Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Finals

A-Final

France and New Zealand won their respective semifinals yesterday and they met for the first time at this regatta today in the final. Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola of France had won silver earlier this month at the European Championships where Alena Furman and Anastasiia Ianina of Belarus had taken gold. But Belarus was at the back of the field at this stage, while Wenyi Huang and Dandan Pan of China 1 were leading the way.

Huang and Pan rated a very solid 34 through to the middle of the race with Italy’s Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini up at 37 and starting to gain on the Chinese. Now the order was changing. Italy had taken the lead and New Zealand had overtaken France and was closing on China. In the final sprint Huang and Pan went to 39, Italy was at 41 and New Zealand’s Zoe McBride and Jackie Kiddle sat on 38. The New Zealanders looked to be gaining with every stroke. McBride and Kiddle had won by just 0.09 of a second.

Results: NZL, ITA, CHN1, FRA, BLR, USA

Zoe Mcbride (b), New Zealand, gold
“It was a good race but we knew it was going to be hard coming into it. The plan wasn’t really to move through the field like that but towards the end, I was pushing out every bit of power I had left, so gold or silver I would be happy.

Federica Cesarini (s), Italy, silver
“This is a new boat for us this year, we last towed together last year in Plovdiv. We both had bad injuries this year, so to have such a good result so soon is great.”

Wenyi Huang (b), Dandan Pan (s), People’s Republic of China, bronze
“We aren’t extremely happy with the bronze medal, this is a new line up for this season but we were hoping to do better. The aim is to get a better result in Rotterdam.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

The favourite in this race must have been Switzerland’s Patricia Merz and Frederique Rol. They medalled at the European Championships earlier this month and were fourth place at last year’s World Rowing Championships. At the start South Africa took the lead. But it wasn’t long before Merz and Rol got into the lead. Once there they managed to get a slight advantage over South Africa, the Swiss took off. In the final sprint Merz and Rol went to 41 to hold off a late sprint by Great Britain 1.

Results: SUI1, GBR1, GBR2, RSA, GER2, CHN2