Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Final

Great Britain’s Victoria Thornley has been having a great season so far. She won at the European Championships and looked dominating in the heats two days ago. But today Thornley met Olympic bronze medallist Jingli Duan of China One for the first time today. They both won their respective semis with almost the same times. At the start it was Olympic Champion from the quad, Annekatrin Thiele who was moving her boat the fastest.

Then Magdalena Lobnig, the 2016 European Champion, was really moving and through the middle of the race Lobnig had the lead with Thiele slipping back into second and then third as Duan and Thornley got ahead. But Thiele was not giving up and she took back the second place spot. The margins were so close that this was going to be a full on sprint to the finish. Just over a second separated the top three boats coming through to the finish with Thiele just on the edge of this group. Lobnig continued to keep the pressure on as Thornley came through to second. Thornley was at 38 with Duan at 36. But Lobnig held the lead with a very strong 34. Lobnig took gold and set a new World Cup Best Time in a time of 7:13.26. This broke a record that had stood since2003.

Results: AUT, GBR1, CHN1, GER1, NZL, UKR

Magdalena Lobnig, Austria, gold
“It’s amazing. I have never won a world cup before so I am so happy. After Racice, I didn’t expect to race well here, but surprisingly I did good.”

Victoria Thornley, Great Britain, silver
“I raced well today, unfortunately it wasn’t good enough to win today. I am going to go back, assess the race and work out how to go faster for the next World Cup. I am really enjoying the season so far, it’s going well for me result-wise.”

Jingli Duan, China, bronze
“Today I did my best. After the Olympics I practiced and this result shows my level now. I am happy with my result, but I am not happy with the ranking because the winner today, I had beat her many times before.”

B-final

From yesterday’s semifinal results it looked like Sanita Puspure of Ireland One was the one to beat. Through the first half of the race Puspure held the lead over Meghan O’Leary of United States Two. O’Leary raced in the double at the Rio Olympics while Puspure was in the single at Rio. In the final sprint it was a tight race between O’Leary and Puspure both holding the same stroke rate. Then Puspure took her stroke rate to 35 and increased speed getting to the line first.

Results: IRL1, USA2, IRL3, GER2, USA1, AUT2