Weekend Wrap: Ontario Rowers Compete at U23 Worlds

Ontario rowers had a busy weekend across the rowing world as the World Rowing U23 Championships were hosted in Duisberg, Germany, and the ERA Regatta and Tops and Bottoms Regatta ran on the domestic front.

Taking place on the Wedau Regatta Course in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany, the World Rowing U23 Championships were contested over four days from July 23-26. Seven Ontario athletes were a part of the two boats Team Canada sent to the start line: the men’s four and the women’s eight. Caillen Pieckenhagen (Ridley College) and Lucas Maroney (ONGPC) represented Ontario in the men’s four while Charlotte Langlois (Ridley College), Madelyn Vandermeer (Guelph Rowing Club), Ella McKinley (ONGPC), Riley Richardson (Ottawa Rowing Club), and Madeleine Lauriault (Ottawa Rowing Club) were members of the women’s eight.

The men’s four began their regatta with a fourth-place finish in their opening round heat, which sent them to the semi-finals to fight for a spot in the A Final. In the semi’s, they missed a spot in A Final by just 1.27 seconds, finishing in fifth place in a time of 6:00.19. In the B Final, they finished third in a time of 6:02.62 in a closely contested race behind Germany (6:01.12) and France (6:02.06) for a ninth-place overall finish. The women’s eight raced twice at the event, finishing fifth in the preliminary race for lane placements, and again fifth in the A Final.

The top-performing nations at the regatta were Germany with seven medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 3 gold), along with Greece (4 gold, 2 silver), the United States (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and Great Britain (3 gold, 3 silver) who finished with six medals apiece.

The ERA Regatta had a bit more Ontario participation this year, as the canceled RowOn Championships (due to poor air quality from wildfire smoke) led to several clubs pivoting to participate in the ERA’s. Hosted over two days in Montreal’s Olympic Basin, the ERA Regatta had 390 entries from 27 clubs from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Northeastern United States. A total of 214 entries came from the ten Ontario clubs competing at the regatta.

In Northwestern Ontario, the Tops and Bottoms Regatta took place on Rabbit Lake in Kenora, ON. A total of seven clubs from Canada and the United States took part in the regatta, which had 136 entries in a wide variety of race categories. The Thunder Bay Rowing Club had a productive day on the water, finishing tied for second in overall medals with 20 (9 gold, 7 silver, 4 bronze). The top performing club of the day was the Winnipeg Rowing Club who topped the leaderboard with 25 medals (14 gold, 7 silver, 4 bronze), followed by the Duluth Rowing Club who also earned 20 medals (5 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze). Other competing clubs included the Minneapolis Rowing Club (8 medals), Kenora Rowing Club (5), Pinawa Rowing Club (1) and Minnesota Rowing Club.

For full results from the U23 World Rowing Championships, visit World Rowing.
For full results from the ERA Regatta, visit RegattaCentral.
For full results from the Tops and Bottoms Regatta, visit RegattaCentral.

For the full regatta schedule in Ontario, visit the Row Ontario website.

Picture is property of Rowing Canada Aviron.