Under-23 Men’s Four (BM4-) – Final

Great Britain had a flyer of a semfinal and had earned the fastest qualifying time by a good margin. But today they met the winner of the other semifinal, Austria. These two boats sat side-by-side in the middle of the field. In flat calm and hot conditions the crews waited in the starting blocks. But it was the Germans in the outside lane who had a flyer of a start. Then Austria began to show and they got to the 500m mark in the lead. Once out in front, Austria started to push away from the field. Germany was holding on to Austria with the United States and Great Britain now going neck-and-neck for third.

Coming through the third 500 Germany had run out of steam and Great Britain had now moved into second behind the Austrians. Austria continued to look good. Had Great Britain left their run too late. It was stroke for stroke. Austria’s Querfeld, Seifriedberger, Hohensadder and Walk had pulled it off. They are the new under-23 World Champions. The British in silver were just 0.40 of a second back and New Zealand had sprinted through from fifth place with an awesome close to the race. The reigning under-23 World Champions had finished in sixth. 

Results: AUT, GBR, NZL, USA, GER, ROU

Ferdinand Querfeld (s), Austria, Gold
“In the heats it was really nice to have a strong tail wind, but then in the semifinal we couldn’t really find our rhythm. Today we just wanted to get as much of a lead of the start, and maintain that in the second half.”

Lewis Mccue (s), Great Britain, Silver
“We just left to much work for the second half. It was a really fast first 1k but we worked really hard in the third 500 and it paid off.”

Thomas Clyma, New Zealand, Bronze
“It was a really fast pace, but there is so much heart in this boat and you could feel it all the way to the line.“