Women’s Single Sculls (W1x) – Finals

A-Final

Fie Udby Erichsen of Denmark is getting a reputation for fast starting. She did exactly that today. But this was a final and the stakes were higher. Victoria Thornley of Great Britain was keeping up. In the semifinals yesterday Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig recorded the fastest time with Kara Kohler clocking the second fastest. This did not deter Erichsen who went through the first 500m mark in the lead. But that lead was miniscule and only half a second separated the top five scullers.

None of the medallists from the European Championships were racing here today so, in some ways, this left the field wide open and it was all about to change. Going through the middle of the race Emma Twigg of New Zealand had hit the lead. This is Twigg’s first international regatta since finishing fourth at the Rio Olympics. Twigg contemplated retirement and then decided fourth meant unfinished business. She’s back and going for Tokyo. Kohler was chasing Twigg hard with Lobnig holding on to third, just a fraction ahead of Erichson.

Twigg went from 31 to 33 as the end of the race came into view. Kohler was at 35, Lobnig at 34 and the always fast finishing Carling Zeeman of Canada was at 37. Twigg had won. Lobnig had taken silver and Zeeman had shown that her sprint is huge and had taken bronze.

Results: NZL1, AUT, CAN, USA, GBR, DEN

Emma Twigg, New Zealand, gold
“This regatta was sort of a welcome back but also a shock to the system. We had clear goals for each race here and my goal for this race was just to enjoy it and find my rhythm and maybe that helped with the result.

Magdalena Lobnig, Austria, silver
“My race was not so good. I had a problem finding my stroke and speed. I had a surprise in the European Rowing Championships at the finish so I was focused on not letting the other three boats pass me. I’ll have a week to recover now and then start training towards the World Rowing Championships.”

Carling Zeeman, Canada, bronze
“I was pretty slow off the start. I think something I could’ve done is relax some more but I was able to find my groove and get back into the race. It’s great to be here and nothing really compares to the level of international racing. We don’t really have anything of this level in Canada.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

In yesterday’s semifinal Germany’s Annekatrin Thiele only just missed out on making the a-final. Thiele, an Olympic Champion from the quad, is known for having fast starts and she had the lead with a quarter of the race rowed. Going through the middle of the race Thiele had built up a small lead with New Zealand 2 of Samantha Voss the closest challenger. The sprint was on and Switzerland’s Pascale Walker was going hard. She had overtaken Thiele and was closing on Voss. Walker had won.

Results: SUI, NZL2, GER1, FRA1, CHN, BLR1