04 Aug 2018
Women’s Pair (W2-) – Final
A–Final
France and Great Britain were tied at the start of this second final of the European Championships. Both of these crews came to this final via the repechage and thus had one more race compared to the other crews. Now Italy’s Alessandra Patelli and Sara Bertolasi began to move with Ukraine right with them. The British crew was grabbing this race and they had a small lead. Rowan McKellar and Harriet Taylor of Great Britain are a new crew for 2018 and they looked to have a race plan of ‘just go for it’.
Patelli and Bertolasi were now moving up with the Netherlands on the pace. Meanwhile Romania, who are doubling up in the eight, but had recorded the fastest time in the heats, were at the back of the field. Patelli and Bertolasi got a silver medal at last month’s World Rowing Cup III and as the British ran out of steam Italy took over in the lead. Now Romania was coming. Madalina Beres and Denisa Tilvescu of Romania went to 39 and then 41 and closed on the field. Beeres and Youssifou of the Netherlands, at 36, tried to hold on. Italy was just hanging in there. Romania had done it.
Results: ROU, NED, ITA, UKR, GBR, FRA
Madalina Beres (b), Romania, gold
“It was a good race despite our bad start. We really fought hard for this gold.”
Laila Youssifou (s), Netherlands, silver
“Tough race, Great Britain went out really fast. We wanted to stick with them and then we managed to pass them as well. Romania did well, they’ve always been strong but we weren’t quite fast enough today.”
Alessandra Patelli (b), Italy, bronze
“We were 1st in our heat so we knew we could have a good race today. We also knew that NED and ROU have good sprints at the finish, which we don’t as much, so we’ll have to work on that on the way to Plovdiv.”
B-final
Hungary went out at a 50 stroke rate then went to 40, but it was Poland, at 38, that started to move out into the lead with Serbia a bit off the pace. Poland and Hungary finished just a second apart in yesterday’s repechage and they were following a similar pattern today. Poland had the edge over Hungary and held it to the end.
Results: POL, HUN, SRB