Men's Double Sculls (M2x) - Final

The Croatian double of Valent and Martin Sinkovic are starting to establish themelves as a rowing partnership that will go down in history. They teamed up last year after being in the men’s quadruple sculls and found instant success capping of the season as World Best Time holders and World Champions. This season the Sinkovics have shown that they don’t just win, but they win by big margins.

Today the Croatians already had a nice little lead with just 40 strokes rowed. They left behind them a line made up of all five remaining crews. By the half way point, the Sinkovics had a three second lead over European Champions, Marcel Hacker and Stephen Krueger of Germany. The Hacker and Krueger combination game together at the start of the season and won at their first regatta together, World Rowing Cup I. This is the first time that they had raced the Croatians. Germany were now in second.

Then a problem struck the New Zealand boat. A number of bad strokes put them at the back of the field. Italy seized this opportunity and went for the sprint. Germany reacted back with Australia joining in the fight for silver. The gap closed on the Sinkovics who were now rating 40 with Australia and Germany at 43. Then 15m before the line the Italians virtually stopped. Germany and Australia’s James McRae and Alexander Belonogoff won the lesser medals. The Sinkovics continued their winning streak.

Results: CRO, GER, AUS, ITA, GBR, NZL

Valent Sinkovic (s) – CRO – gold

It’s perfect to win gold in Lucerne. All the others had a really good finish, so they were coming at us. We had to push hard.

Stephan Krueger (s) – GER – silver  

I looked only once out of the boat. The Croatians were already one length in front. The finish was very hard and fast.

Alexander Belonogoff (s) – AUS – bronze  

It was a good race for us. We are now used to the time zone and feel fresher. I just need to make my bowman a bit stronger and we can maybe stay with the Croatians.

B-Final

Norway missed out on the A-final by just one second and looked to be the favourite coming into this race. But it was France that had the lead at the start with Serbia in second. Then Nils Jakob Hoff and Kjetil Borch did a big push going through the third 500 which got them into the lead. Serbia and France held on. In the final sprint, Marko Marjanovic Aleksandar Filipovic of Serbia went for it and got into first in the final stroke.

Results: SRB, NOR, FRA, USA, LAT, DEN