Friday at the Olympic Regatta saw the Sinkovic brothers defend their Tokyo title, pulling off their extraordinary gamble of switching back into the men’s pair with less than a year to the Games. They broke Britain’s awesome grip on a tight and furiously contested race, in the last 100 metres, to win by less than a second over GBR and a delighted Switzerland as the Romanian challenge faded.
The women’s pair became a game of ‘hunt the silver’ after Dutchwomen Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester put the gold so far out of reach that nobody could think seriously about trying to claim it. A four-way battle for second ensued, won by Romania hanging on after a late-race push, while Australia held off the USA and Lithuania, who tussled until the very last stroke.
The last ever lightweight Olympic finals were roared home, the first by a crowd apparently all turned suddenly Irish or Italian. Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan (IRL) dealt expertly with every push the Greeks, Italians and Swiss threw at them, winning a dash to the line that seemed destined for this superb double, while the Italians went one better than bowman Stefano Oppo had done in Tokyo, grabbing LM2x silver ahead of Greece.
The women’s race appeared to be shaping up as a close one, before the mid-race power GBR have continually poured on in the last three years took effect. Nothing New Zealand, Romania or Greece could do disturbed them, and they rode out an explosive fight behind them to deliver the longed-for gold after fourth in Tokyo, unbeaten in this Olympiad. It was fourth for New Zealand, who were rowed through by Greece in the closing stages.
