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A fast heats race by Germany two days ago had earned them the fastest qualifying time. They sat in the centre lane next to Italy who had won their heat. All other crews in this race had come to the final through the repechage. Germany were the reigning junior World Champions, while Italy took bronze last year. There was one crew change in the German boat with Lars Hoeppken replacing Alexander Vollmer who withdrew for medical reasons.

At the start the United States was the first to show. They missed out on the A-final in 2014 and this year they looked to be making amends. Germany and Great Britain sat practically equal in second. The United States remained in first going through the middle of the race with Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands now forming a virtual line behind the Americans. These crews would have to give it their all right through to the finish. Then silver medallists from 2014, the Netherlands upped their pace and with 200m to go the Dutch crew had taken the lead.

The day of rest for Italy and Germany must have been no advantage as the Netherlands, rating 36, continued to lead the pack. The United States, rating 39, just held on to silver with Germany able to finish just ahead of Italy. The Italians had missed out on a medal by a mere 0.37 of a second.

Results: NED, USA, GER, ITA, GBR, RUS 

Just Ponsen – NED – gold
“It’s awesome to be World Champion. We’ve trained for it an entire year and to be finally racing and winning is great. During the race, I mostly said, “we are first guys, carry on””.

James Palmer (b) – USA – silver  
“It’s the biggest day of my life to race at the highest stage of the world and achieve the podium, it’s just unreal.

Nils Kocher (2) – GER – bronze
“It was a close race, we trained all year for this exact moment, to achieve a medal is great. We are happy.”