An incredible late surge from Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic saw them defend their title and pip Great Britain to gold in the men’s rowing pair final on Friday.
Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George led for the majority of the race, but the Sinkovic brothers fought back in the final 50m to cross the line 0.45 seconds in front with a time of 6:23.66.
Switzerland’s reigning world champions Roman Roeoesli and Andrin Gulich (6:24.76) took home the bronze at Paris 2024.
Croatia’s Sinkovic brothers, now aged 34 and 36, are legends in rowing. Initially part of a superb Croatian men’s quad, they split up after silver in London 2012 and went into the double, where they claimed Rio gold before switching to the pair for Tokyo. 2022 and 2023 were spent back in favoured double, giving them a fourth place and a silver medal at the worlds, then they switched again this year, making the Loncaric twins, sweep rowers who had qualified the Croatian M2-, take up sculling.
As a rower of the Italian Olympic team, I had the pleasure of playing some world finals with these two phenomena and in addition to being opponents, I am happy to be able to call them FRIENDS.
This winter they did their Olympic training at our rowing facilities in Tuscany, precisely in Pisa and we wished them well for the Olympics which evidently brought good luck.
We look forward to being able to do a wonderful Camp with these two great rowers aimed at all rowers who are interested in increasing their skills and understanding the winning Olympic mentality.
Comments are closed.