Lightweight Men's Single Sculls (LM1x) - Final

Coming through from yesterday’s semifinals, this looked like it would be a very tight race between France’s Pierre Houin who is the current European Champion  and Lukas Babac of Slovakia who took silver at the European Championships. At the start Houin had the lead with Italian World Champion Marcello Miani chasing hard. Then Babac found his pace to overtake Miani and go after Houin. But in the meantime Houin had been working away to build up a leading margin.

In the final sprint Houin was looking comfortable and despite Babac’s best effort, Houin was able to finish with a clear water lead. Babac held on to second with Miani fading back to let Germany’s Max Roeger through to bronze.

Results: FRA1, SVK, GER2, CRO, ITA1, FRA

Pierre Houin – FRA – gold

“Everything went perfectly, the conditions were ideal so I could do what I wanted. I was a bit surprised by the lack of challenge from Miani (ITA).”

Lukas Babac – SVK – silver

“After the European Championship I started to train a lot to prepare for the World Championship, this was part of my training and I am really tired from these past few weeks, so I am really happy with the result.”

Max Roeger – GER – bronze

“It’s a great success, I missed the start a little, because I wasn’t really at attention. The French guy got out in front and I knew he was fast at the start. It wasn’t a great race, I tried to stay in the pack with the others because I knew I have a good sprint. I would definitely fit in the double, and would love to do it if it’s possible.”

B-final

What began as a race that was all about Gabor Csepregi of Hungary ended in the Hungarian being piped by Francesco Pegoraro of Italy 2. Pegoraro started off rather slow but managed to work his way through to the lead in a massive 34 stroke rate sprint at the end. Former lightweight double sculler, Konstantin Steinhuebel of Germany 1 came through in third.

Results: ITA2, HUN, GER1, BUL, DEN, JPN1