Lightweight Men's Double Sculls (LM2x) - Final

France’s Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou are having a great season. They won at the Varese World Cup and also became European Champions in Poznan. They come to Lucerne unbeaten. Today, Delayre and Azou were the quickest out at the start with Norway and Great Britain following in close succession. Margins remained close going through the middle of the race with Italy now joining in the challenge to overtake the French.

This race was turning into a true, close lightweight rowing exhibition. Then the British, who had given it their all in yesterday’s semifinal, slipped back along with Italy. This left 2013 World Champions, Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli to be the main challengers as the 2014 World Champions, James Thompson and John Smith started to really move. Thompson and Smith are known for their ability to sprint at the end. Were the French ready? As Thompson and Smith hit a 45 stroke rate, the French, at 37, remained composed. Delayre and Azou had retained their 2015 winning streak. South Africa, in their first international outing for 2015 had taken silver and Norway had held on for third.

Results: FRA, RSA, NOR, ITA, GBR, DEN

Stany Delayre – FRA – gold

It was a big and close race. We couldn’t make any mistakes. Our goal is to win every race until Rio, especially the World Rowing Championships at home.

John Smith– RSA – silver  

We train a lot the end of the race to be faster than the others. Ideally we would like to use it as a defensive move but it happens that we just have to attack with it.

Kristoffer Brun – NOR – bronze

It was a very hard race. We died at 500m to go. As every time, we tried to win. It’s the best way to learn.

B-Final

Turkey’s Juseyn Kandemir and Enes Kusku had a great start and held it until twins Tycho and Vincent Muda of the Netherlands pulled out an enormous sprint to overtake Turkey in the close of the race. Credit to Turkey to hold their own against such an accomplished crew as the Muda brothers.

Results: NED, TUR, NZL, CZE, AUT, JPN1