Croatia’s champion rowers the Sinković brothers and Damir Martin kicked off this year's World Cup in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv with victories. Martin and Valent Sinković have thus placed into Sunday's final in coxless pairs, while Martin has made it to the semifinal of single sculls.
The Sinković brothers, who are the 2016 Olympic winners in double sculls and the current world champions in pairs, hit the finish line at 6.32.89 minutes, which was 6.29 seconds ahead of the second-placed Belarusian duo Dmitry Furman and Sergei Valadzka, who will also compete in Sunday's finals. In third place was Polish duo Dariusz Radosz and Piotr Juszczak who came in 18.31 seconds behind the famous Croatian brothers, reports T.portal on May 10, 2019.
The biggest rivals of the Sinković brothers in the final, scheduled for Sunday at 9.48 am, will be Serbian representatives Martin Mačković and Miloš Vasić, who achieved the best time in their qualifying group (6:26.00).
“We won quite safely in the first race and we are happy, but it was not easy. The Belarusians were good and this was a strong race. In the second group the Serbian crew won and had a better time, so we definitely have to go even harder and it will be an interesting race,” said Valent Sinković.
“The first race is always tough and you do not know what to expect, and we have not yet had a race in pairs this season. We are happy, we have a good time, and we hope that we will row well in the Sunday final and win again,” added Martin Sinković.
The Rio Olympic silver medalist in single sculls, Damir Martin, was at the top of his group in Plovdiv with 6:49.25 minutes, 2.59 seconds ahead of the second-placed Finnish rower Robert Ven, while another Finnish rower, Olli-Pekka Karppinen, also placed in the semifinal, hitting the finish more than half a minute behind Martin.
The other single sculls groups were won by Belgian rower Pierre De Loof, who was only 27 hundredths of second slower than Martin, and Belarusian Philip Pavukov.
Martin's semifinal show is on Saturday at 9.34 am, while the final is scheduled for Sunday at 12.24 pm.
Croatia’s coxless four crew, Tomislav Šain, Ivan Piton, Patrik Lončarić and Anton Lončarić, failed to score directly into the finals, taking third place with a time of 5:58.42 minutes in their qualifying group. The Croatian team was 3.51 seconds behind the victorious Austrian crew, the only one to go directly to the final. Croatia’s coxless four team will have another chance on Saturday at 10.14 am.
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