PR1 Men’s Single Sculls – A-final

In the test race, it was not a surprise to see Paralympic Champion from Ukraine, Roman Polianskyi in the lead. Off the start of the A-final, things were no different. Polianskyi quickly took the lead, rating a steady 36 strokes per minute.

Great Britain’s Andrew Houghton had a better start than in the test race and managed to stay right on Polianskyi’s tails. Trailing behind them were Hungary and Belgium who were in another battle for the bronze medal.

Coming through the thousand metre mark, Polianskyi held a comfortable lead over Houghton. But the race was on for the bronze medal. In the test race, Hungary’s Zsolt Peto just pipped Louis Toussaint of Belgium at the line. Today, they were going stroke for stroke. In the last 250m Toussaint managed to get the better of Peto to take the bronze.

Results: UKR, GBR, BEL, HUN

Roman Polianskyi, Ukraine, gold

“The first half was good, the second half, not so good. It was hard in the head wind. Today was more difficult than the test race yesterday. There is lots of work to put in the rest of the season. It is helpful that I have good rivals.”

Andrew Houghton, Great Britain, silver

“That was an OK race. I tried to keep on it. To be honest, yesterday felt a little better as I had a personal best. We made a few changes to the boat to try to improve, but I don’t think they worked. My erg scores are good and with some more water time, I will improve.”

Louis Toussaint, Belgium, bronze

« It wasn’t a great race. I came in fourth yesterday. The first 500m today was good, but the rest of the race was very hot, like in Sarasota. I found that my eyes react to the heat, but we knew what the weather was going to be and we took a lot of precautions.”