Twigg continues her winning way

Emma Twigg continued on her serene way through the Olympic women’s single sculls with another convincing win in her semi-final today.

The 34-year-old New Zealander has hardly missed a beat in her heat, quarter-final or semi-final and was always in control today.

She trailed Austrian Magdalena Lobnig at 500m, but had taken over the lead by halfway and simply increased it throughout the rest of the journey, seemingly unaffected by some fairly rough water.

Twigg won in 7min 20.70s, and had 4.42s on second-placed Briton Victoria Thornley. The Austrian held on for third. It was a pleasing winning margin for an Olympic semi-final. Times can be somewhat meaningless in rowing because conditions vary so much, but Twigg’s winning time was more than three seconds fastest than the winner of the second semi-final, Russian Hanna Prakatsen.

This is Twigg’s fourth Olympics, after placings of ninth (Beijing, 2008), fourth (London 2012) and fourth (Rio de Janeiro) 2016. She has won one world title and a handful of minor placings at world champs.

However, there is no doubt an Olympic medal would be the icing on the cake. It’s the prospect that drew her back to the sport after she took a break following Rio.

The New Zealand men’s coxless pair of Brook Robertson and Stephen Jones finished sixth in their B final with a time of 6min 38.30s, 15.5s behind the race winner.

Men’s single sculler Jordan Parry won in his C/D semi-final in 6min 57.70s and will row in the C final tomorrow.