Women’s Eight (BW8+) – Final

Canada recorded a new under-23 World Best Time earlier in the week. They won their heat with the United States winning the other heat. All other crews had to go through a repechage to get to this final. The United States came first in 2016 but with a different crew. Russia raced out at the start and took the lead at the start before the United States and Canada mowed them down. The US had a small lead over Canada going through the middle of the race. But then disaster struck for the Americans. Two seat Claire Collins came off her seat. The boat lost its rhythm. Canada took advantage of the situation and strode away from the field. Collins slipped again and then got back going.

What a gutsy effort from the United States. They gave it their all  and hung on to get a silver medal. Meanwhile Canada was all smiles with Rosts, Frappell, Mailey, Payne, lefsrud, Grauer, Vander Hoeven, Filmer and coxswain Laura Court taking gold.

Results: CAN, USA, RUS, GER, DEN, GBR

Julia Vander Hoeven, Canada, gold
“The race was surreal, the result is surreal. Everything went to plan. We trusted our coxswain and we really just lived the race.”

Leigh Warner (c), United States, silver
“Two seat came off the seat while racing and we had to do 1300m with 7 people.”

Elizaveta Krylova (c), Russia, bronze
“The race was very hard. We think the result is so-so, we were gunning for gold. We might race in Sarasota and we might race the European under 23s.”

B-final

Two boats lined up with Belarus showing their superiority over Italy over the entire race. Belarus had outraced Italy in the repechage as well and Italy must have known they had a huge challenge today. It was a procession through to the end with Belarus rating 37 at the end.

Results: BLR, ITA