Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) - Final

Coming through this regatta it has been Magdalena Lobnig of Austria who has really excelled. Lobnig sat in the middle of the race and she got away the quickest at the start and earned an absolutely huge seven second lead with just 500m rowed. But 25-year-old Lobnig needed to take into account the experienced 43-year-old Belarusian Ekaterina Karsten. Could Karsten close the gap? At the half way point Lobnig still had a gaping lead with Ireland’s Sanita Puspure now moving up.

A couple of bad strokes by Lobnig gave Puspure a bit of an advantage, but the space that the leader had built up was still huge. Lobnig just had to keep it all together and the European Championship title would be hers. Puspure looked around to try and see the gap as Elza Gulbe of Latvia moved into second. With 500m to go, Lobnig’s lead looked way to large to close. This was turning into a race for survival. The mantra of these scullers must have been, ‘keep it clean’. Then Lobnig, with 250m to go, caught a crab. It didn’t matter as Lobnig’s lead was so big. Lobnig crossed the finish line in a time of 9:22. It would be difficult to find a championship regatta with such a slow time. Gulbe took silver and Puspure crossed just ahead of Karsten to take bronze.

Results: AUT, LAT, IRL, BLR, LTU, CZE

B-final

British under-23 sculler Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne had a great race getting away quickly and keeping an eye on the rest of the field by staying in the lead. This kept Germany in second. Hodgkins-Byrne kept her stroke rate at 32 to hold off the field at the end with Sweden flying through to second and nearly catching the Brit.

Results: GBR, SWE, UKR, GER, RUS, NED

Magdalena Lobnig – Austria – gold 
“I just focused on staying long and powerful. I had to try not to lose my oars. It was so easy, it is a wonder today.”

Elza Gulbe – Latvia – silver 
“This is my best medal ever. I am very happy. My luck was really the weather. I am racing in Lucerne at the qualifying regatta.”

Sanita Puspure – Ireland – bronze
“I need to progress in these tough conditions. It was not really the race I was hoping for. I still need to qualify for Rio.”