Can Crow stay ahead? – women’s single sculls

World Rowing continues its 2015 review of performances of the Olympic boat classes by featuring the women’s single sculls.

After dominating the women’s single field last year and winning every World Rowing regatta that she entered, Twigg was absent from competition during this past regatta season. The Kiwi was in Europe not to race but to complete the one-year Fifa masters course in the management, law and humanities of sport.

This left the door wide open for Crow to take the lead and be the one to win every race that she competed in – World Rowing Cup II in Varese, World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne and finally the World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette. The Aussie was untouchable, getting out in front and staying there from start to finish in each of her races. Crow’s lead sometimes reached overwhelming proportions. In Varese she had a nine-second lead and in Lucerne a seven-second lead . In Aiguebelette, she had a clear-water lead with 500m left to row.

The 2012 Olympic Champion Mirka Knpakova from the Czech Republic won her fifth European Rowing Championships this year and is back in contention after missing out on the World Cup and World Championship podiums in 2014. This year, in addition to her European gold, Knapkova medalled at each regatta that she entered, winning three silvers – two at World Cup level and the final one at the World Rowing Championships.

Hot on Knapkova’s heels in Aiguebelette was Chinese sculler Jingli Duan. Duan is last year’s world bronze medallist and at this year’s World Rowing Championships she held on to second for the majority of the race, until the final 200m. Knapkova then upped her stroke rate, overtaking the Chinese to take the silver. Duan won her second World Championship bronze medal.   

Genevra Stone from the United States made her mark this year by winning two World Cup medals – silver in Varese and bronze in Lucerne. At the world championships in Aiguebelette she came fourth. This was a clear improvement from last year, when her best result was a fifth-place finish at World Rowing Cup II.

Another new serious contender in the world of female single scullers is Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin who qualified her boat for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games thanks to a fifth-place finish at the World Rowing Championships. While last year she was a regular B and C finalist, this past season she earned silver at the European Rowing Championships.

Canada’s Carling Zeeman competed at World Rowing Cup II and the World Rowing Championships and was an A-finalist at both regattas. In 2013 she won under-23 World Championship silver in the single and then went on to compete in the women’s quadruple sculls before making the transition back to the single this year.

The three other qualifiers for Rio 2016 include Anna Malvina Svennung from Sweden, Lina Sltyte from Lithuania and Magdalena Lobnig from Austria. New Zealand’s Emma Twigg has stated that she will be aiming to return to competition and obtain a spot for Rio at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta next May.

A further seven qualification spots are up for grabs at the continental qualification regatta for Asia/Oceania, four at the African continental regatta, six at the American qualification regatta and three at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, reaching a total of 29 boats and athletes.