Weekend Wrap: Canada Earns Two Medals at Worlds, Masters Take on Henley
After six days of competition, the 2022 World Rowing U19 and U23 Championships were completed on Sunday in Varese, Italy with two Canadian boats winning World Championship medals. The 138th Royal Canadian Henley Masters Championship also kicked off the week-long festivities in St. Catharines on Sunday.
Grace VandenBroek (Peterborough Rowing Club/Trent University) and Elisa Bolinger (Western University) placed the highest of any Canadian boat at the World Championships earning the U23 women’s double silver medal. Stephen Harris (Guelph Rowing Club/Brock University) also brought home a medal for Canada claiming a bronze in the men’s lightweight single. The silver marked the second international medal for VandenBroek, who previously won bronze in the U19 women’s double in 2017, and the first for Bolinger. Harris also claimed his first international medal.
The women’s double spent much of the race in fifth or sixth place, making a final push in the last 500m to clinch the silver medal with a time of 7:04.70. After battling for the third place spot with boats from Argentina and Germany for most of the race, Harris pulled ahead to take bronze in 7:17.56.
In other U23 World Championship action, the U23 women’s pair of Maya Meschkuleit and Leia Till finished fourth overall, the men’s pair of Julian Black and Joel Cullen finished fifth, the women’s eight finished seventh, the men’s eight claimed ninth place and the men’s double of Michael Ciepiela and Andrew Hubbard placed 13th.
The highest placing U19 boat was the women’s pair of Mira Calder and Sophia Regosa, who placed fifth in the A Final. The five remaining U19 boats each qualified for the B Final, with the women’s double of Cait Whittard and Anna Pamenter winning their race to come in seventh overall, while the men’s four coming placed eighth, the women’s four placed tenth, and the men’s double and women’s quad respectively placed 11th.
Meanwhile in St. Catharines, over 40 clubs with almost 300 entries took to Martindale Pond on Sunday to compete in the first Henley Masters regatta since 2019. Leading the way for the Masters athletes was the Endeavor Racing Alliance from Scottsdale, Arizona who claimed the most gold medals with six. The Don Rowing Club tied for the second-most gold medals with the Genesee Rowing Club (Rochester, NY) with five, which was also tops for Canadian clubs. Other Ontario clubs winning gold medals were the Georgian Bay Rowing Club (3), Ridley Graduate Boat Club (3), Ottawa Rowing Club (3), London Western Rowing Club (2), St. Catharines Rowing Club (2), Leander Boat Club (2), Hanlan Boat Club (1), Argonaut Rowing Club (1), South Niagara Rowing Club (1), Burnstown Rowing Club (1) and Niagara Falls Rowing Club (1).
Action on the Henley Course continues this week with the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta which runs from Aug. 2-7.
For full results from the World Rowing U19 and U23 Championships, visit World Rowing
For full results from the Royal Canadian Henley Masters Championship, visit RegattaCentral
For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.
Photo is property of RCA/Julia Kowacic.
