Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x) – Final

The defending champion, Paul O’Donovan of Ireland only got to row in this boat class after his lightweight doubles partner, Gary O’Donovan got ill and couldn’t race. It had been incredibly tight racing coming through to this final and there was no doubt that the race would be close. Germany’s Lars Wichert was the first to show before Michael Schmid of Switzerland took a very small margin. Then O’Donovan did a push and propelled himself into the lead with Schmid desperately trying to hold on.  Four boats were now dead level going through the middle of the field with Norway’s Kristoffer Brun and Wichert staying with the leaders. O’Donovan then got a small lead. Schmid was not giving up. These two scullers charged through to the finish together.

In the final sprint, out of nowhere Matthew Dunham of New Zealand came charging. Dunham overtook Germany and closed on the leaders. O’Donovan, at 44, now had the leading edge as Schmid, at 45, was fading. Dunham and Brun were neck-and-neck. Schmid was out of the medals. O’Donovan finished just five seconds outside of a World Best Time.

Results: IRL, NZL, NOR, SUI, GER, BRA

Paul O’Donovan, Ireland, gold
“Very happy to be here. It was a really good race today. Bit strange without my brother, but I just did the same thing as I would do in the double. I’m just very happy.”

Matthew Dunham, New Zealand, silver
“I was coming from behind and in the last 500m I knew I was going to pass out anyways so I just went for it all the way to the bubble line. I was already happy to make the A-final, so really pleased with this.”

Kristoffer Brun, Norway, bronze
“After yesterday there was not much left in the tank. Competition is really tough in this field. I had hoped for more, but was still really happy with this medal.”

B-final

This was quite a line up for a B-final. With World Cup medallist, Artur Mikolajczewski of Poland not starting for medical reasons, the race was down to five boats. Croatia’s Luka Radonic had the fastest start with Slovakia’s Lukas Babac following closely. Both of these athletes have been competing for a number of years but it was the young under-23 silver medallist, Alexis Lopez Garcia of Mexico who was really having a great race. Lopez did a huge piece after the half way point and grabbed the lead and moved clean away from the rest of the field to win.

Results: MEX, SVK, CRO, USA, HUN