Five nations—Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, and Tunisia—were gearing up for the Paris WRU19CHs by attending the Development Programme Training Camp prior to the Championships. Following the training camp, a further six developing countries supported by the Development Programme joined, these included Latvia, Georgia, Moldova, Cyprus, Egypt, and Bolivia.
The championships were held over three days then the planned five as the weather remained hazardous over the entire weekend. Racing got under way on Thursday the 3rd of August. The athletes advanced from the Repechage round to Semi-Final A/B or directly to Final C and Final D due to no racing on Sunday.
The young participants displayed incredible bravery and flexibility during the regatta period due to the extremely variable weather conditions. Despite the challenging weather—windy, wet and cold—our developing nations were all able to compete and produce some decent outcomes.
Cloe Callorda of Uruguay winning the bronze medal in the JW1x must without a doubt have been the weekend’s best moment. She progressed through the regatta with an incredibly professional racing form, winning her heat, quarterfinal, and finishing second in the Semi-Final A/B to advance into the A Final to compete for a medal.
With fewer than three hours between the Semifinal and the Final, Cloe showed outstanding ability and endurance. In third place behind the Irish sculler in second and the winner, Romania’s Bianca Camelia Ifteni, she crossed the finish line with a time of 8:03.46.
In addition to being Cloe and her coach Marcelo Trigo’s reward for countless hours of practice and effort, this medal is also a testament to the outstanding work done by the World Rowing Development Programme over the previous ten years.
Since 2013, continental training camps held preceding regattas have helped the Uruguay Rowing Federation’s athletes and coaches. This wonderful celebration of a medal from a supported development nation at a World Rowing Championships has indicated that the many development programs (such as Development of National Sport System in 2021) that World Rowing have been working with is reaping its fruits now.
It also indicates that what World Rowing’s Development Strategy and efforts of the last few years has been in the right direction, we now look forward to further improving the standard and performance of development nations that we have invested in over the last decade.
