Women’s Double Sculls (W2x) – Finals

A–Final

Coming through from the semifinals it looked like this would be a battle between the United States and Canada. This boat class has not seen a real dominant boat this season so really the field was an open slate. At the start Gabrielle Smith and Andrea Proske took off at a very fast pace. This duo took second to New Zealand at World Rowing Cup III in July. Despite this early pace, Great Britain’s Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Anna Thornton got to the 500m mark in the lead. The British duo are the 2018 under-23 World Champions. Then Lithunania’s Milda Valciukaite and Ieva Adomaviciute started to show. Valciukaite is the Olympic Champion in this boat class and since the 2016 Olympics she has been rowing with a new partner.

Great Britain held on to second with the reigning World Champions, Brooke Donoghue and Olivia Loe now doing a push. The Lithuanian’s were leading and New Zealand and the US were fighting for the silver. Valciukaite and Adomaviciute had taken the gold. New Zealand, rating 41, held off the United States to take silver. Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek of the US won the bronze.

Results: LTU, NZL, USA, GBR, NED, CAN

Leva Adomaviciute (s), Lithuania, gold
“We were so focused internally and that was really hard this race! I couldn’t believe it when we crossed the finish line that we had won the race.”

Olivia Loe (s), New Zealand, silver
“We’re happy with the race. Lithuania were really strong. We tried to make up the deficit but we couldn’t. Our preparation was really good leading up to this and we raced hard and strong today.”

Meghan O’Leary (b), Ellen Tomek (s), United States of America, bronze
“It’s been a hard week of racing in a really tough field. Today it was a bit dicey at the beginning but I’m glad that we pushed through. Overall it has been a really good regatta, however this race was most likely our worst and the semis was our best.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

Poland only just missed out on making the a-final and they were allocated the best lane today as the fastest crew coming into this b-final. At the start China was moving the quickest. But it was the Czechs that got to the 500m mark in the lead. Margins were still very tight between the crews. Then Kristyna Fleissnerova and Lenka Antosova of the Czech Republic managed to break away with only Poland looking like they could keep up. The Czechs rated 34 to take their boat home in the lead with Poland, at a 37 stroke rate, coming through in second.;

Results: CZE, POL, CHN, GER, GRE, FRA