A-Final

The Netherlands have been dominating this season. But one lane over from them were the British crew that had recorded the fastest time time in the semifinals. The Dutch crew of Annika van der Meer and Corne de Koning took off at a blistering pace. Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley of Great Britain held the pace of the Dutch in second. Ukraine held on to third. The Dutch and Great Britain were now neck-and-neck at the head of the field. Was this the first time that van der Meer and de Koning had really been challenged? The sprint was on and both crews upped their rating as the British took the lead. Great Britain had much better momentum and were rating 35 strokes per minute. The gold medal had gone to Rowles and Whiteley. Ukraine and France had a fight for bronze with France taking the bronze.

Results: GBR, NED, FRA, UKR, BRA, POL

Laurence Whiteley (s), Great Britain, Gold
“This has felt like a long time coming but we’ve worked really hard for this. This result means everything. It will take a long time to process. I have to give lots of credit to the Dutch today.”

Corne De Koning (s), Netherlands, Silver
“A kind of disappointed about the result because we are two-time world champions. We really hoped to extend our championship here. But as the Paralympic champions, they (Great Britain) pulled out a really great race, they gave us some good challenge, they deserved.”

Perle Bouge (b), France, Bronze
“I think we wanted it for each other. He wanted me to medal again this year, I wanted him to get his first medal. At the beginning we were concentrating really hard on our plan, but the end we just went for it. We saw Ukraine coming up on us and we really pushed it, we’re flying, water splashing!”

Re-watch the race here

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