Men’s Single Sculls
The heats saw the expected names go through, with Simon Van Dorp (Netherlands) quickest. Oliver Zeidler (Germany) would then go quickest in the quarter-finals. He repeated that in the semi-finals, in an Olympic record, with Van Dorp taking the other. The two rowed out into the lead early in the final and Zeidler led Van Dorp at 500m. By halfway, he led by 1.44. Stefanos Ntouskos (Greece) was in third place ahead of Tom Mackintosh (New Zealand). At 1500m the gap has only grown to 2.09. Macintosh had gone into bronze medal position. Van Dorp would fade over the last 250m and instead, Yauheni Zalaty (Belarus) would finish fast, taking silver.
🥇Oliver Zeidler 🇩🇪
🥈Yauheni Zalaty 🇧🇾
🥉Simon Van Dorp 🇳🇱
I thought Zeidler was one of the strongest favourites of the regatta and so it proved. I expected Van Dorp to chase him home but perhaps he ruined his race to chase Zeidler. I mentioned the form of Zalaty but ultimately went for the Olympic experience of Ntouskos
Men’s Double Sculls
Lynch/Doyle (Ireland) were quickest in the heats with Cornea/Enache (Romania) and Twellaar/Broenink(Netherlands) winning the other heats. Ireland and the Netherlands would win the semi-finals. Romania led Garcia/Conde (Spain) at 500m. They still held that at halfway from the Netherlands. With 500m to go, the Netherlands had a lead of 0.32 ahead of Koszyk/Davison (United States) and Ireland. It would be two battles of two and Romania began to row away from the Netherlands as Ireland began to catch.
🥇Andrei-Sebastian Cornea/Marian Enchea 🇷🇴
🥈Melvin Twellaar/Stef Broenink 🇳🇱
🥉Daire Lynch/Philip Doyle 🇮🇪
I called this as a close race. I thought the Dutch pair would go on to get victory and rather ignored the Romanian chances, possibly due to the newness of the pairing. Ireland were mentioned as possible outsiders but did not factor into my calculations.
Men’s Quadruple Sculls
The Netherlands were the quickest team in the heats, with Italy winning the other heat. In the finals, Netherlands would come out fast, ahead of Italy by half a second. It would remain the same leaders at halfway, with Poland edging Great Britain for third. By the 1500m mark, Poland had jumped Italy but the Netherlands looked like the clear winners. No one would come close to them but the battle was for the silver medal. Italy would pull back past Poland and take silver
🥇Netherlands 🇳🇱
🥈Italy 🇮🇹
🥉Poland 🇵🇱
This was one of my most accurate predictions including Britain being fourth.
Men’s Coxless Pair
Canalejo/Garcia (Spain) went fastest in the heats, with Sinkovic/Sinkovic (Croatia) and Wynne-Griffith/George(Great Britain) winning the other. In the semi-finals, Croatia would win the first semi, but it was Arteni/Lehaci(Romania) who took the second. The British pair led the final out with over a second advantage after 500m but by halfway Romania had closed to within 0.31. With 500m to go, Britain led by 1.38 from Romania with Roeoesli/Gulich(Switzerland) in third. It was the Croatians who emerged from the pack to chase Britain and they caught them within the last 20m.
🥇Martin Sinkovic/Valent Sinkovic 🇭🇷
🥈Oliver Wynne-Griffith/Tom George 🇬🇧
🥉Roman Roeoesli/Andrin Gulich 🇨🇭
The problem here was having the Sinkovic brothers down as doing a different event. I think I would have had them winning bronze. Romania were dangerous as expected whilst the Spanish pair were not as consistent as expected.
Men’s Coxless Four
New Zealand were the fastest in the heats, with the United States winning the other heat. United States and New Zealand were dead level at the 500m mark with Italy in third. At halfway, the United States were leading by almost a second with Italy still in third. The gap has closed by 1500m whilst Great Britain had gone into third. New Zealand looked like closing but at the 1750m mark, the United States started to move away from New Zealand again.
