2016 World University Championships – Poznan, Poland

The athletes hailed from 27 nations across six continents making it a truly global event with 14 boat classes being contested. As host nation, Poland fielded the largest team with 41 athletes, while the Netherlands and Great Britain were not far behind with squads of 34 and 31 athletes respectively. Poland’s team took medals in eight of the boat classes including one gold. But it was Germany that had the shine, winning four gold medals.

Australia’s Amy James took gold in the lightweight women’s single, maintaining her position to the line against a powerful attack by Anja Manoutschehri of Austria, who couldn’t break James’ lead after moving from fourth into second in the last 1000m of the race. Patricia Mara of Canada finished with bronze as Italy’s Federica Pala faded.

The Czech duo of Jakub Podrazil and Kukas Helesic were dominant in the men’s pair, finishing almost 2.5 seconds ahead of Narey McCaffrey and Louis van Velthooven of New Zealand and 4.16 seconds ahead of Australia’s Angus Moore and Nathan Bowden.

The Rowing Australia website reported as follows on the results.

Australia’s Amy James has claimed gold at the 2016 World University Rowing Championships after the Queenslander won the final of the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls. James was not the only crew to medal in Poznan, Poland last week, with Australian University Sports’ Angus Moore and Nathan Bowden snapping up a bronze in the Men’s Pair finals.

Australia has a total of six crews competing for the Uniroos at the event held from 2 to 4 September and all the crews finished in the top ten of the competition.

Along with the two-medal winning crews, Annabel Gibson and Sophie Jerapetritis finished fifth in the A-Final of the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls, while Wilson Mure and Max McQueeney were fourth in the A-Final of the Men’s Double Sculls.

Meanwhile, in the B-Finals, Maddie Coonan finished third in the Women’s Single Sculls giving her an overall placing of ninth. Queensland’s Hamish Parry won the B-Final of the Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls, giving him an overall placing of seventh in the standings post-Championships.

James’ victory in the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls, saw the Toowong RC athlete lead her final from start to finish to win the gold medal in Poland. Meanwhile, Moore and Bowden, had a strong start, but were overtaken by New Zealand who won silver, while the Czech Republic won the gold medal.