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From the heats two days ago China Two of Fang Chen and Dandan Pan had the fastest time to win their heat. But today they met for the first time, the winner of the other heat, Poland’s Weronika Deresz and Martyna Mikolajczak. The home favourites have won both World Rowing Cup I and the European Championships and must be the crew to beat today. Deresz and Mikolajczak got away the quickest but then a strong piece by China One of Cuiming Chen and Feihong Pan gave them the lead. But it was incredibly tight with China Two, German and Great Britain One all right in the picture.

This piece by Chen and Pan paid off as they managed to get a bit of a margin over the Poles. Then China Two went past Poland. At 34 strokes per minute, Chen and Pan were so strong through the water that this stroke rate enabled them to be ahead. It was now China One and China Two battling it out for the lead. Bow ball for bow ball was all that separated the two Chinese crews. At the line Chen and Pan had done it. Poland came back to make a photo finish between them and China One. The official results announced Deresz and Mikolajczak and Chen and Pan as second equal.

Results: CHN2, POL, CHN1, GBR1, GER, AUS1

B-final

In the repechage yesterday Australia Two got the better of Great Britain Two. They raced again today with the British getting ahead of the start and holding the lead through the middle of the race. But the Australian’s did not let Piggott and Hall of Great Britain get away and in the final push Australia nearly caught them.

Results: GBR2, AUS2