They are Golden: the Greek lightweight women's double scull

04/11/2010 11:03 CET

Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou are the reigning World Champions in the Lightweight women’s double.  They started the 2010 season by winning the Rowing World Cup event in Bled but were beaten in Lucerne by the Australians whom they will find back in the final at Lake Karapiro in New Zealand.  They are two times European Champions together since they paired up in 2009.  For Tsiavou, 2010 was her fourth European title in a row, the two first ones being with her former partner Chrysi Biskitzi who since retired. Giazitzidou and Tsiavou have an impressive number of medals at World Rowing events between them; and added up they amount to more than 20 medals of which 15 gold. Both started rowing at the age of 12, Giazitzidou in her hometown of Kastoria, just for fun. Tsiavou didn’t know anything about rowing before starting in Igoummenitsa.  Back then, her coach, Konstantinos Kitsatis, suggested to her parents that she join the rowing team that was just being put together in their town. A professional fire-fighter, Tsiavou has adjusted her work schedule to allow for training. She began to row internationally in 2001 at junior level. Giazitzidou, on her side, appeared in 2006 at the Under-23 level. Looking at their records, one would think there is a lot of pressure on their shoulders but Alexandra denies: “Our medal at the World Rowing Championships last year doesn’t give us more pressure here. It’s actually still the same thing; we just want to do the best we can.  If there is a medal at the end of the final, it surely will be welcome. Even if it’s not always easy, we’re confident and that’s what you need to achieve good results.” Apostolos Palaiopanos, their coach, sees the main reason for their success being their high-quality and hard training but also the fact that they learn from their mistakes by trying to understand why they happened.  The gold medal of last year didn’t come as a surprise to him: “This double scull is made up of two good athletes. I was sure their association would be a success; they are very talented but also have the advantage of having no problem to keep their weight all year round”. But not only is this lightweight women's double scull good, the Greek results are better than ever. It seemed for a long time, that Greek rowers were only good in lightweight events, as confirmed by the medal in the 2004 Olympic Games, but Greece now also shows improved results in open events. Tsiavou comments: “We only had good results in the lightweight events because the population in Greece in not that tall.  But things are changing. Our training centre in Schinias which we have used now for several years is a very good place to train.[...] Rowing in tough conditions in Schinias helps us to row in every condition.” Palaiopanos confirms: “The weather conditions in Schinias are 80% windy, but we also have other days and we row in every condition. I put the main reason of our improvements down to Gianni Postiglione who became the head coach five years ago. He changed our mentality by giving goals to everybody, from clubs which are very important in Greece, to coaches and athletes. He also gave us training plans which help us on the way to victory.” Greece’s lightweight women’s double sculls will be up against Germany, Australia, Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand in the A Final at 15:18 local New Zealand time on Friday 5 November. Από