Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) - Final

The Netherlands have showed the best form coming through to this final, but at the start it was Denmark’s Anne Lolk Thomsen and Juliane Rasmussen that got away the quickest.  Despite this initial speed Germany got to the first 500m mark the quickest. Then the Netherlands crew of Ilse Paulis and Maaike Head started to kick up their speed and the Dutch took the lead going through the middle of the race. Germany, with Poland in hot pursuit, did another push. This finish line was coming into view and Fini Sturm and Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany had gotten back into the lead. But the Dutch weren’t giving up.

In a courageous change to the end, Paulis and Head had done it. The Netherlands are the new European Champions.

Results: NED, GER, POL, SUI, DEN, ROU

B-final

What a line up for the B-final! The Olympic Champion Katherine Copeland was sitting in the British boat and with partner Charlotte Taylor they took the lead. By the half way point the British had a small margin over Sweden and Ireland. Sweden then did a piece and moved into the final 500 equal with Great Britain. A better sprint by Sweden gave them the win.

Results: SWE, GBR, IRL, RUS, CZE, MDA

Ilse Paulis (s) – Netherlands – Gold 
“We are very proud of this result. We put in so much hard work this winter and it paid off today. Now we need to stay calm and focus to qualify for Rio in two weeks.”

Fini Sturm (b) – Germany – Silver 
“We couldn’t row exactly how we wanted because of the conditions, but we are so happy to win a medal here at home.”

Joanna Dorociak (b) – Poland – Bronze
“We are very happy, but the conditions were not good. The race was very hard and our boat was full of water, but it is a very good start to the season.”