Lightweight Men's Double Sculls (LM2x) - Final

But today they were up against the very best in the world including Olympic Champions from the lightweight four, James Thompson and John Smith and reigning World Champions, Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli of Norway. Then there were the local heroes, Tycho and Vincent Muda as well as World Rowing Cup III silver medallists, Italy (Andrea Micheletti and Pietro Ruta) with the young German crew always strong.

Azou and Delayre got to the first 500m mark a little in front with just over one second separating the top five boats. The French held the lead through the middle of the race with Italy the closest challengers. It was now into the final sprint and Thompson and Smith were rating 44 and closing on the French with Brun and Strandli also in the medal mix. In the last metre of the race Delayre looked out of the boat. It was a slight hesitation. At the line South Africa were declared the winners. Thompson and Smith also set a new World Best Time of 6:05.36.

Results: RSA, FRA, NOR, ITA, GER, NED

Gold – SMITH, John (RSA)
I didn’t realise we did it, I can’t believe it.

Silver – AZOU, Jeremie (FRA)
We did a good race with two little mistakes at the end but it was good we are disappointed and we need time to understand.

Bronze – STRANDLI, Are (NOR)
We are exhausted, it was a good race but we were not able to really do the last extreme sprint.

B-final

All of these crews were good enough to make the A-final, such is the standard here at the Bosbaan. Great Britain’s Willian Fletcher and Jamie Kirkwood have already medalled this season and they led the way ahead of Denmark and the Czech Republic’s Jan and Ondrej Vetesnik. The Vetesnik twins then got ahead of Denmark and closed on the British. Together these two crews went neck and neck to a photo finish. The time had to go to 1/100th of a second to declare Great Britain in first. Both crews waiting on the water for the results shook hands. They knew that they had raced the best that they could.

Results: GBR, CZE, SUI, USA, DEN, AUT