World Rowing Champs go Great Britain's way

Thousands of people lined the Munich regatta course today for the last day of finals of the 2007 World Rowing Championships. The atmosphere in the tribune was wild as the eleven remaining gold medals were handed out today.

Great Britain collected a total of eleven medals over the two days of A Finals: three gold, two silver and six bronze, placing them at the top of this year’s table. It was also Great Britain which took the overall team trophy.

129 Olympic qualification spots were at stake here, and today, a handful of crews still had to qualify. Feelings ranged from bitter disappointment and sheer exhilaration for the B Finalist today. Japan, in the lightweight women’s double and Canada in the lightweight men’s double missed out on their Olympic spot by a whisker, within less than a second from their qualifying opponent. Though the Japanese girls still have a chance in the Asian qualification regatta, this was it for the Canadian men.

On the other hand, those who had already secured their Olympic spots through qualifying for the A Finals experienced some great races. The lightweight women’s double, the only lightweight women’s Olympic event, saw the closest finish of this regatta, with first Australia and second Finland separated by 23 hundredths of a second and a dead heat between Germany and Denmark for third only 1.56 seconds behind.

In the eight, USA take the women’s event and Canada, pressured by the local crowds supporting the “Deutschland Achter” Germany’s flagship crew, led from the start of the men’s race and made it across the finish line with a 2.27 seconds lead ahead of the home crew.

This concludes eight days of great racing at the Munich Olympic Regatta course where a total of 65’600 rowing fans supported their crews over the entire eight days of competition.

Find the full report on www.worldrowing.com including qualification information.