Valent and Martin Sinkovic sprinted to victory, catching Great Britain’s Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George at the line, earning the Croatian pair their third Olympic gold medals, in yet another incredibly tight finish at these Olympic Games. Cow bells rang out in the stands for the Swiss pair, winners of the bronze.
The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Romania, combined, have now won half—15 of 30—of all Olympic rowing medals so far here at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium at the Paris Games.
The Netherlands won the women’s pair going away, leading by more than a length of open water going into the last 500. The U.S. women’s pair of Jess Thoeness and Ajza Czajkowski put on a mad sprint to pip Lithuania by three one-hundreds of a second for fourth place. Romania won the silver and Australia the bronze.
“We are very close, but we need to make the final step,” said chief U.S. Olympic coach Josy Verdonkschot at the the end of the day. “Not just to train in the events and be competitive in the events, but also to medal in the events.”
Ireland’s Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan won the men’s lightweight double.
“The Greeks [bronze] got off to a really good start and hung in there and put in a burst right at the end,” said O’Donovan. “Italy [silver] are always up there in the medals and Switzerland [fourth]were pushing all the way.”
Great Britain’s Imogen Grant and Emily Craig completed their perfect Olympic cycle by winning the last lightweight women’s double sculls gold medal, as the Olympics cut lightweight events after this year. Romania won the silver and Greece took the bronze. The U.S. double of Michelle Sechser and Molly Reckford finished sixth.
“We knew it was going to be hard, it’s a lightweight women’s race, that was never in doubt,” said bowseat Reckford. “We also knew we have very good base speed and have to stay with the pack. We did a better job of that in this race than we did earlier in the regatta. We kept it higher than we normally rate, we gave it all in that first one k to stay with the pack, but you pay for that. It meant we couldn’t get to that final gear. These women are fast.”
Canada finished second in the B final of the women’s lightweight double, for eighth place overall.
Morocco’s Majdouline El Allaoui took an early lead, held off a mid-race charge from Togo’s Akoko Komlanvi, and cruised across the line first to win the F final of the women’s single sculls final.
The U.S. men’s pair of Oliver Bubb and Billy Bender finished fourth in the B final. They’ve been together as a pair only since final cuts from the eight were made in March and earned the right to represent the U.S. in these Games by winning U.S. Olympic trials in April. Bender, paired with Evan Olson, qualified the U.S. for a spot in the Olympics by finishing fifth at last year’s Worlds.
Despite those remarkable accomplishments, the 22-year-old took the pair’s sub-par heat and semifinal racing performances at the Olympic regatta hard.
“Obviously it’s special to be here, especially as young as I am, but, you beat people back home and you hope to show the rest of the world that the people you beat were also good,” said Bender after a disappointing sixth in the A/B semifinal. “You’re representing yourself and your country, but also those guys, so it’s tough to not perform in the way that you hoped.”
Bender and Bubb are both Dartmouth oarsmen, but didn’t overlap in college. Their 10th place is far better than the last Olympics—the U.S. didn’t even qualify a men’s pair for Tokyo—and also an improvement over the one before, when the U.S. finished 11th overall in Rio.
Just like the women’s four (fifth place, here in Paris), women’s pair (fourth), and the quad (seventh), the men’s pair is a relatively new combination of talented and skilled college rowers racing against international competition that has trained and raced together for many years, even decades. The Sinkovic brothers, winners of Bubb and Bender’s semifinal and the gold medal, being the prime example: they’ve won over 50 elite international events, while the U.S. pair hasn’t even raced in five.
“Yeah, I think we all learned a lot because it was all our first Games,” said Daisy Mazzio-Manson of the women’s four after the final. “It’s a different caliber out there. Coming off a world champs you think you know, but it’s definitely a different ball game.”
“This just gives us even more tangible things to work for in the future,” said stroke Kate Knifton.
The Romanian four that finished one place ahead of the U.S. four will race against the U.S. again on Saturday, this time in the eight. After playing games with their entries, the Romanian team made changes to their line-ups resulting in their eight being comprised entirely of doubling-up athletes from their double, pair, and four. The Romanian double won silver on Thursday and the pair won silver on Friday.
In Monday’s three-boat heat of the women’s eight, the U.S. and Italy missed the opportunity to force Romania to row in the Thursday repechage by winning the heat, which would have forced the Romanian double to hot-seat two Olympic races within an hour.
“We didn’t plan to lose against the Romanians,” said Verndonkschot. “We wanted to make them pay, and we couldn’t. So blame us, because now you give them a free ride to the finals. We were not good enough that day. We have to be better.”
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