Junior Men’s Eight (JM8+) – Final

Earlier this week in the heats the United States has won one heat and Great Britain the other. The United States had recorded the fastest time. Today they raced each other and also the reigning junior World Champions, the Netherlands. The Germans got away the quickest, but the margins were close and the United States had matched the pace of the leading Germans. Coming into the half way point Germany had just a fraction of a lead over the United States with Great Britain and New Zealand neck-and-neck for the bronze medal spot.

Germany and the United States were now equal in the lead of the race as the final sprint had begun. Germany did a pace, the United States held on. Germany must have known that the United States had a good sprint and they were giving it their all to hold on. It was still neck-and-neck. The US had a 40 stroke rate and had got into the lead. Germany came back at a 40 stroke rate. It was a photo finish. Bronze went to Great Britain. The crews waited. Germany had won by just 0.03 of a second.

Results: GER, USA, GBR, NZL, ITA, NED

B-final

Switzerland, who raced in the A-final at the European Junior Championships, raced into the lead at the start. The lead did not last long as Romania got their bow in front and started to move away. Switzerland held on to second and they were now under pressure from Spain. Spain was now at 40 and were neck-and-neck with Switzerland. Romania crossed the line in first.

Results: ROU, SUI, ESP, RUS, DEN, CRO

Nils Kocher (s), Gold, Germany
“We were in the lead till about 800m but then the USA took over around halfway. We know we have a very fast end so we could rely on that. We had no clue when we crossed the finish line if we had one, we only knew once we saw our fans celebrating.”

Jacob Shusko (c), Silver, United States of America
“That was the closest race I’ve ever been involved in, the noise from the crowd was amazing.”

Seb Benzecry, Bronze, Great Britain
“The New Zealanders went out really hard but we stuck to our own race. The noise of the crowd was incredible. Our coxswain made a call to go and do it for the crowd.”