Women's Quadruple Sculls (W4x) - Final

The Germans have been unbeatable for the last couple of years and they come to the final to defend their World Championship title. The next best through this regatta was Australia. Today, however, Australia came out of the start rather slowly and were at the back of the field. Germany had a great start and by the middle of the race Germany had built up a clear lead.

Behind Germany it was very close between the 2014 fourth place finishers, the United States was moving very well with Poland. Then the Americans did a piece and gave the Germans a scare. German stroke seat Lisa Schmidla realised that this race was not going to be easy as Elmore, Eisser, Kalmoe and Coffey of the United States got their bow ball into the lead. From their outside lane the United States was now really pumping. Both boats rated 36 coming into the finish with the United States stronger. The Germans lost their World Championship title. The Americans won. From the back of the field the Netherlands had an awesome sprint to finish with Bronze.

With the top five boats qualifying for the Rio Olympics, New Zealand were the unlucky ones. New Zealand had a good first half, but then failed to hold it through the second half of the race.

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

Megan Kalmoe (b)- USA –gold
“I am glad we executed our race plan perfectly. The rhythm was great, the wind picked up, but we were ready for it.”

Annekatrin Thiele (b) – GER – silver
“We had a positive week and preparation for the World Champs. I don’t really know why we lost today, we did not have a very good race.”

Nicole Beukers (b)- NED – bronze
“It was not really our perfect race, the first part should have been stronger. I knew we could win a medal, I said go and we went.”

B-final

China earned their first ever Olympic rowing gold medal in this boat class, back at the 2008 Olympic Games and it looks as though they are rebuilding towards Rio. Today they led the way over Great Britain. The British finished second to China at Beijing and they have also been rebuilding this boat. Not making the A-final, however, meant Olympic qualification was no longer on the cards at this regatta. Instead they raced for pride. In the final sprint the Chinese crew and Great Britain were neck-and-neck. China got to the line just a fraction quicker. the 2012 Olympic Champions, Ukraine finished at the back of the field.

Results: CHN, GBR, RUS, FRA, UKR