Men's Pair (M2-) - Final

Being the World silver medallists must have given them the psychological advantage as the highest ranking boat at this regatta. This honour went to James Foad and Matt Langridge of Great Britain. However, Foad and Langridge were facing the Olympic silver medallists and 2013 World silver medallists, Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette of France. In the heats these two crews had won their respective races with Great Britain recording the faster time. Today Foad and Langridge had the fastest start and they still had the lead going through the middle of the race with European Champions, Serbia in second ahead of France. 

Serbia (with a different crew) set the European Best Time last year and this new crew of Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik came through into the final sprint in second. Meanwhile Chardin and Mortelette were starting to come back from a slow third 500 and they were really flying through to the finish line. At the line Foad and Langridge had become European Champions, Chardin and Mortelette had absolutely flown through to take silver and Vasic and Bedik were just a fraction back in the bronze medal spot. 

Results: GBR, FRA, SRB, CZE, HUN, TUR

James Foad (GBR) – Gold

I twisted my ankle 6 weeks ago and broke a bone in my foot. Two weeks after that I was back in the boat. It’s the first time I caught a crab at the end of the race. It was really stressful, but we had enough of an advantage.

Germain Chardin (FRA) – Silver

The water was really technically difficult, we realised they (British) caught a crab, but we couldn’t go any faster at that point. We work everyday without asking ourselves too m any question, we just want to get faster.

Nenad Bedik (SRB) – Bronze 

Our goal was to be first, but third is great. We stay like that for the Olympic qualification.

B-final

Only five boats lined up as Germany pulled out due to illness for Kristof Wilke. Belarus took the lead using a very high stroke rate to stay in front. Romania followed with Spain very much on the pace. Rating 42 Belarus crossed the line in first, with a half second margin over Romania. 

Results: BLR, ROU, ESP, CRO, FIN