Women’s Four (BW4-) – Final

Romania had the best heat earlier in the week, but then the Dutch shone in the semifinals. Today was a fresh start and at the beginning the Netherlands had the lead as Germany slotted into second with Romania challenging hard. The Dutch crew of Beeres, Florijn, Clevering and Meester was really motoring now and they had an open water lead. Romania had got the better of Germany and they were doing their best to catch the Netherlands. The very medalled Italy, meanwhile, was at the back of the field with Great Britain.

The Dutch continued to charge on and Romania was having trouble keeping up. There was still 300m left to row and Romania’s Popescu, Pop, Parfenie and Paracanu had closed the gap. The Dutch were at 37 and Romania at 38. The Dutch threw their hands in the air in joy. Romania was second and a very happy Germany was third. The Netherlands is the World Champions and also own the under-23 World Best Time set yesterday.

Results: NED, ROU, GER, DEN, ITA, GBR

Ymkje Clevering, Netherlands, gold
“We had a really good start, the third part of the race was not quite as good as the semifinal, but we got the result we wanted.”

Beatrice-Madalina Parfenie, Romania, silver
“We had a good race and we are pleased with the silver medal.”

Annemieke Schanze (b), Germany, bronze
“That really went to plan. Denmark pushed us hard and to be honest all we wanted was that result. We really like it here in Plovdiv, it was a bit too warm but is producing some fast times which is great.”

B-final

Belarus led the way out of the blocks and got some clear water between them and the rest of the field. This left a close race between the Czech Republic, Australia and New Zealand. Coming through the third 500 Australia had gotten into second with New Zealand challenging them. This closed the gap on Belarus and saw get second just over New Zealand.

Results: BLR, AUS, NZL, USA, CZE, ESP