Men’s Eight (M8+) – Final

A-Final

Two crews came directly through to this final from the heats on Friday – Germany and Great Britain. The British had the faster time, but Germany are the World and European Champions and have not lost a race in … ages. These two crews sat side by side in the middle lanes with all other crews coming through from yesterday’s repechage. Canada had the fastest speed at the start and the made it first to the 500m mark. Germany and Great Britain followed very closely. By the middle of the race Germany, rating 37, had pulled into the lead. Canada held on giving Great Britain a huge challenge. Now New Zealand’s new line up started to move. The New Zealand crew had come up equal with Great Britain. With Germany rating 40 and still out in front a virtual line formed behind them between Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand. Great Britain went to 43, Canada to 45 and New Zealand hung on at a lower stroke rate.

At the line Great Britain had grabbed silver with Canada snatching bronze. Germany had continued in their winning ways.

Results: GER, GBR, CAN, NZL, AUS, ITA

Richard Schmidt, Germany, gold
“That was a tough race, Canada was really good off the start but we were able to break them at 600 meters and grab the lead. GB and Canada are so strong so that was a great race.”

Mohamed Sbihi, Great Britain, silver
“We had an okay start but after 200 meters we were a bit ropey. We’ve made some good changes recently so I’m gutted that we didn’t make it happen today.”

Taylor Perry, Gavin Stone, Benjamin De Wit, Martin Barakso, Cody Bailey, Jakub Buczek, William Crothers (s), Lesley Thompson-Willie (c), Canada, bronze
“This is all just really huge for me and for the crew! We haven’t really had a men’s eight since 2012 so to have this good of a crew at such a level, is really great. We knew what we were up against as the men’s eight is a really strong field.”

Re-watch the race here