Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Olympic Final

All boats got away together and at the first 500m mark there was very little in it with the reigning World Champions, Jeremie Azou and Pierre Houin of France then inching away to a slight lead. The duo are in their first season together and they have gotten used to winning and also leading for the entire race. The 2013 World Champions, Norway (Ari Strandli and Kristoffer Brun) sat in second. Then the United States crew of Andrew Campbell and Josh Konieczny did a push and moved ahead of Norway with France still in the lead. This is the first time the United States has made a final in this boat class.

Only Poland was off the pace coming into the final sprint. This meant five boats were giving it their all for three medal spots. The crews all knew of South Africa’s big sprint. They also knew Ireland could move. Azou and Houin gave it their all as Norway and Ireland continued to close. France had done it. An absolutely exhausted Azou lay down in the boat. In 2012 he had finished in the painful fourth position. Today he had won. Ireland’s Paul and Gary O’Donovan had done it. They punched the air in delight. Silver was theirs. Strandli and Brun had earned Norway their first Olympic medal in this boat class.

Results: FRA, IRL, NOR, RSA, USA, POL

Jeremie AZOU (FRA) – gold

“It’s a special relationship, a little bit like big brother, little brother. I will pass the baton to Pierre for rowing in France. The friendship that we have outside of the boat is great, as well as what we have inside the boat. The idea is to give everything I have so that he continues to be the best, to be in the lightweight double and that the lightweight double continues to be the best in the world.”

Pierre HOUIN (FRA)

“He (Stany) is with us, he was there to send us off from the dock and he was there to congratulate us and we were there to thank him.”

Paul ODONOVAN (IRL) – silver

“We’re (Gary and me) almost the same person. We like the press conference because we were just excited to talk to other people besides ourselves. We can’t even talk to each because it is like talking to yourself.  We spend so much time together, he can’t tell me what happened because I was there, it is so boring. Between racing we just have to go back and be in bed and rest and talk to each other, but it is like talking to yourself.”  

Gary ODONOVAN (IRL) – silver

“Once we qualified, we set ourselves the goal of winning gold at the Olympic Games. We’ve been training our best and doing the hardest we can to put ourselves in a position to win.

We enjoy what we’re doing, we’ve had a great regatta. The sport of rowing is hard enough, if we don’t have a bit of fun, we only make it harder.

When we were little we used to beat on each other. As we matured and started getting more successful, we realized if we bit the head off each other, well I realized I need him in good form and good health, so we realized we can’t do that anymore.”

Are STRANDLI (NOR) – bronze

“We’re good friends (us and the Irish) and we take care of each other, we take care of each other. 

We are great enemies on the water, but we’ve got each other’s back. It is a good relationship.”

B-final

Great Britain medalled at the London Olympics in this boat class and Denmark are the London Olympic Champions. Both of these crews have had up and down results over the last couple of years and today they raced each other in the B-final. Great Britain’s Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers got away the quickest with Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist of Denmark at the back of the field. Going through the middle of the race the British managed to establish a decent lead with Italy, Germany and China in a virtual line behind them. In the final sprint Italy’s Andrea Micheletti and Marcello Miani closed on Great Britain. The British held them off.

Results: GBR, ITA, GER, DEN, CHN, AUT