All eyes were on Germany's two-time world junior champion Felix Bach as the rowing finals got underway under a foreboding sky at the Marina Reservoir today. After all, Bach had clocked the fastest time during the semi-finals, thus entering the day's finals as the hot favourite to take home the gold for the Junior Men's Sculls Final A event.

But Felix didn't get to savour that victory, losing by 2.41 seconds to 18-year-old Rolandas Mascinskas from Lithuania, the bronze-medal holder of the World Men's Double for Under-23 Championships. Felix started off ahead of the competition, but relinquished his lead to Rolandas at the 500m mark and had to settle for silver.

Despite making an improvement of 5.77 seconds over his timing in the semi-finals, his time of 3 minutes and 16.23 seconds in the finals was still second to Rolandas' 3:13.82. Nevertheless, he displayed true sportsmanship by congratulating Rolandas immediately as soon as the race ended.

Germany's Judith Sievers was also the firm favourite to take home the gold in the Junior Women’s Single Sculls Final A. It was an extremely close finish between Germany, Ukraine and France as they raced to the finish line. Still, the reigning world junior champion pulled into the pole position in the last 20m ahead of Ukraine's Nataliia Kovalova. Judith clocked a time of 3:44.21, just milliseconds ahead of Nataliia's 3:44.63.

"I'm very proud to be the first Youth Olympic champion. I can't express how much this means to me," said Judith elatedly after her win, who has been nicknamed 'Hulk' by her close friends due to her physical strength.

The boisterous crowd gathered there was clearly undeterred by the gloomy skies. Donning ponchos, they cheered the rowers on wildly with their agogo bells and clapper balloons. Officials worked hard to keep the spirits of the spectators up with their very own percussion drum ensemble. “It may be wet, but we can still make music!” Their team leader cheerfully exclaimed.

WhyOhGee caught up with two enthusiastic spectators, 20-year-old Singaporeans Josiah Kim and Alastair Chan. “We’re supporting Germany for both of the finals! They’re the world champions!” With supporters like these, it was indeed a rock-and-row experience at the Games!

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 August 2010 )