Men’s Eight (M8+) – Finals

A-Final

There’s little doubt that Germany were the favourites. They are unbeaten since 2016 coming here as World and European Champions. But in the time trials on Friday Great Britain recorded the fastest time. This gave the British the favoured lane. New Zealand sat one lane over from Great Britain who they beat last weekend at the Henley Royal Regatta. New Zealand won the repechage yesterday just ahead of Romania and Australia. This race started slightly late as to line up these boats in windy conditions was not easy.

It was a clean start with Netherlands having a very good start and they took very slight lead. But it was Germany that got to the first 500m marker out in front with the British in second. The British then did a push and got into first by a matter of centimetres. New Zealand sat in third. The British then started to push away from Germany. This was not what people expected. What could Germany do to change this? New Zealand was now moving on the Germans with the Dutch having a great race and holding on to the Kiwis.

Great Britain had beaten the undefeated German eight. New Zealand had improved from their World Rowing Cup II fourth place. There will be celebrations tonight in Great Britain.

Results: GBR, GER, NZL, NED, ROU, AUS

Mohamed Sbihi, Great Britain, Gold
“So happy to have finally won! I have so much respect for Germany as they are such a strong crew. We won with around 3 seconds today, so we just need to keep that lead up.”

Jakob Schneider, Germany, Silver
“We expected GB to be a big rival and they are. We were good off the start and we tried our best. Next we are off to Austria for three weeks of training camp and then we do our final preparations in Munich before the World Rowing Championships.”

Hamish Bond, New Zealand, Bronze
“It’s great to be on the podium! It’s been a long time since the eight has been. The race was good but we just couldn’t hold onto Germany and Great Britain. I think they really showed their class in that middle part of the race.”

Re-watch the race here!

B-final

A two-boat race was on between Russia and the United States under-23 crew. The United States beat Russia by a handy margin in yesterday’s repechage. The US held 43 for a good portion of the race before going to 39 and moving further and further away from Russia.

Results: USA, RUS