Men's Eight (M8+) - Final

The heats two days ago saw Germany and Great Britain win their respective heats earning them a direct path to today’s final. Great Britain are the World Champions while Germany are the Olympic Champions. This season Germany won at the European Championships against Great Britain, but the British were first at the World Rowing Cup II in Varese. Today they met again with both boats leaving the starting blocks at the same speed.

With 250m rowed the British were a whisker ahead of Germany. Margins remained tight as the crews charges towards the 1000m mark and the shore supporters in the Rotsee boat park. From yesterday’s repechage the Netherlands had become the next fastest crew and they were even with Germany and New Zealand at the 1250m mark. Phew, this was one tight race.

As all 48 rowers moved together into the final sprint, Great Britain still had the lead with Germany now moving into second and it looked like they were closing on the British. In the last 150m New Zealand was at 43 with the Netherlands attacking. Great Britain was still in first with Germany closing on the lead with every stroke despite rating just a fraction lower. The Germans ran out of water. Great Britain got to the line 0.08 of a second before the Germans. New Zealand’s crew of 2014 Under 23 World Champions had taken bronze.

Results: GBR, GER, NZL, NED, AUS, POL

Pete Reed (3) – GBR – gold

In the last 500m our cox was shouting for more. I didn’t look out of the boat and we didn’t know who was first. This medal means a lot. To win on the lake of the gods is great. Racing at Henley made our preparation special.

Richard Schmidt (7) – GER – silver  

It’s a bit disappointing not to win. But we lost too much in the first 1000m. At the end I could feel it would be really close, but we just didn’t make it.

Shaun Kirkham (3) – NZL – bronze  

It was a tough race but as a young crew it’s great to race the top ones. We got a picture of where we are – it looks good for us. Hopefully we will qualify this boat for the Olympics for New Zealand.