Photo credit: World Rowing/Ben Tufnell
We’re into the final stretch. An Olympic Games beckons and the twinkling lights of the city of love, Paris, stretched over and across the winding Seine river, are the sole focus point of all international rowers. The 2023 World Rowing Championships was the curtain call of the last season before the Olympic year and it brought to the fore a host of favourites, contenders, runners and riders, all contesting for the honour of Olympic gold in nine months’ time.
Here at Filippi, our focus is on supporting every athlete who takes our shell to the water.
We want our rowers to be the best they can be, ably supported by the fastest equipment and the sharpest minds in boat-building innovation. Belgrade was another stellar performance for our Filippi ambassadors (47 of 78 total medals awarded to Filippi boats), and we wanted to spend a little time detailing the victors who will go on to compete in Paris.
Let’s start with the British duo of Imogen Grant and Emily Craig racing in the women’s lightweight double scull. Together, they summitted the world once again, defeating all-comers in an epic show of strength. Alongside Darren Whiter, Olympic High-Performance Coach for the Great British rowing team, Imogen and Emily will hopefully arrive in Paris as hot favourites to secure an Olympic gold that eluded them in that incredible final in Tokyo.
The Dutch had a phenomenal regatta, winning seven medals and sitting atop the overall podium. Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester had a quite brilliant regatta, defeating much-fancied pairings from both Australia and Romania in the women’s pair. This final featured Filippi shells in every podium slot and the same was true of the women’s double, where Romania’s Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis reclaimed their world title. The pairing are the current Olympic champions and look set to retain their title in France.
Moving back to the Dutch armada, their women’s four put in a blistering effort to triumph ahead of Romania and a resurgent British outfit. Despite having finished fourth in Lucerne just six weeks prior, these women found a remarkable turn of speed in Belgrade – much like the rest of the team from the Netherlands – to take gold. Both gold and silver went to Filippi crews.
In the women’s eight, Romania reclaimed their world title in spectacular, Filippi-fuelled, fashion. Their relentless mid-race rhythm was too much for the field to handle but an evolving unit from the USA – again, in a Filippi – found themselves prominently placed in silver. All eyes will turn to the Romanians and their sparkling Filippi shell as we approach the apex of the Olympiad.
Holland were victors in our two male gold medals at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. The men’s double of Melvin Twellaar and Stefan Broenink tore apart a field containing the might of the Sinkovic brothers and 2022 world silver medallists from Spain. Their form in 2023 has been exhilarating and they ran out deserved winners. This final featured Filippi boats in all of the medal slots and extended our unbeaten run in this event.
The men’s quad from the Netherlands never looked under serious threat, despite a starting list containing world champions from Poland, Olympic silver medallists from Great Britain and a rapidly-improving unit from Italy. Their style and poise is remarkable and with European single scull champion Lennart Van Lierop in the bows, their gold medal never looked in doubt. The question is who will stop them retaining their Olympic title next summer?
There were a whole host of other incredible Filippi results, too numerous and broad to mention. The 2023 edition of the World Rowing Championships reconfirmed, if ever it was in doubt, that Filippi are the world’s leading performance boat-builder, picking up at least one medal in every Olympic-eligible event on both the men’s and women’s side. Our success only fuels our collective fire to improve, to innovate, to evolve and to grow our brand in line with the fierce ambition that powers our athletes. We cannot wait for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and firmly believe that this will be yet another powerful and enduring testament to the quality and durability of the Filippi brand.
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