Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (BLW2x) – Final

A–Final

Stefania Buttignon and Silvia Crosio of Italy had a storming race in yesterday’s semifinal and recorded the fastest time overall. Today they took on winner of the other semi, Great Britain’s Susannah Duncan and Danielle Semple. Semple went out at a 51 stroke rate pace and they got to the first 500m in the lead. Italy and Germany followed closely fighting it out for second. In fourth and on the pace was Greece with Thomais Emmanouilidou in stroke a bronze medal from 2017.

At the half way point it was incredibly close with just two seconds separating the top four boats. Only Australia and Switzerland were off the pace. The third quarter then saw pushes coming. It came from Italy. Their charge continued through that quarter with Buttignon and Crosio hitting the final sprint in the lead. They rated lower than Great Britain but had overtaken the Brits. Italy was now romping away from the field making 36 look easy. The British were contending with Germany. Italy had recorded a new under-23 World Best Time. The time of 6:54.41 was 0.13 of a second faster than the former time set in 2015.

Results: ITA, GER, GBR, GRE, AUS, SUI

Silvia Crosio (s), Italy, gold
“We had quite a bad start but through the middle we improved. It was a good race in general and our first international win so we’re really happy.”

Katrin Volk (s), Germany, silver
“We knew the whole field was open yesterday as there were five boats that were within 2 seconds of each other. The beginning of our World Championships so today was our time to fly and really show what we had done in our training.”

Susannah Duncan (b), Great Britain, bronze
“From the first 1000m it was a great race but at the end it got a bit complicated. We couldn’t have done anything better so it’s all a bit of a whirlwind but it’s great to be doing this event.”

B-final

The Dutch were just one second off making the a-final in yesterday’s semifinal and they sat in the middle lane. But it was Spain’s Rocio Lao Sanchez and Estel Boix who were the fastest crew and by the middle of the race they had over a boat length lead over the Netherlands. The Chinese had a great sprint finish that got them into second.

Results: ESP, CHN, NED, SWE, IRL, POL