Daily Digest: Semifinals completed and eights finalists confirmed

Day six of the Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta began with the semifinals of the women’s and men’s single sculls and the crucial repechages in the women’s and men’s eights. Here’s what happened.

Dutch domination or Kiwi repeat?

The reigning World Champion in this boat class, Karolien Florijn got out fast in the first semifinal and led the entire race. While Australia’s Tara Rigney looked comfortable in second, the race was on for the third qualifying place. It was the Tokyo 2020 silver medalist, Anna Prakaten, representing Uzbekistan, that missed out and will need to race the Final B. In the second semifinal, the reigning Olympic Champion, Emma Twigg (New Zealand) established an early lead with Senkute (Lithuania) and Kohler (USA) sat behind her. Those three were looking fairly set as the three to qualify with 500m to go. It’s going to be an epic final on Saturday! Twigg had set the fastest time, could she defend her title or will Florijn repeat her success from last year’s World Championships?

Double Dutch or Redemption for Zeidler?

It was a fantastic start for the Dutch sculler Simon van Dorp in the first semifinal of the men’s single sculls, but the real race was on for the critical third place. The field started to spread a bit more in the second half and Tim Brys of Belgium and Tom Mackintosh (New Zealand) trading places, and allowing them to move away ahead of the Uruguayan, Bruno Cetaro Berriolo. Van Dorp was flying to the line, he had the boat speed and had established clear water ahead of the sprint between the Kiwi and the Belgian. It went all the way to the line. Mackintosh got it, just ahead of Brys – but both had their place in the final. After his disappointment of missing the final in Tokyo, Germany’s Olli Zeidler was looking strong in the second semifinal, and quickly established a very comfortable lead, ahead of the reigning Olympic Champion, Stefanos Ntouskos (Greece). Despite Zeidler being comfortable, his time in the semifinal was huge – so huge that it was a new Olympic Best Time, breaking the previous record that had been set by Ntouskos in Tokyo 2020. The other two qualifying places went to Zalaty (AIN) and Ntouskos (Greece).

A race not to be last

The women’s eight repechage was absolutely critical with five crews racing for just four places in the Olympic final – Great Britain and Romania having already secured their places direct from the heats. The reigning Olympic Champions, Canada were the fastest off the start, whilst it was a slow start for the USA, sat in third place after 500m. However, the Americans gradually started to work their way through the field and their sprint to the line allowed to them just overhaul Canada, the Australians almost catching them too. It as already a history moment for Denmark, being the first time they’ve had a women’s eight at the Olympic Regatta, but a final place was not to be for them this time.

German eight overcomes medical substitution to qualify for final

After a last-minute crew change for medical reasons, the German men’s eight was on a mission, and they flew off the start. Despite leading for the first half, the Dutch started to lift their boat speed and in the third quarter came through from third to first. They continued to sprint towards the line, which they crossed first with Germany just holding off Romania. It was Italy that missed out on a slot in the Final.