The single scullers show their semifinal stuff at Tokyo’s Olympic rowing regatta

The single scullers may not love cross tail wind breezes. But they put that behind them to race for a place in the Olympic rowing finals. Action continued at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo for the Tokyo Olympic Rowing Regatta.

Women’ single sculls (W1x) – Semifinals

The two-time World Champion from Ireland Sanita Puspure must have been the favourite in Semifinal One, but she was up against the fastest qualifier from the quarterfinals from ROC Hanna Prakatsen. But at the start it was the Netherlands Sophie Souwer that burst out with Switzerland’s Jeannine Gmelin in second. Puspure and Prakatsen were out of qualifying at this stage. Gmelin then took the lead. Praketsen then moved up with China in third as Puspure sat back in fifth.

It was an almost even line at the head of the field with ROC and Switzerland now leading the way. China’s Yan Jiang had third. With 500m to go Puspure was still in fifth. Gmelin still looked good in second as Prakatsen moved into a clear lead. Prakatsen was sprinting, so was Gmelin as Jiang gave it her all. Jiang got into second. Gmelin held on. Puspure’s head went down, she was struggling. Prakatsen had won and Gmelin looked ecstatic.

Rowing has a new star. Iran’s Nazanin Malaei was lining up in Semifinal Two against the big guns of the sport – Olympic medallists and World Champions were in this race. At the start it was Magdalena Lobnig of Austria who got away quickly. Lobnig has had mixed results but they include European Championship gold. Following Lobnig the closest was former World Champion Emma Twigg of New Zealand. Twigg finished fourth at the Rio Olympics and at London and she wants to change that to a medal in Tokyo. Victoria Thornley of Great Britain sat in third. Thornley medalled in Rio in the women’s double.

Twigg then did a push and got ahead of Lobnig. Twigg, Lobnig and Thornley had now moved away from the rest of the field as they went through the middle of the race. It looked like the three qualifiers had been decided. Thornley then moved up on Lobnig as Kara Kohler of the United States tried to get into a qualifying spot. Thornley was at 35 strokes per minute and had taken Lobnig. Now Kohler closed on Lobnig with Twigg easily in front.

Kohler kept coming at Lobnig. This race was not over as they went into the last 200m of the race. Thornley was at 38 and took second with Lobnig only just holding off Kohler who missed out by half a second.

Qualifiers: RUS, SUI, CHN, NZL, GBR, AUT

Men’s single sculls (M1x) – Semifinals

In Semifinal One Kjetil Borch of Norway had gone out quick. Borch medalled at Rio in the double and then switched successfully to the single picking up a World Champion title leading to these Olympic Games. Damir Martin of Croatia followed in second with Italy’s young Gennaro di Mauro right there. Then going under the 700m bridge Martin, the Rio silver medallist, caught a crab. Martin showed complete class and he came back on Borch to remain in second.

Borch looked great at the head of the field and looked to be doing enough to hold off Martin. But Martin kept on coming. Di Mauro was holding on to third. But then Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania started to move and pushed past di Mauro. Griskonis, 35, is immensely experienced and is at his fourth Olympics. Griskonis was now moving up on Martin as Borch continued to lead.

Back to the start the Semifinal Two was about to get under way and there was no doubt that the favourite was Oliver Zeidler of Germany the World and European Champion. But the local favourite Ryuta Arakawa of Japan had people’s hearts to have made it this far. Zeidler showed confidence with his high rating at the start. It was, however, Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos that had the lead. Then Hungary took over in the lead with Zeidler in third behind Ntouskos.

In the second 500 Sverri Nielsen of Denmark did a push. As Ntouskos continued to lead, Zeidler had now moved into second with Neilsen in fourth behind ROC. Ntouskos was looking great but Zeidler and Nielsen were now moving. Zeidler was at 38 strokes per minute and Ntouskos was on 37. Zeidler edged up on Ntouskos. ROC had slipped back into fourth. Then Neilsen overtook Zeidler with Vyazovkin of ROC coming back and catching Zeidler. Ntouskos was still in first as Vyazovkin overtook Zeidler. Zeidler had not made the Olympic final by just over half a second. Vyazovkin had found an incredible sprint and finished third.

Qualifiers: NOR, CRO, LTU, GRE, DEN, ROC