Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x) – Final

Brazil’s Lucas Ferreira had recorded the fastest time in yesterday’s semifinals. At the start Armandas Kelmelis of Lithuania got away the quickest. Kelmelis was the gold medallist at the European Junior Championships and then he went on to race at the Rio Olympics after his country’s single sculler had to move into the double. Kelmelis was now striding away from the field with Anton Finger of Germany going neck-and-neck with Ferreira. Kelmelis held a 35 stroke rate and he moved clean away from the rest of the field.

A faulty stroke by Finger then gave Ferreira the second-place spot, but Finger soon came back and the battle continued. The three medallist had all but been decided. But then Belarus did a big piece and closed on Germany and Brazil. No one, though, could catch Kelmelis who had remained a 35 stroke rate for the whole race.

Finger, at 36 tried to get ahead of Ferreira who was on 31 strokes per minute. Then Finger did a piece and it got him ahead of Ferreira. Kelmelis had become the junior World Champion. Finger took silver and Ferreira was the bronze medallist.

Results: LTU, GER, BRA, BLR, SUI, DEN

B-final

The Netherlands had the lead at the start and held it through the middle of the race before Belgium’s Brent De Bleser got into the lead and remained there until the end winning by an open water lead.

Results: BEL, SLO, AUT, NED, CRO, USA

Armandas Kelmelis, Gold, Lithuania
“The plan was to go out and take the lead straight from the start. At the end it felt like they were really close to me so I just kept going.”

Anton Finger, Silver, Germany
“I cought a crab after 1000m, so I’m very happy to come out with silver at the finish.”

Lucas Ferreira, Bronze, Brazil
“I wanted gold but this is the first Junior medal for Brazil. I represented my country from the first to the last stroke. I will be training hard to represent my country in the U23s next year.”