Women's Pair (W2-) - Final

Race number 100 of this regatta featured two of the best sweep rowers in the world – Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. The duo are unbeaten since taking the gold at the London Olympics and they are currently the World and European Champions. Glover and Stanning showed their dominating rowing pedigree by making these tricky conditions manageable as they moved away from the rest of the field right from the first stroke. But Germany gave it their best with Kerstin Hartmann and Kathrin Marchand making the most of local knowledge. Then a slight bad stroke by the Germans gave Great Britain a bit more of an edge.

Meanwhile a full-on battle was happening between Russia and Denmark as they both vied for the bronze medal. Romania then started to make ground. A big crab, however, slowed them down. At the head of the field Stanning and Glover remained smooth and together and now with a yawning gap back to Germany in second. In the final sprint Stanning and Glover held a 34 stroke rate with Germany keeping off Russia and a flying Romania. Romania had done it. Coming back from the crab, Romania’s Laura Oprea and Madalina Beres had scored bronze.

Results: GBR, GER, ROU, RUS, DEN, FRA

B-final

The Netherlands and Poland had the best start and they paced each other side-by-side through the middle of the race. Then the Wierzbowska sisters of Poland broke away and took their boat home first rating a smooth 35 at the end.

Results: POL, BLR, CZE, NED, CRO, UKR

Helen Glover (b) – Great Britain – Gold 
“Physically you can’t give everything because you need to row very technically in these type of conditions.”

Kerstin Hartmann (b) – Germany – Silver
“In the second thousand metres, I just thought, let’s get this medal in front of the home crowd. I love this course, I have only good memories here.”

Madalina Beres (b) – Romania – Bronze  
“We are so happy, it is a very good start of the season towards Rio. Our race was not the best, but it was OK. See you at the World Cup in Poznan.”