Men’s Pair (M2-) - Final

The British duo of Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes had the fastest qualifying time from yesterday’s semifinals and all eyes were on what this new British line up could do. At the start all six crews moved away together with Serbia’s Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik getting a slight edge. This oh so close field was still tight at the half way point with the top four boats having just a one second spread. The World bronze medallists, Vasic and Bedik continued to hold a slight lead with Sinclair and Innes in second. Hungary and the Netherlands followed closely.

As the final sprint came into view Serbia tried to hold on. Then a bad stroke with just 50m left to row by Serbia gave Adrian Juhasz and Bela Simon of Hungary the lead. Hungary had won. The British took silver and Roel Braas and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands earned bronze.

Results: HUN, GBR, NED, CZE, SRB, BLR

B-final

Olympic medallists France only just missed out on qualifying for the A-final in yesterday’s semifinal, but they pulled out of racing today due to illness for Germain Chardin. Spain made the most of it and got away very fast. They still had the lead at the half way point before Russia overtook them and held the lead right through to the end.

Results: RUS, ESP, GER, ROU, POL

Bela Simon Jr (s) – Hungary – Gold
“It’s unbelievable to win. Actually I don’t really know what happened on the water, it’s amazing.”

Stewart Innes (s) – Great Britain – Silver
“It’s a half-empty glass for us today. We came here to win, we couldn’t row the way we wanted to with this cross-wind.”

Roel Braas (b) – Netherlands – Bronze
“It’s good to have a medal, but we came here to win. Next race for us is in Lucerne and then Henley probably.”