Photo: FISA

Rio 2016 Olympic rowing medals were awarded in four boat classes yesterday at the Rodrigo de Freitas Olympic Rowing Regatta course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The French lightweight men’s double sculls of Jeremie Azou and Pierre Houin earned Olympic gold today in a tight final. Coming in just after France was the Irish O’Donovan brothers. Paul and Gary O’Donovan won the first ever medal in rowing for their country and also the first medal for Ireland at these Olympic Games. Norway’s Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli took bronze.

For the lightweight women’s double sculls, the Netherlands crew of Ilse Paulis and Maaike Head led the race from start to finish to earn gold. This is the first Olympics for Paulis and second for Head. In the silver medal spot was the Canadian duo of Patricia Obee and Lindsay Jennerich Obee and Jennerich also raced together at the London Olympics. Bronze went to China’s Wenyi Huang and Feihong Pan.

The men’s four rivalry between Great Britain and Australia continued with these two countries dominating the final. Great Britain’s Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis managed to push ahead at the 1,000-metre mark to maintain a slight edge and hold off the Australians through to the finish. The win for Great Britain put them into the history books as the only country to win this boat class five times in a row. The World Champions Italy ended the race with an impressive sprint to win bronze.

Great Britain scored a second gold in the women’s pair. The duo of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning successfully defended their 2012 Olympic gold to be the only British women to have two Olympic golds in rowing. New Zealand’s Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent took silver and Denmark’s Hedvig Rasmussen and Anne Andersen took bronze. This is the first time Denmark has won a medal in this boat class.

Great Britain now leads rowing’s medals table with two gold medals and one silver. Germany is in second with two golds and the Netherlands and New Zealand are tied for third with one gold and one silver.

The Olympic Rowing Regatta finishes on Saturday 13 August with the remaining four boat classes – the men’s and women’s single sculls and the men’s and women’s eights. Finals start at 10:32 (BRT).

Report courtesy of World Rowing

The British pair dominated from start to finish, pulling nearly two seconds clear at the 500m point before extending their lead to four seconds at the half-way 1000m marker.

New Zealand’s Genevieve Behrent and Rebecca Scown closed the gap in the final stretch, but the Brits held on to win in 7:18.29 from the Kiwis’ 7:19.53.

The pair’s victory in London four years ago was the first Olympic gold for British women’s rowers, meaning Glover and Stanning are the first Team GB female back-to-back Olympic rowing champions.

The victory continues an impressive unbeaten run of 39 races for Glover and Stanning, which includes the 2013, 2014 and 2015 World Championships, as well as the European Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The success quickly continued on the Lagoa for Team GB with the men’s four making it five Olympic titles in a row with Rio 2016 gold.

Team GB Rio 2016 medal tally: Gold: 6. Silver: 6. Bronze: 6. Total: 18.   

Helen Glover said: “It’s really difficult to put this feeling into words. When you become Olympic champion once, it’s something you feel like you’ve managed to do. You’ve managed to put in the number of races and amount of training you need to win an Olympic title.

“But when you set your sights four years in advance and it’s not managing to do it but to defend your title is something very, very special.

“The first time we did it, it took a long time to realise we were Olympic champions and it was all new to us.

“This time round, we crossed the line and we were 2016 champions and we felt like that straight away.

“It’s that real realisation and I think we both felt it more this time round. This was a bigger feeling than even at a home Games – it’s amazing.

“We feel privileged to be able to do this. It’s a privilege to represent your country, race the best in the world and do it for a living.”

Heather Stanning said: “At the moment we want to enjoy what we’ve done today, take stock of ourselves away from this environment and not make any rash decisions.

“We’ve worked very hard to get this record and to be where we are. We’ve had some fantastic opposition over the years.

“It’s a tough event and you’ve seen while we’ve been in the event, that everyone has put up different pairs and it’s pushed us on.

“Without Robin [Williams], we wouldn’t be the crew we are. He’s 100% the third person in that boat so thank you to him for everything.”

Report courtesy of Team GB

Photo: FISA

Covering Europe, Africa and Oceania, the medal spread included two medals for the Polish women’s team. Polish women rowers took their first medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games and, in Rio today, Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj won Poland’s first Olympic gold in women’s rowing.

Poland also took its first-ever Olympic medal in the women’s quadruple sculls. The Polish crew led the favourites, Germany, for the majority of the race but Germany prevailed at the line earning Olympic gold; improving on their London Olympic silver. This gave Germany’s Anne Katrine Thiele her third Olympic medal and first gold.

Germany (Photo: FISA)

The German men made it a double gold day by also winning the men’s quadruple sculls. The defending Olympic Champions, with three members of their 2012 crew on board, made no mistakes leading from start to finish in this Olympic final. Australia won silver and Estonia took bronze.

Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, Martin and Valent, scored gold in the men’s double sculls – the first-ever Olympic rowing gold for Croatia. The second-placed double of Lithuania’s Saulius Ritter and Mindaugas Griskonis was the best-ever result in Lithuanian Olympic rowing. This boat class also earned 40-year-old Olaf Tufte of Norway his fourth Olympic medal. Tufte and partner Kjetil Borch took bronze.

