Olympics-Rowing-Drysdale bests great rival Synek in quarters

By Angus MacSwan
Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - In an early clash of rowing titans, New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale overhauled his friend and arch-rival Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic in the final stretch of the Olympic men's single sculls quarter-final on Tuesday.

The two have one of rowing's great rivalries and their meeting at this stage of the competition was a treat for the fans at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon venue.

"Whenever you meet Ondrej it's a battle and it's hard when you meet each other so early," Drysdale old reporters.

"You can see Ondrej didn't go the full distance, but we'll see what everyone's got when we hit the later stages."

The 37-year-old Drysdale, nicknamed Grandpa, is the reigning Olympic champion but Synek has claimed all of the world championship titles since the 2012 Olympics in London.

Synek took an early lead in Tuesday's race and was still ahead at the halfway point but in the third Drysdale made a massive push and passed the Czech at about the 1,500 meters mark before winning by a length.

The result could be seen as a psychological victory for Drysdale with bigger races to come but the Kiwi played it down.

"I don't really place to much on it to be fair as it's early rounds. You can't read too much into it." said Drysdale, who has held the world's best time of 6 minutes 33.35 seconds since 2009.

"It's nice to get the quarter-finals out of the way. There's not much to gain but everything to lose," he said.

Synek, who took silver at the 2012 games, was also sanguine about the outcome.

"I expected the result of this race before. Mahe isn't a person who wants to lose a race."

Among those joining them in the semi-finals are Cuban Angel Fournier Rodriguez, who has stated his intention of becoming the world's best, and Belgian Hannes Obreno, a surprise winner over Drysdale at Henley.

BACK ON TRACK

The lagoon's waters were quite bubbly on Tuesday but the high winds that had forced the postponement of Sunday's events had dropped, allowing the schedule to get back on track.

One of those worst affected by the weekend weather was Australian Kimberley Brennan, gold medal favorite in the women's single sculls. She nearly sank on Saturday and came in 14th in the heat rankings, only just making the automatic qualifying.

But she was back on form on Tuesday, clinching a place in the semi-final with a comfortable first place.

"I feel lucky to have that heat race because if that had been the final and for that to be how my Olympics ended I'd have been disappointed," she said.

"I really think it was incredibly kind to me to have that opportunity to learn before the pointy end of the regatta."

Veteran Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, 44, also progressed from that race to the next round in her seventh Olympic Games. (Editing by Ed Osmond)

08/09/2016 10:15