Women’s Pair (W2-) – Final

A-Final 

Australia and New Zealand were the favoured crews coming into this race. Both have been having a great season. But today they were up against the World Champion Canadians. Australia’s Morrison and McIntyre had beaten Canada in the semifinals and they now led today at the start of this final. New Zealand and the United States were neck-and-neck for second with Canada in fourth but very much on the pace. Then New Zealand’s Predergast and Gowler did a push. They took silver last year and were moving on Australia. Morrison and McIntyre were ready and held the lead through the middle of the race. Canada and the United States were now having their own battle for third. The pace remained hot.

Going through the third 500 New Zealand had had enough and they broke into the lead. Australia was holding on. They matched the Kiwi pace and these two crews looked like mirror images. The New Zealanders then broke away as Australia started to go crooked. Prendergast and Gowler were the World Champions. 

Results: NZL, AUS, CAN, USA, ESP, ITA

Grace Prendergast (b), New Zealand, Gold
“We worked really hard for this. I think that was the closest race I’ve ever been in which made it even more special. I think it came down to sticking to our race plan and trusting ourselves.”

Annabelle McIntyre, Australia, Silver
“We gave it everything we could and it puts us in a really good position for next year, and we’re really excited about what we can do ourselves and what our team can do. We’re really looking forward to having a good hit out tomorrow in the Women’s Eight and seeing what we can do set ourselves up for next year.”

Hillary Janssens (s), Canada, Bronze

“We knew we had a good shot at the podium, but we haven’t been tested against Austria, New Zealand and USA this season. We tried to stick to our plan. Caileigh called the race really well and I’m super proud of what we did out there. We’ll have 6 fresh pairs of legs in the women’s eight behind us tomorrow.  They have a whole lot of heart, and we are ready to give it everything we have.”

Re-watch the race here