Men’s Eight (BM8+) – Final

The Netherlands are having a great season. They medalled at World Rowing Cup I and then at this regatta they set a new under-23 World Best Time. The Netherlands, along with Ukraine, did not have to race a repechage and they must have been feeling very fresh today. The Netherlands crew of Oyen, Ponsen, Mantel, Scholten, Hurkmans, van Dorp, van den Herik, Schwarz and coxswain Kwee got away quickly. Romania was the closest challengers, but the Netherlands were looking good.

Then Great Britain, who took silver last year in this boat class, now started to move and overtook Ukraine. They were winning on crowd support. But Romania was coming. They were rating 45 and flying. The USA was now coming and also Great Britain at 41. The Netherlands held them off with a 37 rating.

Results: NED, ROU, GBR, USA, GER, UKR

Jaap Scholten, Netherlands, gold
“The plan was to go out fast, we knew the rest of the field would too after the heats. After the first 500m, we moved away. SKRRT!”

Adrian Munteanu (c), Romania, silver

“The race was really hard, but we just followed the plan, which was to start fast, to have power in the middle and to die in the finish. We will maybe go to Sarasota.”

Ian Middleton (c), Great Britain, bronze

“It was a tough race as we knew everyone was quick in the heats, but we executed the plan today. Everyone rowed really well together and we had some great pace in the middle. Before this, we raced each other at Henley and then had a three week project to get together.”

B-final

New Zealand was the fastest qualifier for this b-final following the repechages two days ago. Coxed by Benjamin Tyson, they made the best of the race today and got away quickly with Poland chasing hard. By the middle of the race, New Zealand had a one second lead with the Czech Republic now challenging Poland. In the final sprint New Zealand remained ahead with the Czechs outsprinting Poland by a fraction.

Results: NZL, CZE, POL, ITA, RUS