Men's Double Sculls (M2x) - Final

Today the Sinkovic’s were in the lead at the start and showing the style that has helped make their quad go fast. By the middle of the race, Croatia had a small margin over Great Britain and Germany who were fighting it out for second. A powerful piece by Croatia then helped them move away with the British producing the most gutsy effort in an attempt to stay with the Sinkovics.

Australia and Lithuania then moved in on the action. Lithuania is the only crew here that medalled at last year’s World Rowing Championships and they won earlier this season at the World Rowing Cup in Sydney. In the final sprint Croatia remained in the leading position with Lithuania’s Rolandas Mascinskas and Saulius Ritter going head-to-head with James McRae and Alexander Belonogoff of Australia One. Australia hit 40 strokes per minute. Lithuania was on 42 with Great Britain holding on by the skin of their teeth. At the line the Sinkovic’s held off the rest of the crews, with Australia getting to the line just a fraction ahead of Lithuania. Martin and Valent Sinkovic can now embed their names at the head of Croatian rowing.

Results: CRO1, AUS, LTU, GBR, GER, NZL

Gold – SINKOVIC, Valent (CRO)

This was a very good race and we stuck to our plan: to go hard from the beginning. We wanted a 35/36 stroke rate towards the middle of the piece.

Silver – MCRAE, James (AUS1)

We knew our second half is our strength and so we were just about minimising the damage in the first part. It is a step up from bronze in Aiguebelette. We both raced these guys [the Croatians] in 2009 as U23s in Racice.

Bronze – RITTER, Saulius (LTU)

I think we did ok. From the start the Croatians were very fast but later on we were involved in the fight. We could be a challenger on the sprint. We’ll see them in Amsterdam.

B-Final

World Champions, Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch of Norway made the best of the B-final by leading from start to finish. The quick finish style of Norway was evident on the Rotsee as they crossed the finish line at a 35 stroke rate pace.

Results: NOR, SRB, ESP, CAN, DEN, ITA1