The Netherlands’ Karolien Florijn claimed the top spot in women's singles sculls. The 26-year-old took the early lead, with New Zealand’s Emma Twigg hot on her heels. Florijn wouldn’t let Twigg close the gap though, staying more than half a boat length in the lead. 

She pushed on and took the win with a time of 7.17.28, making her the youngest Olympic champion ever in the skiff. Silver went to Twigg and Victorija Senkute from Lithuania finished third.

Women’s eight went to Romania, who set the pace from the start. The two-time reigning world champions kept defending champions Canada at bay and finished with a time of 5:54.39. Great Britain tried to squeeze silver medallists Canada in the final 250 but finished 0.67secs down for a third-place finish. 

Great Britain did take the men’s eight title though, battled neck and neck with The Netherlands throughout the race to finish first with a 5:22.88 time, just over a second ahead of their Dutch rivals. The Netherlands had to settle for silver and the USA for bronze. 

The men's singles sculls race suffered a setback when the bus carrying an athlete from the Olympic Village to Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium got stuck in Paris traffic. The race finally got on late morning with Germany’s Oliver Zeidler dominating the race from the start to finish. 

With a time of 6:37.57 minutes, Zeidler crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of neutral athlete Yauheni Zalaty, who took silver. Bronze went to the Dutchman Simon van Dorp, who had been considered Zeidler's biggest competitor beforehand.

Zeidler has already made history in the Paris Games, after he broke the skiff world record in the Olympic rowing tournament just days ago, after recording a time of 6:35.77 minutes in the semi-finals. It’s the first medal for Germany in this event since Sydney 2000.