Men’s Coxed Pair (M2+) – Final

In the semifinals the six top crews were spread by just two seconds in their finishing times. Great Britain had a slightly faster time. The British are the reigning World Champions in this boat class, but they have a new line up for this 2016 regatta. Going through the first 500m there was nothing between these crews. The British crew of Oliver Cook and Callum McBrierty was the first to show with coxswain Henry Fieldman pushing them on. Canada was holding on tightly to the British lead and they traded the lead through the second 500m.

Canada and Great Britain now got a bit of an edge over the field with the Olympic pairs duo of Roel Braas and Mitchel Steenman of the Netherlands holding on. Great Britain pushed back on Canada as these two crews remained locked together. Great Britain now began to sprint. Could Canada hold on? The Dutch were coming and taking advantage of the support of the crowd. So was Italy. Great Britain had won. Canada held on to second, just 0.17 ahead of Mario Paonessa and Vincenzp Capelli of Italy. Less than half a second back, the Netherlands had missed out on a medal.

Results: GBR, CAN, ITA, NED, USA, ESP

B-final

Belarus was the first to show and it was a very solid start with a half boat length lead by the first 500m mark. Then Turkey began to close on Belarus and these two crews went through the middle of the race neck-and-neck. Both boats had to go into the high 30s in the final sprint and Belarus’s Dzimitry Furman and Dzianis Suravets got there first.

Results: BLR, TUR, FRA, UKR, CZE, GER

Callum Mcbrierty (s), Gold, Great Britain
“We just went straight for the attack today. Except for being overtaken in the second quarter it was pretty much a perfect race. All the work we did in the gym really payed off for us in these conditions.”

Benjamin De Wit (s), Silver, Canada
“The coxed pair was pretty different for us. We started in the straight pair in the beginning of the summer but added Kevin a couple of weeks ago. With the legacy that Canada has in this event, we’re so excited with this finish.

Vincenzo Capelli (s), Bronze, Italy
“I love not knowing until the finish line where we are. When we looked at the scoreboard we knew we did everything we could and the other two crews were just better today.”