132426_12-LG-HD

A–Final

These crews did a test race yesterday and finished within half a second of each other. Romania was slightly faster and as the reigning World and European Champions, they must have been the favourite to win this race. The Dutch had the fastest start before Romania showed to have the best boat speed. Coming into the middle of the race Romania was at a 39 stroke rate and had a small edge over the Dutch in second and Great Britain in third. The Romanian crew included Beres and Tilvescu who won a gold medal in the women’s pair earlier today.

Now the Netherlands were coming back on Romania and they started to pick off seats in the Romanian boat. Great Britain was also closing and they looked like they may overtake the Dutch. Great Britain went past the Netherlands with Romania at a 39 stroke rate still holding the lead. The British ran out of water. Romania retain their European Champion title.

Results: ROU, GBR, NED

Madalina Beres, Romania, gold
“We hoped to repeat the same race as the other day. We’re a young team so we’re still learning and still growing. We’re happy with the result and now we just hope to repeat the same thing in Plovdiv in September.”

Karen Bennett, Great Britain, silver
“I’m a little gutted. I said to the cox that we needed to go and I’ve just seen that we were a canvas off. First half was a little slow and felt quite tense but we then raced well. 2016 was a really good start for us and we’re hoping to continue that.

Dieuwke Fetter (c), Netherlands
“Yesterday we had a good first thousand and then couldn’t really hold it together for the second half so today we were a bit more careful. Romania was really fast off the start so we attacked but every attack we made they pushed back.”

 

Re-watch the race here