Lightweight Men’s Pair (BLM2-) - Final

A – Final

Coming through the heats Greece looked like the crew to beat as they had the fastest time by a healthy margin. Ireland won the other heat with all other boats coming to this final through the repechage. Italy hold the title of reigning under-23 champions and Giuseppe Di Mare remains in the boat with new partner Raffaele Serio. The Greek crew of Antonios Papakonstantinou and Ioannis Marokos won the start but it wasn’t long before the technically better Italian crew was able to get into the lead. Greece, Germany and Ireland now had formed a lead with the United States and Chile right on the pace.

Italy was at 39 strokes per minutes going through the middle of the race and had broken away to a full boat length lead over the next best, Greece and Ireland. The Irish crew of Shane Mulvaney and David O’Malley matched Greece stroke for stroke and tried to close on Italy. It worked. Coming into the final sprint Greece and Ireland were together and within striking distance of the Italians. Had Italy gone too hard too soon? O’Malley and Mulvaney moved to 40 strokes per minute, Greece was at 41 and Italy at 40. The Irish had the best speed and at the line Ireland became under-23 champions.

Results: IRL, GRE, ITA, GER, CHI, USA

David O’Malley (s), Ireland, gold
“That was a really long race as the conditions out there kept changing. We kept swapping positions but we managed to come through like a train and we weren’t going to let anyone else through. We’ve got a load of friends over here from Dublin so it was great to win with them.”

Ioannis Marokos (s), Greece, silver
“Our race was very tough as it was our first race out of juniors. We were very focused and as soon as we launched the boat we were concentrated. Obviously you want to win every race that you compete in but we are very happy with the silver medal.”

Giuseppe Di Mare (b), Italy, bronze
“We started really strong and thought we could win but we sort of died after 1500m. I won the gold in this category last year but I’m very happy with this line-up.”

B-final

Belarus had the fastest time in the repechage of these boats. But it was Austria that had the lead with Belarus chasing hard. Austria’s Lindorfer and Sigl kept their stroke rate high and they were rating 39 in the third 500. But they had gone too hard and Belarus was able to overtake coming into the final 500. The sprint of the day goes to Hungary who went to 49 strokes per minute to take second.

Results: BLR, HUN, AUT, POR, MDA