Women's Quadruple Sculls (W4x) - Final

The Germans are currently on a winning streak as the World and European Champions and World Cup leaders. They won their heat two days ago with the fastest qualifying time and today they met for the first time this season the United States – winners of the second heat. Thiele, Baer, Arnold and Schmidla of Germany got off the line first. By the first 500m mark the Germans had the lead but it was only slight. Moving with Germany was Poland. Kobus, Leszczynska, Springwald and Ciaciuch of Poland had taken silver behind Germany at the European Championships and they were holding the pace nicely.

Then the United States of Latz, Eisser, Elmore and Martelli did a move keeping the margin between the leading boats very tight. As the finish line came into view Germany had built up enough of a margin to be comfortable and watch the battle between the United States and Poland. Poland prevailed, albeit a very small margin (0.17 of a second) over the United States.

Results:  GER, POL, USA, CHN, AUS, NZL

Annekatrin Thiele (bow) – GER – gold

“We have already trained really hard, but it still need to run better almost like we were doing it without seeing. I am happy with the result. With everyone chasing us, we notice that the pressure is increasing, but we had fun today and it worked out quite well.”

Joanna Leszczynska (2) – POL – silver

“It was a very fast race but we are happy because we were in second place. It’s only our third race in this crew so it is a good indicator for us, we will go to Lucerne in this boat.” 

Amanda Elmore (3) – USA – bronze  

“It was crazy, a lot of fast boats and it all went by like a blur. We raced hard, but we also had fun.”

B-final

France had a great start but did not have the stamina of Great Britain. Wilson, Stiller, Rodford and Leyden of Great Britain pushed into the lead through the third 500 and managed to hold it to the end. China 2 also had a great finish, overtaking France to take second.

Results: GBR, CHN2, FRA, GER2