The year that was … men’s quadruple sculls

In the men’s quadruple sculls, Germany has won more times than any other nation at the Olympic Games and they added another win at the Rio 2016 Olympics.  They came to Rio as the defending Olympic Champions and reigning World Champions. They had retained three members of their London 2012 crew and all of the line-up that won gold at the World Rowing Championships in 2015. In Rio Germany made no mistakes leading from start to finish in the Olympic final to take gold.  Australia won silver and Estonia took bronze.

Highlight of the Year: The Rio Olympic final saw a tight field and an exciting finish between Germany and the London 2012 bronze medallists Australia.  Germany got a jump on the field right at the start and never let go of their lead.  At the half way mark Australia was leading an even field that had formed behind Germany. With 500m to go Australia surged for the line, gaining on Germany with every stroke.  With 100m left to go there was very little between Germany and Australia. Germany played the race to perfection. They had secured Olympic gold by half a length over Australia in second and Estonia following in third to get their first ever Olympic medal in this boat class.

It was the first event win for Germany since the 2015 World Rowing Championship final and the seventh Olympic regatta win for Germany (East and West) out of eleven Olympic Games since the introduction of the men’s quadruple sculls to the Olympic programme in Montreal.

Quotes:
 “We rowed at the start like animals and then we stayed in front.” – Lauritz Schoof (GER) – gold

“We were looking for gold. We had a good race, but the Germans were better than us.” – James McRae (AUS) – silver

“It’s amazing. The Australians were too fast for us today, but a medal is a medal, we are very satisfied.”  – Kaspar Taimsoo (EST) – bronze

Video:https://youtu.be/clq-23eg3sY

The year in review: Germany has dominated this boat class since its inception as an Olympic boat. In the London to Rio Olympic cycle, Germany did not miss a World Championship podium once.  But in the 2016 season it was not until the Olympic repechage that they won a race. The only medal Germany won prior to the Games was silver, which followed after Beijing Olympian and member of the 2015 World Champion boat Hans Gruhne replaced London 2012 gold medallist Tim Grohmann at the final World Rowing Cup.

Philip Wende, Lauritz Schoof, Karl Schulze and Hans Gruhne went on to win Olympic gold, but for 2016 it was Australia with their 2015 silver medallist crew of Karsten Forsterling, Sasha Belonogoff, Cameron Girdlestone and James McRae, who were the top form crew of the season. They won both the second and third World Rowing Cups.

Andrei Jamsa, Allar Raja, Tonu Endrekson and Kaspar Taimsoo from Estonia also had form coming into Rio and won the European Rowing Championships as well as their Olympic heat before moving up one spot from their London 2012 fourth place.

Other World Rowing Cup medals throughout the 2016 season went to Great Britain, Poland, Canada and Switzerland.  Rio fourth placed Poland made it on to the podium twice, winning bronze at the first as well as the third World Rowing World Cup.  Canada won silver at the first World Rowing Cup, while Great Britain won silver and Switzerland bronze at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne.  

In Rio, Great Britain repeated its fifth place from London 2012 after the crew of Angus Groom, Peter Lambert, Jack Beaumont and Sam Townsend had a last minute crew change. Beaumont was a late addition after Graeme Thomas was ruled out because of illness.  Ukraine finished sixth, while the youngest crew of the boat class, Switzerland, won the B-final.

Late qualifiers and winner of the Final Qualification Regatta, Canada were eighth followed by Lithuania and New Zealand.  It was the first time that Lithuania had qualified a men’s quad for the Olympics while the New Zealand crew was a late call up after the qualified Russian crew was made ineligible.