Women's Single Sculls (W1x) - Final

Throughout this regatta there has been no doubt about the supremacy of Kim Crow of Australia. The world silver medallist is at her first international regatta of the 2015 season and she was showing that all of her 2014 speed was still there, and more.  Crow was the first to reach the 500m mark with Belarus’s Tatsiana Kukhta sitting in second.

In a show of complete dominance Crow moved clean away from the rest of the field building to more than a five second margin. Olympian Genevra Stone of the United States had now pulled into second over Kukhta and these two scullers moved through the middle of the race together. Coming into the final sprint Crow had eight seconds of a lead with Stone remaining just ahead of Kukhta.

It was a beautiful display of rowing as Crow crossed the line. Meanwhile the rest of the field had completely closed up. Stone had squeezed through into second and the third medal would have to be decided by a photo finish. The result came back as Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig by 0.03 of a second over Carleen Zeeman of Canada.

Results: AUS, USA, AUT, CAN, BLR, CHN

Kim Crow – AUS – gold

“My last big race was the world champs even though I had a couple of races in Australia. I was focused on my rowing and it felt really good. There are still a lot of things to work on. I am going to train here in Varese for the next few months, so I feel almost at home here.”

Genevra Stone – USA – silver

“My father is my coach and I wanted him to have a good present for father’s day.”

Magdalena Lobnig – AUT – bronze  

“No matter the colour a medal is a medal and I am as happy as I can be. Gold and silver will be for next year. The competition was really tight. I couldn’t race at the European Championships because of sickness, but now I am getting back in form with the big goal of the World Championships.” 

B-final

Denmark’s Olympic medallist, Fie Udby Erichsen led for the majority of the race but then completely faded at the end to give Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland 1 the first place.

Results: SUI1, DEN, GER1, CHN2, SWE, POL