Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (BLM4x) – Final

First to show was Switzerland, then France took over. Switzerland and Austria won their respective semifinals yesterday and they both recorded very similar finishing times. Coming to the first 500m mark Austria proved to have the best speed, but there was nothing in it with less than a second separating the top five boats. Great Britain are the reigning under-23 World Champions and they sat well within the mix in fourth.

Austria and Switzerland then started to move away from the field pacing each other into the middle of the race. Switzerland then did a piece and got just a fraction ahead of Austria. Ireland was not trying to get up with the leaders. The ratings were among the high 30s coming through the third 500 with the last quarter of the race now beginning. Switzerland’s Mueller, Frenandez, Struzina and Ryser had a slight margin over Austria. Switzerland, at 37, had taken gold. Austria, rating 42, celebrated their silver and Ireland, rating 41, had won bronze.

Results: SUI, AUT, IRL, GBR, ITA, FRA

Pascal Ryser (s), Switzerland, gold
“It was a really tough race, in the second thousand we were in our own tunnel and focusing. The last 100m was amazing.”

Julian Brabec , Austria,  silver
“It was a very tough race. We wanted to have a good beginning, we had a quick start and then really pushed the first 1000m. It was a great race and we’re really proud to get a medal because our aim was to make the A-final.”

Shane O’Connell (s), Ireland, bronze

“That was a real drag race out there. We didn’t have a great semifinal so we were in the outside lane. We knew we had to go out hard at the start. We had a push at 250m with an Irish sprint.”

B-final

Coming through from races earlier this week it looked like Denmark may be the crew to beat. But it was Germany that had the edge at the start and by the middle of the race they had a small edge over the field. Germany continued to lead with very tight race going on behind them between Denmark and Spain. This really kept the tempo going as the Germans crossed in first followed by Spain who had the better sprint.

Results: GER, ESP, DEN, JPN, USA, POR