By Philip O'Connor
PARIS (Reuters) -Dutch rower Karolien Florijn powered to victory in the women's single sculls Olympic final on Saturday in a time of 7:17.28, with Emma Twigg of New Zealand picking up silver and Lithuania's Viktorija Senkute bronze.
World champion Oliver Zeidler of Germany won the delayed men's race ahead of independent neutral athlete Yauheni Zalaty from Belarus and Dutch rower Simon van Dorp.
The women's eights final was won in dominant fashion by Romania, with Britain taking home the men's gold in the big boat with a tremendous performance form start to finish.
With the women's single scullers getting the final day under way Florijn, 26, went out hard in the early part of the race at the Vaires-sur-Marnes Nautical Stadium before Tokyo champion Twigg closed the gap to half a length just after the midpoint of the 2,000 metres race.
However, as the 37-year-old Kiwi began to tire Florijn gradually pulled away over the final 500 metres to secure victory by a margin of 1.86 seconds.
Behind them, the race for bronze turned into a thriller, with Senkute coming on strong over the final quarter of the course to edge past Australia's Tara Rigney with her final stroke.
"It means the world to me, doing a gold medal is what I wanted since I was born and doing it and doing it in the women's single sculls, amongst the best rowers in the world ..." Florijn said, her voice trailing off.
"Emma pushed me until the last few metres, she really wanted to have a second gold medal - I'm so inspired by her, she's one of the best rowers in this world and of course I wanted to win very badly and I managed (to do it)," she added.
Just before the women's race began, Olympic officials announced that the men's single sculls final would be delayed as traffic congestion had prevented the athletes from getting to the venue on time.
The rest of the races went ahead as planned, with world champions Romania in control from the very beginning in the women's eights and Canada holding off a strong challenge from the British crew to take the sliver medal, 0.67 seconds ahead of the British, who took bronze.
The men's race turned into a fascinating tactical battle as the British blazed through the first 500 and then, roared on by coxswain Harry Brightmore, they hung on for victory despite a strong challenge from the Dutch.
Tipped by many as favourites for the gold medal, the American crew struggled in the early part of the course and never really recovered, finishing in third place.
The delayed men's sculls race finally got under way as the last of the Games, with a stone-faced Zeidler dominating from start to finish before bursting into tears once the gold was won.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Alison Williams)
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