Ireland had its most successful World Championships ever when they picked up two gold medals and their first golds in Olympic boat classes. This happened first in the lightweight men’s double sculls when the O’Donovan brothers won the race. Then the second gold came in the blue ribband event, the women’s single sculls with Sanita Puspure beating the reigning World Champion, Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland to the line. Gmelin took silver and bronze went to Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig. In the highly anticipated men’s single sculls the reigning European Champion, Kjetil Borch of Norway rowed a fantastic race leading from start to finish to take his first ever World Championship title in the single. Borch pushed the World Champion, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic into second with Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis sprinting through to a bronze in the close of the race. In the para-rowing boat classes new World Best Times were set with the most impressive being in the para PR1 men’s and women’s single sculls. In successfully defending his World Championship title, Erik Horrie of Australia set a new World Best Time. The defending World Champion in the women’s single, Birgit Skarstein of Norway did the same and not only set a World Best Time, but also completely dominated the final.
At the start of the week Jason Osborne of Germany set a World Best Time in the lightweight men’s single sculls during the heats. Osborne went on to win the final of the lightweight single ahead of Michael Schmid of Switzerland. The German men’s eight closed the Championships by successfully defending their World Championship title. In a tightly fought final, the Germans held off challenges from the United States, Great Britain and Australia to win the gold. Australia finished just ahead of Great Britain to claim the silver.
Results
Boat class / Rank 1 / Rank 2 /Rank 3 /
W2- CAN, NZL, ESP
M2- CRO, ROU, FRA
W2x LTU, NZL, USA
M2x FRA, SUI, NZL
W4- USA, AUS, RUS
M4- AUS, ITA, GBR
LM2x IRL, ITA, BEL
LW2x ROU, USA, NED
W4x POL, GER, NED
M4x ITA, AUS, UKR
M8+ GER, AUS, GBR
W1x IRL, SUI, AUT
M1x NOR, CZE, LTU
W8+ USA, CAN, AUS