🥇United States 🇺🇸
🥈New Zealand 🇳🇿
🥉Great Britain 🇬🇧
Britain had shown me what this boat was this season rather than over the past years of the cycle. I thought the United States would be a contenders but overestimated the Netherlands and underrated New Zealand.
Men’s Eights
United States went quickest in the heats with Great Britain winning the other heat. In the final Netherlands went out fastest and had an edge of 0.12 over Britain at 500m. By halfway, it was the same gap, with the United States over a second behind. At the 1500 mark, Britain had gone into the lead, with a gap of 1.02 back to the Netherlands and 1.64 back to the United States. The gaps would not really change over the last 500m.
🥇Great Britain 🇬🇧
🥈Netherlands 🇳🇱
🥉United States 🇺🇸
It was faith in the Australian boat that cost me here. Britain looked strongest over the cycle and they repaid my expectation. I did point out the United States as the likely fourth-placed finishers and when Australia struggled, it made sense that they stepped into the gap.
Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls
Ahumada/Schauble (Switzerland) went quickest in the heats with Oppo/Soares (Italy) and McCarthy/O’Donovan (Ireland) winning the others. In the semi-finals, it was Ireland and Italy who took the wins. In the final, it was a line of three with Gkaidatzis/Papakonstantinou (Greece) edging Ireland and Italy. With 500m to go, Ireland led by 0.98 from Italy. With 250m it looked like only being a battle for silver as Ireland pulled away. It was a photo finish for silver
🥇Fintan McCarthy/Paul O’Donovan 🇮🇪
🥈Stefano Oppo/Gabriel Soares 🇮🇹
🥉Raphael Ahumada/Jan Schauble 🇨🇭
Perhaps tried a bit too hard to pick a surprise and went against one of the strongest boats in recent years. It did come down to the three teams suggested but Ireland were the clear winners.
Women’s Single Sculls
Viktorija Senkute (Lithuania) went fastest in the heats. Emma Twigg (New Zealand) went fastest in the quarter-finals before repeating in the semi-final. Karolien Florijn (Netherlands) took the final out hard, leading Twigg by almost two seconds. She still led at halfway with Tara Rigney (Australia) in third. At 1500m, Florijn still led but the gap had reduced to less than a second. Senkute had begun to catch up on Rigney. By 1750m the gap between Twigg and Florijn was closer but she was looking to be struggling and soon the Dutchwoman was pulling away. The battle for bronze was on though and Senkute was able to take Lithuania’s first-ever rowing medal.
🥇Karolien Florijn 🇳🇱
🥈Emma Twigg 🇳🇿
🥉Viktorija Senkute 🇱🇹
Florijn was a stronger favourite than Zeilder entering the Olympics which surprised me but she duly did the job. I thought it would be Twigg and Rigney but Senkute was able to cause an upset as someone I did not really focus on.
Women’s Double Sculls
After messing around with the entries, Romania started their top pair Bodnar/Radis (Romania) and they were quickest in the heats. They won the second semi-final but Francis/Spoors (New Zealand) took the other semi. In the final, Hodgkins-Byrne/Wilde (Great Britain) edged the Romanian pair at the 500m mark. By halfway, Romania had grabbed a second edge ahead of Great Britain and New Zealand. New Zealand pushed on and at 1500m had a slight lead. The gaps only looked to have extended at 1750m with Scheenaard/Veldhuis (Netherlands) attempting to break into the podium. Instead, there were no changes to the medal position over the final section.
🥇Brooke Francis/Lucy Spoors 🇳🇿
🥈Ancuta Bodnar/Simona Radis 🇷🇴
🥉Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne/Rebecca Wilde 🇬🇧
As referenced, the Romanian changing entries affected my predictions. I would have had the pairing that competed as strong favourites to win the gold but they could only get the silver that I eventually predicted. New Zealand were mentioned as a possible threat whilst Great Britain came from nowhere as medal contenders for me.
