Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (LM4x) – Final

Ukraine and Greece had won their heats earlier in the week and this had earned them the best lanes for today’s final. But it was Germany who was the first to show and they were going out hard. Coming through the middle of the race, the Germans had a full boat length over the rest of the field. Following the Germans, Greece had pushed into second ahead of the reigning World Champions, France. Three members of the French boat have continued from their 2015 winning crew and they were rating lower than Greece but holding their position.

With 500m to go, Greece did a push and started to break away from France. At the head of the field, Germany went to 39 to hold the lead as Greece came charging. But it was France who were really going for it. Greece could not hold off the flying French. Germany had won gold. France had won silver and Greece took the bronze.

Results: GER, FRA, GRE, UKR, DEN, GBR

Florian Roller, Gold, Germany
“Our plan was to go really fast out of the start because we know the French are really fast in the end. Around halfway we felt like we could control the field so we wanted to take as much lead as we can to secure the gold medal.”

Francois Teroin (b), Silver, France
“Last year the other guys won gold in this boat with the current Olympic gold medallist Pierre Houin, who is here to cheer for us today. It was amazing to race with these guys and win a medal again this year in this boatclass.”

Panagiotis Magdanis, Bronze, Greece
“Giannaros and I got 6th in Rio in the lightweight four so coming back to the quad was difficult for us. But we practiced together in the beginning of the summer, which went really well. We really trust each other and that was shown in the final 500 meters.”