Dutch delight (Photo: FISA)

Denmark has now medalled at every Olympic Games since the lightweight men’s four was added to the Olympic programme in 1996. The Danes finished second to Switzerland with France in third. For Switzerland it meant their first Olympic gold in rowing since 1996.

One of the most significant finals of the day was the men’s pairs featuring New Zealand’s Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. The New Zealand duo earned their 69^th straight victory in the pair. They have not lost a race in this boat class since coming together in 2009. Bond and Murray also won at the London Olympics making them only the third pair ever to successfully defend their Olympic title. For silver medallists, South Africa, it meant an amazing comeback for Lawrence Brittain who overcame cancer to get to these Olympic Games. Brittain raced with Shaun Keeling. Italy won bronze.

The eight-day rowing regatta began on 6 August but two racing days, Sunday and Wednesday, were lost due to severe winds. Today’s racing included catching up on Wednesday’s postponed races so that finals originally planned for Wednesday were raced today.

Racing continues on Friday, 12 August, and includes the remaining semifinals plus finals in the lightweight women’s and men’s double sculls, the women’s pair and men’s four.

Report courtesy of World Rowing

(Photo: FISA Igor Meijer)

Rowers competing in eight boat classes got the regatta under way with the men’s single sculls starting the day. Olympic Champion from New Zealand, Mahe Drysdale recorded the fastest qualifying time of the 32 nations that made up the men’s single sculls. Cuba’s Angel Fournier Rodriguez had the next fastest time.

The women’s single sculls also had 32 countries competing and Mexico’s Kenia Lechuga Alanis was the surprise winner of her heat when she beat World Champion Kimberly Brennan of Australia. Lechuga also recorded the fastest time of all of the boats to move on to the quarterfinals.

Favourites in the men’s double sculls Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia and favourites in the men’s pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand had relatively comfortable wins. While 2013 World Champions, Lithuania’s Donata Vistartaite and Milda Valciukaite proved to be the fastest boat in the women’s double sculls.

Weather conditions proved to be tough through the middle part of the 2000m race with rowers having to contend with wind gusts causing rough water. This was especially problematic for Serbia’s men’s pair who flipped their boat with 500m left to row. A FISA executive committee decision ruled that Serbia would be granted permission to race in the repechage and therefore keep their racing hopes alive.

FISA President, Jean-Christophe Rolland confirmed that water conditions were considered rowable. “We look at three important factors: safety, fairness and ‘rowability’. Today, we determined that the athletes were not in danger out on the course, the conditions were considered to be the same across the six lanes, and it was rowable, meaning boats were not sinking.”

Weather forecasts predict that conditions are not likely to get better over the next four days.  “We will continue to use these three factors to determine how racing will continue. As of now, there is no change to the schedule. These tough conditions will test the skill of the athletes,” said Rolland.

The Olympic rowing regatta moves to repechages and further heats for Sunday’s racing of this eight-day regatta. Finals begin on Wednesday 10 August.

You can view all results, here  and view entries and start lists, here.
Report courtesy of World Rowing

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Stanning and Glover (Photo: World Rowing)

From Algeria to Zimbabwe, there will be 69 nations competing at the Rio Olympics in rowing with the biggest team coming from Great Britain. The British have qualified 12 crews out of a possible 14 boat classes. This men’s four includes the rowers Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis who are out to defend an Olympic winning streak that includes the last four Olympic Games. Defending their Olympic title in the women’s pair will be Helen Glover and Heather Stanning while the women’s eight are hoping to win the first Olympic medal in this boat class for their nation.

Both New Zealand and the United States have qualified 11 boats. New Zealand will showcase the men’s pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. Murray and Bond came together in the pair in 2009 and have gone on to become one of the most successful rowing partnerships ever. They are billed as the closest thing to a ‘sure thing’ in winning the Olympic gold. Also defending an Olympic title will be Mahe Drysdale in the men’s single sculls. New Zealand is boating a women’s eight for the first time at an Olympic Games.

The United States’ flagship crew is the women’s eight. The eight has gone unbeaten in every major race since 2006 – a winning streak never before seen in rowing. Coached by Tom Terhaar for the entire stretch, the crew line up is new for Rio with only two returning athletes from the London Olympics; Meghan Musnicki and Eleanor Logan. In the women’s single sculls Gevevra Stone will be competing at her second Olympics as a medal prospect after finishing seventh at the London Olympics.

Eleven countries will be competing for the first time in rowing at an Olympic Games. Vanuatu’s Luigi Teilemb will be the first rower from his country. Teilemb is part of the growth of rowing in this Pacific Island nation and will compete in the men’s single sculls. Singapore is also competing in rowing for the first time with women’s single sculler Saiyidah Mohamed Rafa’ee. Libya, Ecuador, Togo, Nigeria, Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and Angola are also competing for the first time.

Competing at her seventh Olympic Games will be Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus. The 44-year-old won Olympic gold in the women’s single sculls at both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. She will be competing again in the single in Rio. Similarly for Olaf Tufte of Norway, Rio will be his sixth Olympic Games. Tufte won gold in the men’s single sculls at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. For Rio he will compete in the men’s double sculls.

Rowing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will start on 6 August 2016 with finals being contested on 10, 11, 12 and 13 August. Full schedule and entries here.

Report courtesy of World Rowing