Junior Men’s Single Sculls (JM1x) – Final

The best performer coming to this final had been Clark Dean of the United States. But he had raced in the men’s coxed four earlier today. Could he refresh and come back for this race. Dean was up against Moritz Wolff of Germany. Dean had beaten Wolff in the heats but that was now four days ago and quarterfinals and semifinals had been raced since. The two scullers sat next to each other  in the middle lanes.  Dean got away the quickest and he still had the lead at the first 500m marker. Belarus’s Kiryl Tsikhanovich followed in second, but was neck-and-neck with Wolff.

Dean’s pace continued to dominate the race and got to the half way point ahead of Wolff who had pulled into second. Dean took bronze last year in the quad and he still has one year at the junior level. South Africa’s Mmbudzeni Masutha had now moved into third. Masutha was getting a reputation for fast starts, but he was pacing himself quite differently for this race. Dean, rating 34, took a very impressive gold with Wolff getting second and Masutha holding on to bronze. Masutha looked the happiest at the line.

Results: USA, GER, RSA, DEN,TUR, BLR

Clark Dean, United States, gold
“It’s been a long stream in the single, this was our fourth race. All three of us knew each other since the first race and sort of all thought we would be in contention for a medal. Since the heats, we’ve been looking at times. The conditions were great today which made it easy to race your toughest race, compared to the quarters and semis which were a bit rougher.”

Moritz Wolff, Germany, silver
“I am really happy with the result, though I was gunning for gold. I really wanted to attack him. I knew that he was fast off the start, my plan was to just stick with him. We are both juniors again next year, so we’ll see.”

Mmbudzeni Masutha, South Africa, bronze
“I am pleased. I wasn’t sure I would make it this far to the final. It is a bit of a shame because for me that was quite a bad race, but I’ve enjoyed my time here.”

B-final

Norway’s Jonas Juel missed out in the a-final by just 0.03 of a second in yesterday’s semifinal. Juel was using a very low rating of 27, then 26 and was back in the field. Instead it was Bradley Leydon of New Zealand who was leading the race and moving his boat at the quickest pace. Latvia’s Janis Timbors chased from second. Tombors then got his bow in front and these two crews moved away from the field. Now Juel was starting to move and closed on the leaders. Still rating 28-29 strokes per minute, Juel was powerful enough to get into the lead. The field closed up in the last 200m. Juel took his stroke rate to 30 and tried to hold off Timbors.

Results: NOR, LAT, POL, SUI, UZB, NZL