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A–Final

Two boats qualified directly from the heats for today’s final and they sat in the middle lanes. China had won one heat and recorded the overall fastest time with Italy winning the other heat. Opening at the head of the field was China’s Wu, Liang, Chen and Pan with Germany holding on to second. The Chinese continued to push on and by the middle of the race they had built up over a boat length lead over Germany. Meanwhile Denmark looked to be the next best performing crew and they had overtaken Italy and were closing on Germany.

Coming through to the final sprint China continued to have a very handy lead with Denmark threatening Germany for the silver medal spot. Then the United States upped their stroke rate and came charging. Denmark went to 42 and got their nose ahead of Germany with the Germans, at 36 managing to hold off the Americans.

Results: CHN, DEN, GER, USA, GBR, ITA

Dandan Pan (s), People’s Republic of China, gold,
“We are very excited winning the gold medal here today. It was a very successful season for the team and we are very happy with our performance. For next we might split into a double but nothing is for certain yet.”

Mathilde Persson (s), Denmark, silver
“We knew that from the previous races we had to go out fast to put pressure on in the middle 1000 meters. In stroke seat I don’t look at the other crews, so I trusted my teammates and followed the race plan.”

Anja Noske (s), Germany, bronze
“It was pretty tough out there. We weren’t sure of our expectations. We tried to have a good start and continue from there. First World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, I really like the course and the atmosphere. I could hear the crowd even from 500 meters.”

 

Re-watch the race here