24 Jun 2018
Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) - Final
A – Final
The first to the 500m mark was Germany Two of Olympic medallist (women’s quad) Carina Baer and her partner Michaela Staelberg. But they were up against the World Champions, New Zealand and the Netherlands. Both of these crews got to miss the repechage and came to this final directly from the heats. The Netherlands crew of Karolein Florijn and Roos de Jong then moved out in front. The Dutch have been mixing up their boats and they must be using this race as a selection race. Then the slow-starting Brooke Donoghue and Olivia Loe of New Zealand picked up the pace and going into the second half of the race they did a big push that put them into the lead.
Loe and Donoghue had rowed the perfect race, getting faster as they went down the course. They took the gold with the Netherlands in second and Germany Two holding on to third.
Results: NZL, NED, GER2, GRE, SUI, GER1
Olivia Loe (s), New Zealand, gold
“That was great as we wanted to just do our own race. We had a steady first 1000 meters and then pushed. Everyone is going to keep stepping it up so we will need to do the same.”
Karolien Florijn (b), Netherlands, silver
“We are still very new to the double and we new it was going to be a tough race as New Zealand are very very strong, so who knows what we’ll be racing after this.”
Carina Baer (b), Germany, bronze
“We just wanted an optimal race as we’ve only been in this boat for 10 days. This is a cool competition and we are just using it to learn from each others. Michaela is very passionate and she inspires me and I think I calm her down.”
B-final
The Czech Republic crew of Kristyna Fleissnerova and Lenka Antosova dominated this race and looked like they would rather be in the A-final. The rest of the field was rather close together. Fleissnerova and Antosova crossed the line with a large lead. Austria, Italy and Poland were neck-and-neck at the end.
Results: CZE, POL, AUT1, ITA, AUT2