Women’s Single Scull – Final A
A gladiatorial contest for the ages at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium as the Dutch world champion Karolien Florijn and Olympic champion Emma Twigg went toe-to-toe. This was the hardest Florijn has been pushed since she switched to the single and Twigg threw everything at her through the middle 1000m, drawing to within half a length before the Dutch sculler – whose brother won gold in the quad earlier this week – opened up the gas canisters to draw clear. The battle for bronze was eqaully compelling between Australia’s Tara Rigney and Lithuania’s Viktorija Senkute, with the latter stealing clear in the closing ten strokes to win her country’s first-ever Olympic rowing medal.Â
Men’s Single Scull – Final A
That is how to silence your doubters. The world champion, Oliver Zeidler, rowed a near-perfect final on Parisian water to claim a much-coveted Olympic gold after missing out on the A-final entirely in Tokyo. No-one stood a chance against the hulking German mass as he took the lead inside the opening 500m and simply blew the field away with 500m to go. Simon Van Dorp spent a little too much change trying to hold on to Zeidler’s tail, allowing Yauheni Zalaty to row him down in the closing stages and claim silver.Â
Women’s Eight – Final A
You have to give it to the Romanians – they are fierce competitors. This remarkable group of women – who all doubled-up throughout the week in other boats – were the class of the field in a women’s eight final that also contained the Canadian Olympic champions. They led by a length with 500m to go, refusing to relinquish any ground to the chasing pack whilst Canada worked exceptionally hard to overturn their heat result and see off Great Britain, who collected only their second-ever Olympic medal in this boat class for bronze.
Men’s Eight – Final A
After all the noise surrounding the Americans – whose win in the coxless four earlier in the week set the minds of many stateside into a frenzy of gold-coloured fervor – it was the world and European champions from Great Britain who provided the timeliest reminder of their enduring quality. The US – who won their heat earlier in the week with fanfare that usually accompanies Olympic gold – were pushed into bronze and never really given a sniff at the summit of the leaderboard as the Dutch posted yet another excellent result to win silver. After bronze in the four and silver in the pair, this was a crowning moment for the British men’s sweep program.Â
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