Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) - Finals

The Sinkovic brothers are known for their synchronicity and smooth rowing. It has helped earn them two World Championship titles in this boat. The question was, how would they cope in these trying conditions. Well, it seemed. At the first 500m mark Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia already had a handy clear water lead. The closest challengers were Germany’s Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger as well as Olaf Tufte and Kjetil Borch of Norway. Both Hacker and Tufte have been successful in the single sculls with Tufte having two Olympic Champion titles.

As the Sinkovic’s continued to stride away at the head of the field, Norway began to tire. This gave Lithuania’s Rolandas Mascinskas and Saulius Ritter the opportunity that they’d been waiting for. In the final sprint Lithuania moved into third. Mascinskas and Ritter took silver in this boat class at last year’s World Rowing Championships and they have often proved that they can come back at the end.

But there was no doubt about the winner. At the line Martin and Valent Sinkovic had become the European Champions.  Germany held on to silver and Lithuania took bronze.

Results: CRO, GER, LTU, SUI, NOR, GBR

B-final

France finished fourth in yesterday’s semifinal which put them into today’s B-final and they led the way right from the start. But Poland and the Czech Republic held the pace of the leaders and three boats went into the final sprint together. Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron of France kept it smooth and relaxed and remained in front.

Results: FRA, POL, CZE, UKR, AZE, BLR

Valent Sinkovic (s) – Croatia – gold
“Before the race we said that we should just stay really clean technically. It is the toughest conditions I have ever raced in.”

Stephan Krueger (s) – Germany – silver  
“It was a big fight today, but not really physically. It was so difficult to keep the boat in the lane, we are proud of this medal.”

Saulius Ritter (s) – Lithuania – bronze 
“I wonder if it is a coastal champ today because of the waves, joke.”