12 Aug 2018
Junior Women’s Four (JW4-) – Finals
A–Final
Italy and the United States won their respective semifinals yesterday and they sat in the centre lanes with the United States moving away at a very fast pace. The US finished third in this boat class last year and they have Kelsey McGinley returning from that crew. They got to the first 500m mark in the lead with Australia and Italy neck-and-neck for second. The US remained in the lead at the half way point, but there was little in it with Italy now pushing through into second. Just three seconds separated the top five boats with only the Netherlands a little off the pace. Then McGinley, Braz, Hedeman and Garrett of the United States were able to get a small margin.
New Zealand had now moved into second as the final sprint began. Italy had started to sprint and they were going from 39 to 41 to try and get back into second. The US went to 39 then 42 to hold off the charge behind them. New Zealand was hanging in there at 37. Gold for the US, silver for Italy and bronze for New Zealand with the gold medal time just five seconds outside of the junior World Best Time.
Results: USA, ITA, NZL, ROU, AUS, NED
Kelsey Mcginley, United States of America, gold
“I think we had a really good start. At the 1k we made a push to hold off New Zealand Italy. Based on splits from other races, they have better middle thousands. So once we were through that part, we were pretty confident we could win.”
Khadija Alajdi El Idrissi, Italy, silver
“We were not expecting anything out there. We’re a pretty new crew. And this is a dream – yesterday Junior World Best Time and today 2nd in the world.”
Brooke Kilmister, New Zealand, bronze
“It was a tough race from the start but we managed to hold on. It was then all or nothing in the last 500 meters. We’ve been together for 10 weeks and it feels very special. We’re like sisters now.”
B-final
It was a fast start for Germany in this b-final with Ukraine right with them. Ukraine went a bit crooked but then righted themselves. The Germans finished fourth in yesterdays semifinals and just missed out on making the a-final. Stroked by Elisa Patzelt they continued to lead through the 1000m mark and they had earned a half boat length lead over Switzerland who had gotten ahead of a fading Ukraine. Switzerland was on fire and they now closed on Germany. But the Germans were ready and rating 38 they won the race.
Results: GER, SUI, GBR, AUT, DEN, UKR