Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) – Finals

A-Final

It was a very fast start off the line and it was Germany that looked to be the fastest. Germany had won their heat earlier in the week and today they were up against Italy who won their heat. Italy is the reigning European Championships and they also took the fastest qualifying time overall during the heats. It was very, very tight at the first 500m mark with just over a second separating all six boats.

Then Italy began to show. Amarante, Di Girolamo, Micheletti and Mulas of Italy did their best to edge out Germany. But the Germans were ready and the Germans got to the middle of the race just in front. Meanwhile Ireland, Denmark and Turkey were holding their own huge battle for third. The Italian – German battle continued as Turkey managed to grasp the bronze medal spot. The tussle from bronze had brought Turkey up on the leading crews. Germany then went to 39 and moved ahead of Italy with the Italians being attacked by Turkey. Gold to Germany, silver to Italy, bronze to Turkey.

Results: GER, ITA, TUR, DEN, IRL, CZE

Joachim Agne (s), Germany, gold
“Tough race. We really wanted to go for gold not for silver so we tried to lead out Italy. 200 meters to go we managed to get a length and win. It’s been a good season so far. We had a long training camp in August and came together well.”

Andrea Micheletti, Italy, silver

“We knew it would be a hard race so we wanted to start faster than the other races to get ahead of Germany. Today they were just the better crew.”

“We were a bit slow off the start so we had to make up for that. In the last 200 meters we also crashed with the boat next to us, so we are very happy with the bronze medal.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

Spain now have a reputation for fast starts and they took a slight lead at the start. Norway was the closest challenger with Hungary also very much on the pace. Then Hungary got their nose ahead of Norway and tried to close on Spain. In the final sprint Spain managed to hold off any challenge with Hungary taking Norway to a photo finish. Norway crossed the line 0.18 of a second.

Results: ESP, NOR, HUN, USA, ALG