2023 World Rowing Under 19 Championships in Paris Attract More Than 600 Athletes

STORY COURTESY WORLD ROWING | PHOTO BY LISA WORTHY

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games rowing regatta venue in Vaires-sur-Marne, France, will play host to the top Under 19 rowers in the world for the 2023 World Rowing Under 19 Championships. This will take place from 2 to 6 August 2023. 

Fifty-three nations will be represented at the World Rowing Under 19 Championships by more than 615 competing athletes. Italy is sending a full team to contest all 14 boat classes. Last year, Greece finished first on the medals table with Italy in second and Germany in third. 

Greece will be looking to defend their titles in the women’s single and double sculls, with 2022 World Rowing Under 19 Champion Sofia Dalidou looking for a second gold medal – this time with a new partner, Gavriela Lioliou. 

The largest field entered is the women’s single sculls with crews from 29 countries racing. The name to watch is definitely Aurora Spirito of Italy who won a silver medal on home waters last year in Varese, and will look to improve on her performance. Just behind this is the men’s single sculls with 27 entries and Peter Strecansky of Slovakia, winner of the bronze medal last year, will look to capitalise on the experience of competing at senior level earlier this year. He will face the recent European U19 Champion, Marco Selva of Italy. 

Both Germany and the USA will look to defend their titles respectively in the men’s and women’s eights. Both boat classes have seven entries and racing promises to be thick and fast.  

As the World Rowing Under 19 Championships are the pinnacle rowing event for junior rowers, it usually takes until they are 18 years of age to make their junior national team. This means that the athletes often only race at one junior championships before they move on to the Under 23 or senior level. For rowers to be eligible to compete at the World Rowing Under 19 Championships, they must be 18 years of age or under. A rower can compete as a Under 19 rower until 31 December of the year in which he or she reaches the age of 18; after that date the rower advances to the Under 23 category. 

Located just east of Paris, the Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne will play host to both Olympic and Paralympic regattas in 2024 as well as the canoe and kayak events. The site is significant as the centre for rowing in France’s most populous region, Île de France, which includes Paris itself. The regatta course, which played host to World Rowing Cups in 1994 and 1995, was entirely renovated in 2019 and has welcomed two international Para regattas in 2022 and 2023. This will be the first test activity before the Olympic and Paralympic regattas next year. 

Live race tracker, results, race reports, photo gallery and live blog will be available throughout the regatta on www.worldrowing.com, as well as updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Live streaming will be available on Saturday and Sunday on worldrowing.com. 

For a complete entry list click here.  

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