Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Final

A-Final

Re-watch the live footage here

The fastest qualifying time from yesterday’s semifinals went to World Champion Jeannine Gmelin of Switzerland and she looks to be heading into another brilliant season. But Gmelin was up against some tough competition today with 2017 European Champion, Victoria Thornley of Great Britain, 2016 European Champion Magdalena Lobnig of Austria and Olympic Champion from the quad AnneKatrin Thiele of Germany.

Lobnig got away with a high stroke rate and that helped her to secure the lead. But down at 32, Thornley was still up with the bunch. Gmelin was in the leading bunch as well. Then Gmelin did a 35 stroke rate push and came up alongside Lobnig and then into the lead. Gmelin regularly rates high and she is able to maintain that through the race. At the half way point the margins between the pack remained tight with Gmelin and Lobnig just a little bit faster. This was an unusual position for Gmelin who is often able to break away from the pack. Still Gmelin was able to get a slight more lead as Sanita Puspure of Ireland went after Lobnig. Puspure finished fourth last year and also went to the Rio Olympics. The ratings began to rise. Both Gmelin and Lobnig were at 36 strokes per minute and Gmelin was pushing away. Lobnig went to 38 to hold off Puspure. Puspure took silver by just 0.21 of a second.

Results: SUI, IRL, AUT, GER1, GBR, AUT

Jeannine Gmelin, Women’s, Switzerland, Gold
“I followed my plan, I’m very happy and it’s a good start to the season. I focus on my race, at the beginning I had contact with the two boats in the lane next to mine, but I soon passed them and I wasn’t aware of what was going on in the outside lanes, the ones who were at my speed.”

Sanita Puspure, Women’s Single Sculls, Ireland, Silver
“Very happy with the result, all the women are great out there and could have all got a medal. My legs were a little tired but really looking forward to Lucerne.”

Magdalena Lobnig, Women’s Single Sculls, Austria, Bronze,
“I’m very happy, you know that the best rowers are here. The race itself was ok but I think it was a great start.”

B-final

From the semifinals it looked like Kara Kohler of United States One was the one to beat. But Kohler was up against the experienced Carling Zeeman of Canada. At the start it was Marie-Catherine Arnold of Germany Two that had the lead. But then Kohler, who talked about the race on Facebook live yesterday, took over in the lead with Arnold holding on to second. Kohler remained at 35 strokes per minute through the body of the race and had enough of a margin that she could relax towards the finish. Arnold then had to do a big sprint to hold off the rest of the field with Greece getting the better of Germany.

Results: USA1, GRE1, CAN, CZE, GER2, UKR