Men's Four (M4-) - Final

Italy recorded the fastest time in yesterday’s semifinals and with two members of their Rio Olympic bronze medal boat still in the boat they must have been feeling good for this, their first regatta of the 2016 season. Right at the start the Dutch crew went off course, hit a buoy and caught a crab, but it was just the start. Maybe they could catch up. Italy got away cleanly and they hit the first 500m mark in the lead. They were followed the lower rating Russians along with France and Romania who formed a virtual line behind Castaldo, Montrone, Abagnale and Di Constanzo of Italy.

By the middle of the race Italy had found some almost clear water with Romania getting the better of the followers tussle. This order remained the same with no changes in the third 500 as the final sprint came into view. Romania did their best to catch the Italians, but Italy had more to give and they took their stroke rate up and it was gold for Italy at the line. Romania grabbed silver and just behind them, Russia took bronze. The Olympic Champions, Great Britain could only manage fifth.

Results: ITA, ROU, RUS, FRA, GBR, NED

Domenico Montrone (s), Italy, gold
“We are very happy. We were not expecting this result. In these three days we noticed that our boat was actually fast. Even if we didn’t have the best feeling the boat, we managed to make it move well.

Ciprian Tudosa (s), Romania, silver

“Very good race. In the boat we were looking forward and just kept pushing. The preparation was good with a training camp in Italy that went really well. Seven years ago we won here at the juniors, it is good to be back.”

Grigorii Shchulepov (s), Russia, bronze

“After the disqualification from Rio, we had a lot of time to practice. We have a new coach working with our previous coach who went back to Great Britain. Today we raced against strong teams such as GBR and NED. WE were really happy about the result especially because Russia is not often in this position in this boat class. We hope we can stay in this crew and continue to improve.” 

 

B-final

Germany missed on making the A-final by less than half a second and they made good progress in this B-final by getting out quickly at the start and working into a boat length lead by the half way point. The Germans kept a smooth, balanced rhythm and remained in the lead ahead of Spain who managed to hold on to the German pace. Germany remained in control and finished first.

Results: GER, ESP, CZE, SRB, LTU, SUI