Women’s Quadruple Sculls
Netherlands won heat A but Great Britain took the second heat, going faster. Netherlands would start the final faster with Ukraine looking to keep pace. By halfway Britain had closed the gap and were back in second. It was a race between two at 1500m with Britain 1.1 behind. Ukraine would pay the price for the fast start as Germany and Switzerland would both go past them. The lead would begin to close and after looking like they were running out of water, Britain was able to steal the gold by 0.15.
🥇Great Britain 🇬🇧
🥈Netherlands 🇳🇱
🥉Germany 🇩🇪
I suggested this would be one of the races of the competition with hardly any gap between the big three. I was right to some extent, as China were nowhere near competitive with the big two. Germany was the team able to get bronze which also surprised me.
Women’s Coxless Pair
Morrison/McIntyre (Australia) were quickest in the heats with Clevering/Meester (Netherlands) and Vrinceanu/Anghel (Romania) taking the others. It was the Australian and Dutch pairs who won the semi-finals setting up a big clash in the final. Netherlands were fastest out in the first 500m leading by over two seconds. At halfway, it was a gap of 3.78. With 500m to go, it was five seconds and the only battle was for the medals. Australia led Romania but Kralikaite/Adomaviciute (Lithuania) were chasing. Instead, the expected pairs were able to move away from Lithuania and Romania began to close on Australia. They got past them over the final 50m.
🥇Ymkje Clevering/Veronique Meester 🇳🇱
🥈Ioana Vrinceanu/Roxana Anghel 🇷🇴
🥉Jessica Morrison/Annabelle McIntyre 🇦🇺
I thought the Dutch pair were one of the stronger pairings and so they proved with a dominant display in the final. Australia looked like coming second for a long time only to be edged by Romania.
Women’s Coxless Four
Great Britain dominated their heat, winning by almost three seconds, whilst Netherlands took the second heat. At 500m, the Netherlands led Britain by almost a second. By halfway the gap had closed to just 0.31. Behind them, New Zealand led China for bronze. At 1500m, it was 0.15 with Romania catching New Zealand. Britain went ahead just before the 1750m mark but it was back and forth depending on the stroke. Netherlands started to go ahead though and this time Netherlands would edge it on the line by 0.18. New Zealand were able to hang onto bronze.
🥇Netherlands 🇳🇱
🥈Great Britain 🇬🇧
🥉New Zealand 🇳🇿
For most of the race, I thought I was going to be correct with Britain taking gold, only for them to be edged on the line. I thought Romania were contenders and they did finish fourth
Women’s Eight
Romania were fastest in the heats with Great Britain winning the other heat. At 500m Canada just about led Romania. By halfway, Romania had gone into a strong lead over a second from Canada with Britain in third. The gap had only extended at 1500m. It looked like the medals were sorted with 250m to go and although Britain closed, they could only take bronze.
🥇Romania 🇷🇴
🥈Canada 🇨🇦
🥉Great Britain 🇬🇧
My conviction of the Romanian win only became stronger when it was revealed who was rowing and it became clear this was the ultimate priority.
Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls
Cox/Kiddle (New Zealand) were quickest in the heats with Scott/Craig (Great Britain) and Beleaga/Cozmiuc(Romania) taking the others. In the semi-finals, Britain and Romania took the wins. In the final, Romania started quickest but leading at 500m was Britain. By halfway, the gap was almost a second. The gap had grown at 1500m and Great Britain would hold on to get a win. The surprise came as Kontou/Fitsiou (Greece) were able to beat the New Zealand pair into bronze.
🥇Emily Craig/Imogen Grant 🇬🇧
🥈Gianina Beleaga/Ionela Cozmiuc 🇷🇴
🥉Dimitra Kontou/Zoi Fitsiou 🇬🇷
I expected Britain to take this quite easily and they did it well. Romania, again, made it difficult by messing around with the pairings. The Greece pairing was mentioned but not really a team I considered for medals. France never really competed to the extent I expected.
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