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Romania can make claim to unequalled success in the women’s pair historically, with a total of five Olympic gold medals and 17 World Championship medals overall, including six gold. But recent years has seen another nation rise to the top. The last Olympic medal won by Romania in the women’s pair was at Beijing 2008, when Georgeta Andrunache-Damian earned her third Olympic title in this event, along with Viorica Susanu who received her second Olympic gold in the pair on that occasion. In the 1980s, another Romanian rowing star, Rodica Arba-Puscatu, also made her mark on the women’s pair scene by winning two Olympic gold medals in this event.

At World Championship level, Romania last won a medal in 2013 – a silver – and in 2014 they finished fourth. This year, their best result was a bronze at the European Rowing Championships, won by Cristina Grigoras and Laura Oprea. At the World Rowing Championships, they qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from seventh.

Since the 2012 Olympic Games, Great Britain has become the country to beat and the names Helen Glover and Heather Stanning have been the ones to produce this result. Leading up to London, the duo won two World Championship silver medals. This time they head to the Olympics unbeaten and as the holders of the World Best Time.

New Zealand’s Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler are looking to push the British. Leading up to the World Rowing Championships, they competed at two World Rowing Cup regattas, Varese and Lucerne and won a total of five medals at those three regattas. In Varese they took bronze behind Great Britain and the United States. In Lucerne and Aiguebelette, they doubled up in the women’s eight and took silver in two events at both regattas.

It is the United States, however, who managed to get the closest to Glover and Stanning this past season. At World Rowing Cup II in Varese, Megan Kalmoe and Kerry Simmonds finished 1.66 seconds behind Glover and Stanning. Only the former Kiwi duo of Kayla Pratt and Rebecca Scown have done better – but that was two years ago at the 2013 World Rowing Cup in Lucerne. There the New Zealanders finished less than one second behind the British.

Last year, following the World Rowing Cup in Varese, Kalmoe and Simmonds changed boats and went on to become World Champions in Aiguebelette – Kalmoe in the women’s quadruple sculls and Simmonds in the women’s eight. It was Felice Mueller and Eleanor Logan who instead lined up for the United States at the 2015 World Rowing Championships. Logan is a multi-Olympic and World Champion in the eight, while the younger Mueller raced to world bronze last year in the quad. Together they took world bronze.

Newcomers among the top contenders in this field are the Danish duo of Hedvig Rasmussen and Anne Andersen. In previous years, they competed as scullers and 2015 was their first year together in the pair. They did well. Fifth at the European Rowing Championships, a bronze at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne and at the World Rowing Championships, they crossed the line in fourth.

South Africa’s Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse have been reliable A-finalists this quadrennial. In 2015, they improved from their sixth-place finish in 2013 and 2014 to cross the line in fifth in Aiguebelette.

Canada is back in contention this year with Cristy Nurse and Jennifer Martins. They qualified for the Rio Olympics by finishing sixth at the World Rowing Championships. The duo also doubled up in the women’s eight where they won world bronze.

In the women’s pair, 11 Olympic qualification spots were available at the World Rowing Championships. This made up for intense racing in the B-final, where crews gave it their all to avoid finishing last.

An additional four Olympic qualification spots are up for grabs at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, this coming May.

Boats qualified so far for Rio 2016:

1.       GBR
2.       NZL
3.       USA
4.       DEN
5.       RSA
6.       CAN
7.       ROU
8.       GER
9.       NED
10.    FRA
11.    BLR