12 Aug 2018
Junior Men’s Pair (JM2-) – Finals
A–Final
It was a very quick start for Lithuania with a 53 stroke rate. Lithuania was the slowest qualifier from yesterday’s semifinals and they must have decided to start fast and hold on. Sitting in the middle of the field was the reigning junior champions, Patrik and Anton Loncaric of Croatia along with winner of the other semi, Damien Bonhage-Koen and Christopher Baxter of South Africa. Despite Lithuania’s high start, Germany was in the lead with 500m rowed with Croatia tucking into second.
As Germany had a bit of a steering issue, Croatia was able to push into the lead with less than a second separating the top three boats going into the middle of the race – Croatia, Romania and Germany. Then Romania started to pick up the pace with Germany also giving it their all. Romania went to 43 with Germany at 41. Germany and Romania was neck-and-neck. It was a photo finish. The race would have been won on the final stroke. Romania’s Arteni-Fintinariu and Danciu had won by 0.10 of a second and finished less than five seconds outside of the junior World Best Time.
Results: ROU, GER, CRO, RSA, ITA, LTU
Florin Arteni-Fintinariu (b), Romania, gold
“That race was very hard. It was so close. Germany and Croatia are both very talented pairs and we knew today would be tough.”
Elias Kun (b), Germany, silver
“We threw everything at Romania in that race, it was so tough. But nevertheless I think this is our biggest rowing accomplishment.”
Anton Loncaric (s), Croatia, bronze
“It was a good race today. We wanted to be on top like last year again but we’re still happy with third. The positions have swapped as the competition is really good. We’ll be looking to compete in the Under23s next year.”
B-final
It was Belarus in the lead at the start before they were overtaken by Argentina and Great Britain. Great Britain had the fastest time coming through from yesterday’s semifinals and Great Britain had gotten into the lead at the 1500m mark. Robert Powell and Miles Beeson of Great Britain took the win with the high rating Argentina and Belarus crossing together. The official result gave Argentina the second place.
Results: GBR, ARG, BLR, SRB, TUR, NED