Croatia, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand strike gold at Day 2 of the Tokyo Olympic rowing regatta finals

When Italy’s Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini crossed the finish line they had made history. When Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy of Ireland finished their race they had made history. When Croatia’s Martin and Valent Sinkovic took gold they had made history and a New Zealand gold rounded out the morning at the Sea Forest Waterway, venue for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Rowing Regatta.

For Rodini and Cesarini their gold medal win in the lightweight women’s double sculls was the first-ever medal for Italian women in Olympic rowing. The Italian duo performed the race of their life with a finish that needed a photo finish for the winners to be decided. The epic battle to the line had France (Bove and Tarantola) take silver and the reigning Olympic Champions the Netherlands just hold on to the bronze medal after leading for much of the race. The time between first and sixth place was 1.8 seconds, possibly an Olympic rowing record.

Paul O’Donovan took silver at the Rio Olympic Games in the lightweight men’s double sculls but today went one better. With rowing partner Fintan McCarthy, the duo won the first ever Olympic gold for Ireland in rowing. There will be celebrations in their home town of Skibbereen tonight. The Irish took gold over the impressive German duo of Jason Osborne and Jonathan Rommelmann who won silver. Osborne and Rommelmann led for most of the race and gave it their all to try and hold off the strong Irish duo. Coming through in the bronze medal spot was Italy’s Ruta and Oppo.

To crown this historic day Croatia’s best, the Sinkovic brothers became the first to be Olympic Champions in both the men’s pair (Tokyo) and the men’s double sculls (Rio). The accomplished Sinkovic brothers also have an Olympic silver medal (from London) in the men’s quadruple sculls. The brothers have dominated the pair in the lead up to these Olympic Games. Romania’s Tudosa and Cozmiuc and Denmark’s Vystavel and Sutton pushed the brothers until the end. Romania won silver and Denmark took the bronze.

The women’s pair rounded out finals racing at the Sea Forest Waterway with New Zealand’s Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast scoring New Zealand’s first gold medal at these Olympic Games for their country. Gowler and Prendergast kept their eyes in their boat as they led the field which saw a huge tussle go on between Canada, Great Britain and ROC. At the line ROC’s Stepanova and Oriabinskaia scored silver with Canada’s Filmer and Janssens taking the bronze.

Eleven countries won medals today including Italy, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, ROC, Canada, Croatia, Romania and Denmark. After two days of finals Australia leads the medals table with two gold medals and two bronze medals. The Netherlands is in second with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals and Romania is in third with one gold and two silver medals. Fifteen countries have now earned Olympic rowing medals.

The eight-day rowing regatta began on 23 July with heats and repechages and semi-finals. Inclement weather caused a change to the racing schedule with no racing on 26 and 27 July.

Racing concludes on Friday 30 July and includes the finals A of the men’s and women’s single sculls and the men’s and women’s eights. The finals A will start at 9:33 Japan time.