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Sofia Asoumanaki of Greece and Marieke Keijser of the Netherlands met for the first time in today’s final. Both of these scullers had won their semifinal yesterday with Asoumanaki recording the faster time. Leaving nothing to chance, Asoumanaki, who is already racing for the Greek senior squad, took off first and by the 500m mark the Greek had a full boat length lead. Keijser followed in second with this order remaining through the middle of the race.

Then the favourite moved through to the 750m to go point and appeared to hit the wall. Asoumanaki maybe had done too much too soon and been hit by the dreaded lactic acid feeling. This gave Keijser, the 2014 bronze medallist, the chance she needed. Asoumanaki dropped her stroke rate to 29 then 27 as Keijser easily overtook her. With that Keijser moved out to an open water lead. All Asoumanaki could do was try to hold off Desislava Georgieva of Bulgaria. Asoumanaki had built up enough of a lead that she was able to do this. Keijser won. Asoumanaki was second and Georgieva earned bronze.

Results: NED, GRE, BUL, GER, CHN, ITA

Marieke Keijser – NED – gold
My coach told me I could do it and I was just trusting myself. I knew I would be faster in the second half of the race and that is exactly what happened. The rest of the year I was racing lightweight. It was a bit strange to compete against tall girls.”

Sofia Asoumanaki – GRE – silver
“I was first off the start and at 1000metres. But after my technique was affected and I tried everything to get back into first but couldn’t manage to do it. I am still really happy with this medal as it is my first one.”

Desislava Georgieva – BUL – bronze
“I was waiting for this medal for four years. It is unbelievable to race here in Rio, it is one of my dreams come true.”

 

B-final

Croatia’s Teuta Lea Stojakovic was unlucky to miss out on making the A-final. She made the best of the B-final by overtaking a fast-starting Chisa Daimon of Japan. Daimon, however, was not letting Stojakovic have an easy ride of it and pushed the Croatian right through to the line.

Results: CRO, JPN, BEL, USA, ESP, CHI