Women's Eight (W8+) - Final

Coming through from the heats two days ago, the Netherlands had the fastest qualifying time, but only just over Great Britain. The Dutch and British met today in the final. Last month the Netherlands took gold at the World Rowing Cup in Varese while for the British, this is their first international race of the season.

At the start it was Russia who got away very quickly. Russia had to come through from the repechage and maybe the extra race had done them good. Then the Netherlands, from second, began to move on the Russians with Great Britain in third.

At the half way point Great Britain did a piece that moved them away from Romania while Russia and the Netherlands remained out in front. The Dutch have yet to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games and they must be using the European Rowing Championships as preparation for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. The Dutch bow ball then moved ahead of Russia’s and coming into the last 500m the Dutch looked to be the ones with the advantage. Then the British really started to move. With each stroke they were gaining on the Dutch. Did they have enough rowing course left?

The British had done it. Coxswain Zoe De Toledo had brought her British crew home in a beautifully timed race.  The Netherlands held on to silver and Russia earned bronze.

Results:  GBR, NED, RUS, ROU, GER, BLR

Olivia Carnegie-Brown (7) – Great Britain – gold
“We didn’t really realise that we won when we crossed the finish line. The conditions are just horrible. We kept it as simple as possible.”

Elisabeth Hogerwerf (5) – Netherlands – silver  
“We had a really good middle part of the race. It is a pity we couldn’t hold off the British charge in the end. It was a good race though.”

Yulia Inozemtsev (2) – Russia – bronze
“It’s too hard to race against this wind. We just did what we could, we are very happy to win a medal.”