Single Sculls, Men

The single sculls event in Berlin boasted several distinguished rowers, many of whom had competed in the Diamond Sculls. While the 1933 and 1934 winners, Tom Askwith of Great Britain and Herbert Buhtz of Germany, were not present, their nations were ably represented by Humphrey Warren and Gustav Schäfer, the former of whom had been runner-up at the 1933 Diamond Sculls. Also in contention was Czechoslovakia’s Jiří Zavřel, the 1935 runner-up. The favorite, however, was probably Switzerland’s Ernst Rufli, who had won the competition in 1935 and 1936. In the opening round, however, Rufli’s time was second to Schäfer’s, although both won their heats by a substantial margin (nearly 21 seconds in Rufli’s case). Warren and Zavřel were in the same heat, but ended up at opposite ends of the ranking, with Zavřel 16 seconds behind Warren’s winning time. The victor in a weak fourth heat was Roger Verey of Poland.

In the semi-finals Schäfer and Rufli again won their heats easily but, despite six of the eight semi-finalists qualifying for the final, Verey and Warren failed to advance; Verey was unable to finish in Schäfer’s heat, while Warren was last in Rufli’s competitive heat, which included Austrian Josef Hasenöhrl and Canadian Charles Campbell. Warren’s time of 8:08.8, however, would have been good enough for second place in Schäfer’s heat. With Zavřel having been eliminated in the repêchage, it looked as if the final would be a race between Germany and Switzerland, but Rufli struggled and placed only fifth. Schäfer thus had an easy victory, finishing well ahead of silver and bronze medalists Josef Hasenöhrl of Austria and Dan Barrow of the United States. The following year Hasenöhrl won the Diamond Sculls and was later killed at the end of World War II in Luxembourg. Despite his disappointment in the single sculls, Verey would not go home from Berlin empty-handed: he and partner Jerzy Ustupski claimed bronze in the double sculls.