Silver went to Jüri Jaanson of Estonia, with bronze to Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria.

Hacker and Olaf Tufte were favored, with defending champion Rob Waddell of New Zealand and runner-up Xeno Müller of Switzerland retired and Iztok Čop of Slovenia competing only in the double sculls.

[2] The People's Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, India, Kenya, Paraguay, Peru, and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the event.

Great Britain made its 19th appearance, tying the absent United States for most among nations.

The first place rower in each heat advanced directly to the top section semifinals, while the rest were sent to the repechages.

Three of the four favored scullers, Václav Chalupa, Jüri Jaanson and Olaf Tufte, all qualified relatively easily for the finals from Semis A, B and C, respectively.

But in a major surprise, Marcel Hacker, who was in Semi B with Tufte, finished third and failed to qualify.

Ivo Yanakiev, who finished second in Semi B, went on to win a bronze medal.

At the 1000 meter mark (halfway), Olaf Tufte grabbed a small lead over Chalupa with Jüri Jaanson a close third.

Two seconds back (one length), Chalupa held a small lead for third over Ivo Yanakiev who had been slowly moving up through the field.

In the final 500 meters, Tufte regained the lead and pulled away to win by a length over Jaanson.