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PARIS: It was pouring rain during the spectacular opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday night and the rain was still evident on Saturday as fans packed into the Wells-sur-Marne stadium to watch the rowing events.
Despite overcast skies and drizzling rain, spectators waved flags enthusiastically as the first heats of the men’s and women’s single sculls races concluded in calm but wet weather.
The top three finishers in each group will advance to the quarter-finals, with the remaining players going into replies, and in the end, the defending Olympic champion Stefanos Ntsoukos of Greece opened the competition by finishing second behind Thomas Mackintosh of New Zealand.
Simon van Dorp of the Netherlands set the fastest time by winning the third round in 6:49.93, while Giedrius Bieliauskas of Lithuania celebrated his birthday by taking third place in the second round.
In the women’s competition, Australia’s Tara Rigney crossed the line first in the first round, completing the 2000m in 7:30.71, with current world champion Karolien Florijn also safely through to the quarterfinals.
Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Emma Twigg of New Zealand easily won the preliminaries, becoming the first New Zealand rower to participate in five Olympic Games.
Elis Ozbay of Turkey and Nina Kostanjsek of Slovenia also made history as their respective countries’ first-ever women rowers at the Olympics.
Double and quadruple sculls heats will take place later on Saturday.
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