasten and Timo Piontek came to this final with the fastest qualifying time from the semis of over two seconds. Today the Germans took off in the lead and never looked back. France’s Alberic Cormerais and Mickael Marteau held on for a few hundred metres, but then found the German pace way too fast and Riemekasten and Piontek were able to move away to a clear water lead.

Meanwhile France had slipped comfortably into second leaving the real battle to go on for third between Greece, Romania and Italy. Both Italy and Romania raced in the final in 2009 with Romania earning silver. Now these three crews were sprinting for the line in the hope of grabbing that final medal. Italy’s Emanuele Ferraiuolo and Edoardo Margheri used a massive push at the 1500m mark to get away from Romania and Greece.

An unlucky Dutch crew found themselves out of their lane at the 1400m mark and a bit stuck. They never managed to get fully back into the race. Riemekasten and Piontek, in first, made the race look easy to retain the World Champion title for Germany.

Results: GER, FRA, ITA, ROU, GRE, NED

Timo Piontek (GER) – Gold
“When I started to row with Stephan as my new partner this year, we didn’t expect that it would work out so well! But during the season it got better and better. At the end of the race, having this huge lead, we were only rating 35, but we still wanted to do a good time. I want to continue rowing next year on the senior level, but I think it’s too early to talk about London 2012. I will keep on training and see what is possible then.”

Edoardo Margheri (ITA) – Bronze
“The Germany, France and Romanians were very strong at the start and during most of the race. But we were able to move to third place which is great.”

Junior Men’s Quadruple Sculls (JM4x)

The two favourites coming into this final were Germany and Italy as winners of their respective semifinals and with the top two fastest times. At the start of the race Germany got off the line the best but there was very little in it between them and Great Britain, Italy and New Zealand. It took another 500m of rowing in this 2000m race for Germany to break away. The Germans are the reigning World Champions and they have retained Florian Eidam from the 2009 winning crew. Eidam is joined by Denis Sittel, Ruben Steinhardt and Patrick Leineweber and together they made a formidable combination.

With 500m left to row Germany remained in front with Great Britain now falling back, leaving New Zealand and Italy to fight it out for the lesser medal spots. A big power push by Italy in the close of the race earned them silver with New Zealand in the bronze medal spot – the sa

me position they held a year ago.

 Michele Manzoli (ITA) – Silver
"We were hoping to get further up, but the Germans were making our life very hard. They were just faster today so this medal is great too. ”

 Hayden Cohen (NZL) – Bronze
“Yes – I’m the brother of Nathan Cohen! We had a pretty good race. We wanted a fast start but couldn’t match the others. It was one of our better races – we’ve been training together for 10 weeks – but we were just beaten by better crews.”

Junior Men’s Eight (JM8+) – Final A

The United States came through the hard way to this final. They missed out on qualifying directly from Thursday’s heats and instead had to race in Friday’s ‘second chance’ repechage. They just scraped through by finishing second in their repechage. Today, however, was a new day and the crew put it all together perfectly. Reigning World Champions Germany took the lead at the start but moving through the second 500 the United States had pushed into the lead.

The United States pushed on in a very strong performance with Germany desperately trying to hold on. Meanwhile, Italy and Romania were going neck-and-neck for the third position. The Italian-Romanian battle continued right to the line with Italy getting into the medal position by mere inches. Germany managed to close on the United States, but the US had just enough in them to hold the Germans off.

At the line the United States were elated, Germany satisfied and Italy not quite so pleased. All crews got the reception they deserved on the medals podium – a highlight of any junior championships.

Results: USA, GER, ITA, ROU, GBR, CZE

Louis Lombardi Jnr (USA) – Gold
“This is unreal! I don’t have words for this! I had a double glance to my right a couple if times and couldn’t believe we were ahead so I said let’s hold on! I was expecting we would have to claw back but we went early and did it. ”

Matteo Macario (ITA) – Bronze
“This is not really what we expected. It should have been more.”