Men’s Single Sculls (M1x) – Finals

A–Final

A huge field of 32 athletes began at the start of this regatta. Now down to the final six it was anyone’s guess who could win. The World Champion, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic has far from dominated through this season with New Zealand’s Robbie Manson having the best results in the World Cup series. But Manson was beaten into third in the semifinals earlier this week. Synek took a bad stroke at the start and recovered quickly to get to the first 500m mark just a fraction behind Kjetil Borch of Norway. Borch became the European Champion last month. Borch medalled in the double at the 2016 Olympic Games and is also a 2013 World Champion from the double.

Borch continued to lead through the middle of the race with Synek the closest challenger. Surprisingly Germany’s new phenomenon in the single, Oliver Zeidler was at the back of the field with Manson. Zeidler is in his first season in the single and he finished with silver at World Rowing Cup III. Then Manson hit the go button and started to work his way up from the back of the field. Manson overtook Zeidler then Harry Leask of Great Britain and started to close on Lithuania. At the head of the field Synek tried to close on Borch. At 39 Borch held the lead. Synek at 38 was still in second. Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis was flying and had moved into third. But the high rating of the day went to Leask. He was at 48 and hauling in Manson. Leask ran out of water and finished fourth.

Results: NOR, CZE, LTU, GBR, NZL, GER

Kjetil Borch, Norway, gold
“I’m very tired now. I followed my race plan and then gave it everything from the 1500 meters.”

Ondrej Synek, Czech Republic, silver
“I caught a crab on the buoys right at the start, my mistake. I pushed really hard in the first 500 meters to get back with Kjetil, so I wasted a lot of energy there. I’m happy with silver now. 

Mindaugas Griskonis, Lithuania, bronze
“Racing was very good and I’m happy with the result. In the spring I was very strong but the results have been changing all year.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

Dzianis Mihal of Belarus had a great semifinal but just missed out on making the a-final and he led the way today. Behind Mihal there was a very tight battle going on for second between Sverri Nielsen of Denmark, Switzerland’s Nico Stahlberg and Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk of Poland. The fight for second continued to rage and it meant they closed the gap on Mihal. It was a sprint to the line. Neilsen and Wegrzycki-Szymczyk went the hardest. Neilsen got there first in a very good time of 6:49. Note: Hungary pulled out for medical reasons.

Results: DEN, POL, SUI, BLR, SRB