Women's Double Sculls (W2x) - Final

Two days ago the Germany and Great Britain recorded almost identical times in their respective heats. These two crews met for the first time today. Germany’s Julia Lier and Marieke Adams had the home course advantage while Great Britain had the reigning Olympic Champion in this boat class, Katherine Grainger racing. At the start it was Lier and Adams who were the first to show. Lier and Adams took bronze at last year’s World Rowing Championships and this regatta is their first major race for the 2016 season.

Back in third, the British crew looked to be struggling in the conditions, but then Donata Vistartaite in the Lithuanian boat caught a crab. Lithuania took gold at the 2013 World Rowing Championships and they continue to be a strong force. Then Belarus started to show their form. Yuliya Bichyk and Tatsiana Kukhta had overtaken Germany and looked to be handling the conditions the best. But there was still a lot of racing and Lithuania was coming back.

With 500m left to row Belarus still had a small lead over Germany. Spurred on by the crowd, Bichyk and Kukhta kept their boat in front to become European Champions. Germany held on to silver and the Czech Republic’s Kristyna Fleissnerova and Lenka Antosova came through for bronze. This will be a boost for the Czech’s who hope to qualify this boat at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta later this month.

Results: BLR, GER, CZE, GBR, LTU, NED

B-final

The silver medallists from the 2015 World Rowing Championships raced in the lead of this B-final. Aikatarina Nikolaidou and Sofia Asoumanaki of Greece have not had such a great regatta, perhaps due to the rough conditions in yesterday’s semifinals, but they made the best of this race and by the half way point the Greeks had a clear water lead. Finland tried their best in second to keep up and nearly caught the Greeks at the finish. Finland is still to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Results: GRE, FIN, UKR, DEN

Tatsiana Kukhta (s) – Belarus – gold 
“It feels very good to be European Champion. It was a very hard race, we had no strategy apart from not letting go of the oars and not making mistakes.”

Mareike Adams (s) – Germany – silver 
“It was very good until the island, then we pushed when the water was flat. And after it was just surviving.”

Lenka Antosova (s) – Czech Republic – bronze
“To be on the podium makes me feel like years ago as my last medal was in 2012. I am very happy.”