Rowing golds for Argentina’s Ordas and Ukraine’s Tyshchenko
Maria Sol Ordas won the host nation’s first gold medal of the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 in the women’s single sculls on Wednesday 10 October. In the men’s single sculls, held earlier in the day at the Urban Park, Ivan Tyshchenko of Ukraine was first over the line.
Watched by her mother and father – both of them former Olympic rowers – Ordas covered the 500m course in a time of 1:43.81 to win by half a second from Sweden’s Elin Lindroth. Greta Jaanson of Estonia came in third.
Tyshchenko took the men’s gold in a time of 1:32.47, with Ivan Brynza of Belarus finishing 0.37 seconds behind in silver and Cormac Kennedy-Leverett of Australia coming home a further second back in third.
OIS / IOC
“When I see this medal hanging around my neck I realize that it was worth all those days of sometimes getting up and wanting to go out with my friends instead or stay at home resting,” said the 18-year-old Ordas, who took up rowing at the age of 12.
“Yesterday I couldn’t stop crying for the boys [team-mates Felipe Modarelli and Tomás Herrera, who won bronze in the men’s pairs] and here I am now, crying for myself. I can’t believe this is over now. We started out four years ago. The three of us are like family. We’ve been preparing for this for a long time.”
Modarelli was there to see his team-mate collect her gold: “I was happy with my medal but I can celebrate Sol’s more because it’s different. It’s the team’s and Argentina’s.”