DUISBERG, Germany – Sophomore Annabelle Bachmann and junior Esther Briz Zamorano each took home top-five results at the European Under-23 Championships, with Bachmann and Germany taking home the gold in the 8+. Briz Zamorano and Spain's 4- finished fifth.
Bachmann, who sat in the fifth seat for Germany, helped her team to a winning time of 6:27.36. Victorious by 1.6 seconds, the team led start to finish despite an early challenge from Russia and a late push by Romania, who took bronze and silver, respectively. Germany won its heat to bypass the repechage and head straight to the final with a 3.3 second win over Romania.
Briz Zamorano stroked the Spain boat, which rowed to a fifth-place time of 6:53.23. The Spanish quartet got out to a strong start in third place after 500 meters, but was edged by Italy, the Netherlands and Belarus over the final 1,500. The Spanish team took second in their heat, behind Russia, to advance directly to the final, and then topped the Russians in the championship race.
The gold medal is the first for Bachmann with team Germany, who had previously earned silver at the 2017 and 2018 Junior World Championships. Briz Zamorano had her best international finish in the women's four, after previously medaling in European and World Junior Championships in the JW1x.
Full results for the European Under-23 Championships can be found here.