15 Nov 2016
Sinkovic successful on River Po
Finishing out in front was last year’s silver medallist, Martin Sinkovic of Croatia in a time of 40’55”. Martin and his brother Valent won gold together in Rio in the men’s double sculls. Valent won the Silver Skiff in 2015, but this year managed only to come in 5th.
Coming in 19 seconds behind the winner was Portugal’s top rower, Pedro Fraga. Fraga is a two-time Olympian, but he missed out on qualifying for this year’s Olympics. Fraga was also the first in the lightweight men’s category ahead of Luka Radonic of Croatia and Rajko Hrvat of Slovenia. This is a step up for Fraga who was fourth in the Silver Skiff a year ago. Third place went to Switzerland’s Michael Schmid. Schmid raced in the lightweight men’s double sculls at this year’s Olympics.
The under-23 winner was Michal Plocek of the Czech Republic with Italy’s Lorenzo Galano in second and Alberto di Seyssel of Italy in third.
First woman home, and 87th overall, was Lisa Scheenaard of the Netherlands with Diana Dymchenko of Ukraine in second. Twenty-two seconds separated these two scullers. Valentina Rodini of Italy was third. For Rodini she also finished first in the lightweight women’s category ahead of Federica Cesarini of Italy and third went to Pamela Weisshaupt of Switzerland.
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The record number of entries equaled 670 coming from 30 countries making it potentially the largest single sculling regatta in the world. Organiser Giorgia Garberoglio says the increased number can partly be explained by an increase in foreign entries which now outnumber Italian entries. Foreign entries included Cuba’s Olympic single sculler Angel Fournier Rodriguez. Fournier finished 81st place overall.
For this anniversary year, the autumn weather was sunny, calm and mild. No course records were broken with the current record of 40’18” from 2007 remaining with Mahe Drysdale.
For full results: www.silverskiff.org.