Women’s Single Sculls (BW1x) – Final

A–Final

The fastest time from the semifinals went to Samantha Voss of New Zealand who is at her debut under-23 championships. She’s come back from a broken ankle in 2017 after racing in 2015 at the under-23s. But all eyes were on Emily Kallfelz of the United States who took bronze in this boat class last year. At the start Voss had the best speed, but then Kallfelz stook over in the lead with Ruth Siddorn of Great Britain following in third. These were the three leading countries through the first quarter of the race.

Kallfelz then got a bit of a margin over Voss with Voss now keeping an eye on Desislava Georgieva of Bulgaria who had overtaken Siddorn. The all-important third 500 had begun and Kallfelz had picked up the pace. Voss would have to do a huge sprint to get into the gold medal spot as these two crews moved away from the rest of the field. Georgieva was giving it her all in the outside line. The encouragement for Voss was deafening as Voss went to 37 and gained on Kallfelz and then overtook her. Kallfelz had no reply. Does New Zealand have a new top women’s single sculler? Voss’s time of 7:28 was just one second outside of the under-23 World Best Time. Kallfelz took silver and Georgieva was the bronze medallist.

Results: NZL, USA, BUL, NOR, GBR, LAT

Samantha Voss, New Zealand, gold

“That was really hard but really amazing. 18 months ago I broke my ankle and was told I would never row again so to recover and to win here is amazing.”

Emily Kallfelz, United States of America, silver

“I stayed with the pack off the start and then it got a little bit bumpy in the middle. Caught a few diggers and I wasn’t able to bump the rate up, which is where New Zealand really got me. To come back and compete again has been amazing and is always a great learning experience. You know there will always be a solid group of competitors every year. ”

B-final

Lisa Gutfleisch of Germany raced in the a-final of the junior championships last year making her one of the youngest competitors here. She led the way in the 189^th race of this regatta. Brazil followed in second but was way behind Gutfleisch. Milena Viana of Brazil closed on Gutfleisch with Hungary absolutely tearing down the outside. Gutfleisch won.

Results: GER, HUN, BRA, CHN, UKR, ITA