Women's eight
Women's eight of Romania leads the A final at the 2014 European Rowing Championships, Lake Sava, Belgrade, Serbia

The women’s eight went completely to plan for Romania. The Romanians have dominated this event, winning gold at all of the European Rowing Championships except for one. 

They came through to the final looking like they would continue this performance after setting the fastest qualifying time in the heats two days ago.

Romania got off to a good start with winners of the other heat, Great Britain, coming out in second. Romania then inched away to a small lead leaving a virtual line going on behind them between the Netherlands, Germany and Great Britain. All three of these countries have had successful eights at various times. Who would be successful today?

As Romania continued to press on, racing their own race at the head of the field, the Netherlands started to fall back leaving a two-way tussle between Germany and Great Britain. The British, coxed by Zoe De Toledo, got the better of the tussle. Romania crossed the line in first, Great Britain took second and Germany was third.

Results: ROU, GBR, GER, NED, UKR, FRA

  

Gold – Nicoleta Albu – ROU

I feel great. It was difficult – we didn’t prepare for conditions such as this but we’re so happy to get gold and everything went as planned.

Silver – Rosamund Bradbury – GBR

This is our first international competition as an eight so we’re delighted. We’re satisfied with this result but for sure we’ll try to beat Romania at the next cup. 

Bronze –  Charlotte Reihardt – GER

The race was amazing – I’m really, really happy. It’s my first time in the boat in this position. We’re going to keep training hard this season to improve.