Lightweight men’s single sculls

A-final

Jason Osborne has a string of medals from the lightweight men’s double sculls. Germany has entered two lightweight men’s singles and a lightweight men’s double. They look to be testing their speed. Osborne wanted to stamp his name on this final and took off to a very early lead. He grabbed open water at the 500m mark and looked to be unstoppable.

It left Switzerland One, Italy and Germany Two to fight for silver and bronze. Michael Schmidt of Switzerland saw the opportunity at the halfway point and upped his rate. He pushed his bowball to an overlap on Osborne. Italy’s Martino Goretti went with him.

All crews charged to the finish line. Schmidt tried to push past, but Osborne responded, lifting his rate again. Osborne secured gold, Schmidt took the silver just ahead of Goretti who has to be happy with bronze.

Results: GER1, SUI1, ITA, GER2, NZL, SUI2 

Jason Osborne, Germany, gold

“The result in the time trial had me thinking I was not as fit as I want to be but this race was really surprising and showed me I can really put some distance to the others.” 

Michael Schmid, Switzerland, silver
“Great regatta, conditions are a little challenging as there was a bit of a tail wind and cross wind but it’s great to race against some strong competitors. The last 500 meters was close, I started to sprint just to keep my bow-ball in front. Looking forward to Lucerne as it is a World Cup highlight for me.”

Martino Goretti, Italy, bronze
“It’s my first international race in the single and I train alone so you never know really how you will compare to the others. The time trial wasn’t that great but I just tried to improve every race after that. I’ve always been a sweeper, this is only my second year sculling so I’m very happy with the result.”

Re-watch live here

B-final

The semi-finals were hotly contested, meaning this B-final was no small feat. China’s Zhiyuan Zhang got the best start and looked to have the race in his pocket. Into the final sprint, he was comfortably in the lead. But Norway’s Ask Jarl Tjoem had something to say about it. Tjoem had a poor start and was back in fifth, but with each 500m, he moved up in the ranking. Pulling out the stops for his final sprint, Tjoem just pipped Zhang at the line.

Results: NOR, CHN, BRA, AUS, AUT1, FRA