U23 Women's Quadruple Sculls (BW4x) - Final

Two crews qualified directly from this A-Final without needing to race the repechages. This should have given Germany and Australia a possible advantage.

But it was Poland out in front at the start. Poland won silver at last year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships with a different line-up and only Marta Wieliczko was back in Plovdiv. The high temperatures of 34°C and an additional race in the repechage did not cause the Poles to lose stamina. They kept the pace up throughout, with Australia pushing hard in second to stay in the top pack.

In the far outside lane, lane one, France was quietly fighting for bronze, attempting to hold off Germany in fourth. With 500m left to race, the positions remained unchanged.

Poland crossed the line in a well-deserved gold medal position and punched the air celebrating their win. Australia win silver and France take bronze.

Results: POL, AUS, FRA, USA, GER, GRE

Marta Wieliczko (2) – POL – gold
“I got the silver last year and it is so great to win this year. We had a good start and then we just tried to keep it front. It worked well.”

Georgina Gotch (s) – AUS – silver
“It is my fifth world champs and my first medal. It is an amazing feeling, better than I could have imagined. It is the best crew I could imagine to do it with.”

Daphne Socha (s) – FRA – bronze
“We are not four rowers, but really one crew. We really rowed for one another and during the race we had no doubt, we just gave everything.”

B – Final

Russia and New Zealand occupied the two favoured middle lanes in the B-Final of the women’s quadruple sculls. New Zealand got out in front, pulling clear ahead of the rest of the pack by the 750m mark. There was very little between the crews behind them –Romania, the Czech Republic and Russia. With 500m of the race left to go, New Zealand had confirmed their clear lead, winning more distance with every stroke, while Romania was still in second and the Czech Republic in third. Near the end of the race, Romania increased the pressure with New Zealand losing stamina. But the Kiwis’ early lead served them well, and the Romanians were unable to catch up. The Russians, however overtook the Czech Republic in the final stretch to finish third in the B-Final.

Results: NZL, ROU, RUS, CZE, CAN, CHN