Men’s Quadruple Sculls (M4x) – Final

A-Final

Re-watch the live footage here

Norway and Russia got through to this final from yesterday’s repechage while Great Britain and Poland recorded the two fastest times from the heats. Germany had the fastest pace at the start and they got to the first 500m marker in the lead. But it was oh so tight with less than two seconds separating the entire field. The margins remained tight through to the middle of the race with just Russia slightly off the pace.

Germany’s crew of Steinhardt, Syring, Gruhne and Krueger kept the pressure on and got a very small lead over Barras, Walton, Thomas and Collins of Great Britain. The British finished second in 2017 and have two new members to that 2017 crew. Germany responded to the British push with Norway, stroked by the great Olaf Tufte, moving up. Germany went to 40 to hold off Great Britain who then went to 41 with Krueger reacting and going to 42. The British proved to have the better sprint and they took gold by just 0.27 of a second. Norway’s Helseth, Solbakken, Helvig and Tufte took bronze.

Results: GBR, GER, NOR, POL, NED, RUS

John Collins (s), Great Britain, Gold
“That was a good race, we executed what we needed to do. It’s exciting as it is, there’s a lot more potential, we haven’t quite found our 10 out of 10 yet but there was some good competition today.”

Hans Gruhne, Germany, Silver
“I am really surprised by our performance, we’ve only been in this boat for two weeks and it’s our first race together. We had a few problems in training and weren’t sure about the other crews but this result is a big step and I think we’ll be in the quad again.”

Erik Solbakken, Norway, Bronze
“We had a good start and a push around the 1000m to come through. It was a big improvement at the end, we will be continuing in the quad with a different stroke seat.”

B-final

Estonia took bronze at last year’s World Championships but they haven’t had such a good regatta here in Belgrade. They made the best of this B-final leading at the start and keeping the pace on over the Czech Republic and Hungary through the middle of the race. All boats did a final sprint with Estonia managing to hold off any challenges.

Results: EST, CZE, HUN