World
Romania, UK Top Medal Tables At Mega Worlds
The U.S. won a single gold medal in each of the under-19 and under-23 championships but by winning only a silver medal extended a senior World Rowing Championship gold-medal drought dating to 2019. Host country Canada was completely shut out, winning no medals.
Comprised of 41 events across three typically separate World Rowing Championships, Mega Worlds featured 14 under-19 events, 21 under-23 events, and six senior events. Combined in an Olympic year, as they were in 2016 in Rotterdam, Mega Worlds gives national teams and World Rowing a single destination in a year when they must travel also to the Olympic and Paralympic regattas.
Romania topped the under-19 medal table with four golds. Italy won six total medals, three of them gold, while Greece also won three golds out of four medals total. The U.S. landed sixth on the U19 medals table, with four medals altogether, all in coxed sweep events: a gold in the women’s eight, a silver in the men’s eight, and bronzes in both coxed fours.
Great Britain topped all nations in under-23 events, winning five golds and a bronze. Germany also had a remarkably successful regatta, winning four golds, a silver, and three bronze medals. The U.S. was sixth on the medals table, with a gold and four silvers.
Ireland and Italy tied atop the senior Worlds medal table with a gold and a bronze each. The silver medal in the men’s lightweight quad landed the U.S. tied with Paraguay and Peru in eighth.
While the Olympics and under-19 Worlds have achieved gender equity in number of events, under-23 and senior World Rowing Championships have not, with a combined 15 men’s and 12 women’s events.