Lightweight Men's Single Sculls (LM1x) - Final

The semifinals yesterday put Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia1 as the favourite after recording the fastest time. But Hrvat may have burned himself out and he came through the first half of the race in the middle of the field. Instead it was Lukas Babac of Slovakia in the lead. Babac was the Bled International Regatta winner on Friday and his vast experience was showing today as he remained in front. Then Hrvat realised that he needed to do something special and through the third 500 Hrvat closed the gap on Babac.

With less than 300m left to row, Hrvat looked over his shoulder and went for an extra push to catch Babac as China’s Guiying Zhu closed in. Babac found another gear and crossed the line in under 7 minutes. A very happy Hrvat took second  to improve on his Bled International result and Bulgaria’s Nedelcho Vasilev got the better of Zhu to grab bronze.

Results: SVK, SLO, BUL, CHN, SUI

Gold – Lukas Babac – Slovakia 

It was a really tough race, I knew that Hrvat would be very fast and he raced two less times than me this weekend. It is a very good beginning of the season for me and I’ll stay in the single as I have no partner for double.

Siver – Rajko Hrvat – Slovenia

I am very glad for this great opportunity because nobody believed in me besides my coach and my family. I am glad this happened here. I wanted to win, this was a good weekend for me. Unfortunately didn’t work for first, but I am very happy with second.

B-final

Petar Jovanovic of Serbia2 can do a flying start, but he was unable to sustain it with Croatia’s Luka Radonic taking over in the lead. From the outside lane Nuno Mendes of Portugal challenged. Radonic had a very good final sprint, striking 41 strokes per minute to hold on to first. Radonic showed his pleasure as he crossed the finish line, punching the air.

Results: CRO, BEL, POR, SLO2, ALG, SRB2