Women’s Four (W4-) – Final

Great Britain and the United States won their respective heats earlier in the week with Great Britain recording the fastest time. But the American’s are the reigning World Champions and they have regularly won this boat class in recent years. With just 250m rowed the United States got a small lead. Great Britain followed very closely. The United States had retained Kristine O’Brien from the 2015 winning crew and she was sitting in stroke seat. Germany held on to the leaders in third.

Through the middle of the race the United States and Great Britain were neck-and-neck and you could see both crews taking turns at doing pushes. Just before the half way point the British did a push and they got their nose in front. It must have given the crew confidence as they pushed on and moved to a full boat length lead. Then the crew of Norton, Nixon, Etiebet and Gammond of Great Britain got clean away. The United States had no reply. The British had won from the reigning World Champions.

Results: GBR, USA, GER, BLR, CHN, CAN

Holly Norton (s), Gold, Great Britain
“This was such a nice course to race on, last year I was here for the Holland Beker and it is great to be back here now. It is such a big regatta and for us it is really nice to see the next generation.”

Corinne Schoeller, Silver, United States of America
“It was a dog fight the whole way down. Great Britain did a great job and we just have to go home and work harder for the gold.”

Melanie Hansen (b), Bronze, Germany
“Our plan was to stay with the United States and Great Britain, but the wind was very strong and we couldn’t really get in a rhythm. Later they were too far away to catch them so we just wanted to consolidate our position.”