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Croatia has been looking great through the week of racing and they come to this final with the fastest qualifying time. At the start Croatia took the lead. Their stern pair raced last year in the b-final at the junior championships and they were joined by the Jurkovic twins, Ivana and Josipa. Behind them Romania slotted into second with Poland and the United States neck-and-neck for third. Croatia’s Krakic, Milinovic and the Jurkovic twins were now moving away to an open water lead. Romania was now clearly in second with the United States getting the better of Poland, in third.

Croatia was at 38 strokes per minute as the final sprint began. Croatia then went to 40 with Romania rating a lot lower but still staying easily in front of the United States who had to hold off China.

Results: CRO, ROU, USA, CHN, POL, NZL

Bruna Milinovic, Croatia, gold
“I can’t believe it! That was the best race of our lives. I am speechless, we had a big push at the start, a ten in the middle and the last 500m we went to the max.”

Elena-Catalina Onciu, Romania, silver
“Yeah we had a good race. We followed our race plan and were pleased with the results. We had a few races leading up to this one, but we have nothing else this season.”

Rose Carr, United States, bronze
“We were a little bit down throughout the race, but we are pleased with the result.”

B-final

Italy did not have a good race in the semifinals yesterday. Today they led the way with Great Britain slotting into second. Germany won this boat class last year. This year they came back from a slow start to move through to third by the middle of the race. Great Britain only just missed out on the a-final and in the third 500 the British moved into the lead. Italy did not react. In the final sprint the British went to 38 with Italy now going to 39 and Greece came storming through at 41. Great Britain had won.

Results: GBR, ITA, GRE, FRA, GER, NED