World Rowing U23 Championships: 5th place

The World Rowing U23 Championships were organised in Sarasota, Florida from 24 until 28 July. Because of the warm and humidate climate we were there in time to acclimatize, these were very challenging circumstances for my first international championships. Our goal was to get a place in the Top 8.

The heats began for us on the 25th of July, we had a good draw. We were against New-Zealand, Uruguay and Hong Kong, we could secure the first place in our heat. With this first place we qualified immediately for the semifinals. This result was really unexpected!

The semifinal, on saturday, was the most important race of our tournament. It was a heavy battle with the Australians, but we were able to get the third place and go trough to the A-final. With our spot in the A-final these championships were already succesfull, everything that we could achieve from now on was extra.

We had to row our final in the full sun, it was 40°C when were waiting at the start. After a quick start from all crews, we had to chase the rest of the field fast. But at the end we could still take the fith place in front of the Greeks.

End result: GER-ITA-SUI-ESP-BEL-GRE

Click here for the full results