12 Aug 2018
Junior Women’s Coxed Four (JW4+) – Final
A–Final
This is a new boat class for 2018 and so these crews today would set the standard. In the heats three days ago Italy proved to be the fastest boat overall when they won their race with Ukraine winning the other heat. Ukraine had the best speed at the start with 15-year-old twins, Anastasiia and Kateryna Ustiuzhanina in the stroke and three seat. Behind them sat Svitlana Skrobalo and Viktoriia Nahorna. Australia and Italy followed closely. Then before the half way point the Czech crew rowed out of their lane and stopped. There must have been steering problems with the boat. Now Italy had moved to the front of the field with Australia and the United States joining the leaders. Italy then did a push and their crew of Massaria, Baudino, Giuliani and Aguemang-Heard moved away from Australia with the United States pushing into second.
Italy started their finishing sprint first with Australia now charging. The United States went to 37 to try and keep up with Australia. But the Australians had more push. Italy had taken gold, Australia silver and the United States, who set a new junior World Best Time earlier in the regatta, took bronze.
Results: ITA, AUS, USA, UKR, GER, CZE
Nadine Agyemang-Heard (s), Italy, gold
“Amazing race! We didn’t really have a good start but we managed to build a lot of speed through the middle. We kept accelerating and managed to overtake everyone.”
Isabelle Furrer (s), Australia, silver
“Best race of my life! We executed the plan perfectly and it’s been amazing here at the championships.”
Caroline Ricksen (c), United States of America, bronze
“That race was not what we expected. We didn’t have a great heat, but were able to improve in the rep. So today we just had in mind that we could improve in the final. We started in fifth, but just trusted in our race, in our rhythm and swing, and slowly climbed up to third.”