Junior Men's Quadruple Sculls (JM4x) - Final

Through the heats and yesterday’s semifinals Great Britain and Ukraine had proved to be the superior crews. Today they met for the first time in the final and sat together taking up the centre lanes in the quiet of the start line. The first to show was Ukraine followed very closely by New Zealand.  But there was very little in it with Germany and Poland also very much following the leading pace. Great Britain was just a bit back.

Ukraine then settled into a very strong rhythm at the head of the field with Germany managing to squeeze past New Zealand. Ukraine are the World Champions in this boat class at the senior level and this crew racing today may be the next generation to continue the quad dynasty of the country.

But it was all to change in the final sprint. Great Britain  was moving up from their now third place spot and with 250m to go they took their stroke rate to 41. Horsburgh, Armstrong, Meijer and Lawrie of Great Britain had left their best to last. Overtaking Germany and then Ukraine, Great Britain was now rating 43. Ukraine, at 36 then 34 stroke per minute, had run out of steam. Germany, at 37 overtook Ukraine. Great Britain had won gold, Germany earned silver and Ukraine hung on to the bronze medal.

Results: GBR, GER, UKR, NZL, POL, ITA

Samuel Meijer (3) – GBR – gold 
“The plan was to have a strong start and get ahead, but it didn’t work at all. We stayed focused, even if we were not in front. With a good rhythm we could finally get into first with 250m to go.”

Anton Finger (b) – GER – silver 
“We had a fast start and the first thousand was great. GBR was really strong. We fought until the finish, we’ve been waiting on this moment for years.”

B-final

What a turn of events! In yesterday’s semifinal Canada finished at the back of the field. Today they came out from the starting blocks just behind Russia and then overtook the Russians. Russia, however, was not going to let Canada get away. Then Hungary upped their pace to overtake Russia and draw level with Canada. In the final sprint Hungary, rating 39, got into the lead. Canada fought back and ten strokes before the line were again in first. What a race for Canada.

Results:  CAN, HUN, BRA, RUS, DEN, TUR