Under-23 Lightweight Men’s Pair (BLM2-) – Final

Greece had scored the fastest qualifying time in the semifinals with Switzerland very close. Today they raced against the winner of the other semi, Ireland. Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos and Ioannis Petrou both raced at the Rio Olympic Games finishing sixth in the lightweight men’s four and they got away very quickly with China’s Jie Dong and Guiying Zhu the closest challengers. Switzerland was also very much on the pace.

Turkey took silver last year in this boat class and they had now overtaken China with Switzerland in their sights. Joel Schuerch and Florin Rueedi of Switzerland remained in contact with the Greeks through the middle of the race. In the third 500 the Schuerch and Rueedi continued to push the pace and they did a piece before the 1500m mark. Could they hold it? Switzerland now had the lead. The rating in the Swiss boat was at 41. Greece reacted and also went to 41. Schuerch and Rueedi had the better speed to win the race. Silver to Greece and bronze to Mert Kaan Kartal and Fatih Unsal of Turkey.

Switzerland had set a new under-23 World Best Time. They had broken the former record by 0.43 of a second.

Results: SUI, GRE, TUR, IRL, CHN, USA

Fiorin Rueedi (b), Switzerland, Gold
“In the semifinal we lost from the Greeks by 2,5 seconds, so we knew that if we wanted to win we had to keep up in the first 1000m. It was much harder then we thought but at the 1500m I knew we were going to win.”

Ioannis Petrou (s), Greece, Silver
“Last year we were 3rd at this event, so we are very proud of silver. And Stefanos was sick for the past three days and wasn’t sure he was going to race, so this result is great for us.”

Mert Kaan Kartal (b), Fatih Unsal (s), Turkey, Bronze
“We had a slow start, but we were able to catch up by the 1000m mark. We got silver at this event last year and we are happy to medal two years in a row.”