Iranian of the Day

WorldRowing.com: Last year Mohsen Shadi Naghadeh of Iran stormed onto the rowing scene barely months into knowing the sport and won silver. At the finish he fell out of the boat. This year, now with 18 months of rowing experience, the more mature Shadi Naghadeh looked powerful but a little rough around the edges. He came through to the Final in the middle lane along with the other winner from the Semifinals, Ailson Silva of Brazil.

After an initial lead by last year’s bronze medallist, Joris Pijs of the Netherlands, Shadi Naghadeh slipped into the lead with Silva following suit. Going through the third 500 the Iranian had the leaders edge with Silva comfortably in second. Meanwhile Linus Lichtschlag of Germany was carrying out an extremely close tussle with Serbia. Lichtschlag had to sprint for his life. At the head of the field Shadi Naghadeh was rating a powerful, but reasonably low 29 stroke rate. Silva looked strong at 33, Lichtschlag was giving it all he had.

Shadi Naghadeh makes history for the second time by becoming the first Iranian rower to win gold at a World Rowing event.