Silver Skiff turns to gold for Sinkovic

Racing in the 11km Silver Skiff single sculling regatta in Turin, Italy, Valent and Martin finished one – two respectively, pushing former Silver Skiff winner, Drysdale into third.

Last year Martin Sinkovic won the regatta in the absence of Valent. This year Valent forced his younger brother into second. But the margin between the two was incredibly tight. Just one second separated them with Valent’s winning time clocked at 40:27 to Martin’s 40:28.

Drysdale is the record holder for the River Po race and a regular competitor at this regatta. But this year he had to settle for third in a time of 40:31. Portugal’s top lightweight single sculler, Pedro Fraga came in fourth with last year’s Silver Skiff bronze medallist, Michal Polcek of the Czech Republic in fifth and the first under-23 sculler home.

The women’s field was very tightly packed with Olympian Carline Bouw of the Netherlands first in a time of 46:12. Just one second back, Ladina Meier of Switzerland followed in second with Eveline Peleman of Belgium another six seconds behind.  Meier raced in the lightweight category and 2014 World Champion, Peleman raced in the under-23 category. The first Italian woman home was Ludovica Serafini in fourth with Ukraine’s Diana Dymchenko finishing fifth. This earned Dymchenko second overall in the open women’s category.

Over 500 scullers took part from 25 nations with Italy and Switzerland boating the largest number of competitors. The weather was favourable for the rowers with good water conditions under sunny, warm skies.

The 2016 edition of the Silver Skiff regatta with be the 25th anniversary and will be on 12-13 November, 2016.

For full results: www.silverskiff.org.