Damir Martin won first place in the single sculls at this year's World Cup rowing tournament in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
Martin was convincing in his final race and reached the finish line at 7:26.90 minutes. In second place was Belarusian Pilip Pavukou with a time of 7:33.040, and in third was Finnish rower Robert Ven with a time of 7:37.290, reports HRT on May 12, 2019.
“I knew it would be hard, but I knew I was my biggest rival. I am very pleased with the time and now I know I'm going in the right direction. Last season I was not just focused on rowing, but this year, I've all done it all and I am expecting big things,” Martin said after the final.
Croatia’s champion rowers Martin and Valent Sinković took second place in the coxless pairs.
The 2016 Rio Olympic winners in double sculls and the current world champions in coxless pairs finished with a time of 6:36.030 minutes, just under two seconds behind the Serbian team Martin Mačković and Miloš Vasić. The Sinković brothers were almost third in the race, though it was the Spaniards who came in with a time of 6:37.500.
"After the qualifying race, we knew that the Serbian crew was fast and that it would be a tough race, but we thought we could beat them. We planned a strong start to get them in the first 500 meters and then keep pace through the thousandth mark, but they were faster. Congratulations to the Serbian team, this was a really impressive race,” said Valent Sinković.
“For the last three years, we have become somewhat accustomed to winning silver. We rowed as much as we could in that time, but unfortunately, it was not enough. We have the whole season in front of us, the European Championship is in three weeks and we are trying to win there,” said Martin Sinković.
In the coxless four, Tomislav Šain, Ivan Piton, Patrik Lončarić, and Anton Lončarić took fourth place with 8.20 seconds behind the winning Polish crew (6:08.40). The Romanian team came in second 2.30 seconds behind first, followed by the Austrian crew 5.71 seconds behind in third.
Plovdiv is the first race of this year's World Cup, and the next performance at the European Championship in Lucerne from May 31 to June 2.
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