Synek's classy season in the single

Dominated by statuesque rowers who would not look out of place on a basketball team, the men's single had an adventurous year with a rather different feel to the pre-London Olympics years.

Standing out for his consistency was Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Synek was the only London Olympic medallist to medal at this year's World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea and he did it by completing an unbeaten season to become a World Champion for the second time in his career. Synek, 31, stands nearly 2m tall and is known to be crafty when it comes to racing strategy. Often he will not show full speed through the heats and semifinals leaving it to the final to show his true strength.

The season began at the World Rowing Cup in Sydney where a smaller than normal turnout meant that some new faces got on to the medals podium. In first place was Georgi Bozhilov of Bulgaria. This was 198cm tall Bozhilov's first ever World Cup medal in the boat class he has been racing for the last three years and it set the 24-year-old up for a positive season with a second medal coming at the next World Rowing Cup in Eton Dorney.

Synek came to Eton Dorney following a win at the European Rowing Championships in Seville. Seville saw Synek show that he was a class above his competition when he took control of the final and left Germany's Marcel Hacker resigned to second. Hacker is now one of the rowing stalwarts of this event. Hacker has international history in the single that goes back to the '90s and includes a medal from the 2000 Olympic Games.

Moving onto the third and final World Rowing Cup of the season, Lucerne ended up an almost perfect preview of the World Rowing Championships. Synek showed that, again, he was the one to beat and Hacker came through to outrun Cuba's 2m tall Angel Fournier Rodriguez who finished third.  The Lucerne final also included Roel Braas of the Netherlands, Bozhilov and Campbell.

The lead up to the final, however, made as much news as the final. As the biggest field at the World Champs with 32 countries racing, the heats had to go through quarterfinals. Olympic Champion, Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand was racing at his first World Rowing event since the London Olympics and moved through to the quarterfinals despite having sustained a cycling injury just before the championships began.

In the quarterfinal Drysdale needed a top three finish. The Olympic Champion was in a tough quarterfinal that included Hacker, Bozhilov and Olympic finallist, Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Azerbaijan. Drysdale was fourth and out of the finals for the first time in his single sculling career.

All of the finallists from the Lucerne World Rowing Cup lined up again together in the Chungju final. Synek left nothing to chance by leading from start to finish. Hacker slotted into second but was unprepared for a huge second half push by Fournier. The Cuban gave it his all and looked absolutely spent stopping just before the finish. But the effort had earned him a World Championship silver medal – a first for Cuba. Hacker earned bronze, his first World Championship medal in the single since 2006.

Watch out for more single sculling surprises in 2014. The 2004 and 2008 Olympic Champion, Olaf Tufte of Norway has just announced his comeback and is already counting down to Rio 2016 and Drysdale is working to get his form back for the coming season.