U23 Men's Single Sculls (BM1x) - Final

Serbia’s Andrija Sljukic qualified for the A-Final with the fastest semifinal time. Slukic lined up in lane three alongside Jack Beaumont from Great Britain in lane four. Beaumont won European Championship bronze this year in the men’s quadruple sculls and last year won under-23 bronze in the men’s double sculls. Would so much experience under his belt earn him another medal?

It was Denmark’s Sverri Nielsen leading at the start and crossing the line ahead of Beaumont at the 500m mark. Less than one second separated boats two to four, with Germany in third and Serbia in fourth.

After the half-way mark, the amount of energy spent by Denmark’s Nielsen proved to have been too much and he began to lose speed. With one quarter still to go, Denmark had fallen back to fourth and Serbia’s Aljukic had taken the lead.

But in an astonishing turn of events, Belarus’s Pilip Pavukou moved up from fifth at the 1500m mark to storm through the ranks and finish ahead in gold. In lane two, Poland’s Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk mirrored the same tactic, powering up from sixth position. The top three boats crossed the line nearly level, with two tenths of a second between them. Serbia takes silver and Poland bronze. 

Results: BLR, SRB, POL, DEN, GBR, GER

Pilip Pavukou – BLR – gold 
“I still didn’t understand that I am World Champion. The last part of the race I had no time to think. I don’t know what happened. I am very happy.” 

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk – POL – bronze 
“It was so hard, the competition is very tough this year. All rowers have already competed at the senior level. I was studying in the US this year and I had only one month in the single to prepare so I am satisfied with the result.”

B-Final

All six of the crews in this B-Final finished within five seconds of each other in the repechages. Benjamin Davison from the United States was the early leader in this race. Ioan Prundeanu of Romania settled in second position by the half-way mark. With one quarter of the race left, Davison had two lengths ahead of Romania, with Lithuania’s Dovydas Nemeravicius in third. The positions remained unchanged until the line.

Results: USA, ROU, LTU, HUN, KAZ, MON