Lightweight men’s quadruple sculls (LM4x) – Final

The heats earlier this week indicated France would be the crew to watch out for. Sitting in three seat was Pierre Houin who has already shown in prowess in the lightweight single this season by becoming the European Champion, winning the World Rowing Under 23 Championships and also winning one of the World Rowing Cups. But Houin wanted to race with his friends in the quad and so moved back into this boat. France had the fastest start. But the margins were close and less than two seconds separated the field with 500m rowed.

Germany then did a push to get their nose ahead of France and they held that position through the middle of the race. Could the home crowd bring the French home at the finish? The 1500m mark flashed by and Germany still held the edge with Denmark also on the pace of the two leading crews.

The roar of the crowd was working. France had taken their stroke rate to 42 and with every stroke they were getting their bow ball closer and closer to the front of the field. With just three strokes left to row the French had found the lead. Gold to France, a well deserved silver to Germany and Denmark came through to win bronze.

Results: FRA, GER, DEN, GBR, USA, ITA

Maxime Demontfaucon (b) – FRA – gold
“It was a crazy race. I make the calls and I asked for more. To hear the crowd at home really helped us to win.”

Roman Acht (b) – GER – silver
“We won silver and didn’t lose gold. We tried everything, the French just passed us, but we did our best race.”

Andrej Bendtsen (2) – DEN – bronze  
“It’s the top of a great amount of training together. We found a good rhythm in the middle. It’s a big pleasure to be out there fighting with these guys.”

B-final

Australia led the way home looking in fine form with Wilson, De Carvalho, Perry and Hookway showing great synchronicity. By the half way point the Australians had built up a boat length lead but the Hungarians were not going to let them get away completely. Using a 36 stroke rate, Australia managed to stay ahead and finish first – seventh overall

Results: AUS, HUN, RUS, HKG