Lightweight Men's Four (LM4-) - Final

The best time from the semifinals was World Champions, Denmark. But at the start of this race it was Italy in the lead. Then New Zealand (winners of World Rowing Cup II) pushed ahead of the pack as Denmark slipped back into fourth. But margins were close with World Cup leaders, Switzerland pushing into second.

As Italy began to fade, New Zealand’s James Hunter, Alistair Bond (brother of Hamish Bond), James Lassche and Curtis Rapley continued to hold the lead. In the final sprint, with full crowd support, Switzerland took their stroke rate to 42. New Zealand held their composure at a 41 stroke rate and Denmark did their best to hold off a French challenger. New Zealand had done it, making it two for two from the 2015 season.

Results: NZL, SUI, DEN, FRA, ITA, NED

Curtis Rapley (s) – NZL – gold

Coming down the last 200m we heard a big cheer. I realised that the Swiss were second and were pushing hard to get into the lead, but we held it.

Lucas Tramer (3) – SUI – silver  

We were determined to be out in front, but our start was not so good. We are really satisfied with the final sprint that was better than usual. We are happy with this silver in Lucerne.

Jens Vilhelmsen (2) – DEN – bronze  

In the last weeks we got a more natural rowing movement. But today we didn’t manage a very good race together. We’re still happy about the result which gives us confidence to train until Aiguebelette.

B-Final

Spain missed out on making the A-final yesterday by just 0.07 of a second. Instead they made the best of this race by leading for the first half of the race. Then Olympic medallists, Great Britain attacked and managed to get their nose in front. Spain was not giving up and these two crews went neck and neck to the line. The British got there first.

Results: GBR, ESP, POL, GER, AUS, AUT