Women's Pair Final

The heats two days ago showed that World Champions, Great Britain had the speed. Helen Glover and Polly Swann set the fastest qualifying time by a handy margin and then got yesterday off while everyone, except for Romania, had to race in the repechage. Despite Great Britain’s pedigree with Glover also being the reigning Olympic Champion, the Netherlands decided to attack at the start. Aletta Jorritsma and Heleen Boers came out of the start just a fraction behind Great Britain.

This situation had changed by the middle of the race as Glover and Swann started to pull away with European Champions, Romania, pulling up into second. Glover and Swann then moved up a gear leaving Cristina Grigoras and Laura Oprea of Romania with no reply.

With an open water lead Glover and Swann must have been loving their racing experience as they pulled through to the finish a yawning gap ahead of Romania in second with the Netherlands holding on to third. Glover and Swann had set a European Best Time in the heats, they reset it today by a huge seven seconds. The new time is now set at 7:03/62.

Gold – Helen Glover – GBR

The other girls started so fast. It was our first race of the year so it’s a great start to the season for us. We wanted to deliver a simple race and nothing went wrong.

Bronze – Heleen Boers – NED

It’s our first international regatta together so we feel wonderful, but we think we can do better as the season goes on.