Men’s Pair (M2-) – Final

France One of Valentin and Theophile Onfroy had a very fast start and they held a 38 stroke rate into the second quarter of the race with the Dutch also at 38. But it was Serbia that had the fastest time two days ago in the heats. Serbia was currently sitting back in fifth. They then moved to fourth, taking the margins between them and the leading crews down to practically nothing. There was less than four seconds between the entire field at the half way point. The Onfroy brothers went to 39 and held it through the third 500m. Could they hold this challenging pace? In the last 250m the Onfroy’s went to 40 then 42.

It was still incredibly tight with less than two seconds between the top four crews. In an incredibly tight finish, the Onfroy’s had done it with Serbia’s Milos Vasic and Nenad Bedik getting the silver and Jakub Podrazil and Lukas Helesic of the Czech Republic One in third. Is this the post-Murray and Bond look in the men’s pair?

Results: FRA1, SRB, CZE1, NED, TUR, FRA2

Valentin Onfroy (b), France, gold
“It is our first final of the world cup. We had a good race. WE knew Serbia and Czech Republic were serious opponents, so we did our best and we managed to finish first.”

Nenad Bedik (s), Serbia, silver
“It was a very tough race, until the last 100m we didn’t know where we were and we just pushed harder and harder. It wasn’t until we crossed the finish line that we knew we were second, we are very happy about that. It’s our second medal at a world cup, it’s good because I think we are leader in world cup points. It would be nice to win.”

Lukas Helesic (s), Czech Republic, bronze
“Very tough race for us. Everyone was very, very quick in the last 1000m. In the middle of the race, we just had to go for it to make sure we didn’t come fourth. The conditions are good today, the sun is good and the wind is good. We’ll have some fast times today.”

B-final

Germany pushed hard to get into the lead through the first half of the race. But the race remained incredibly tight with Australia and New Zealand Two going head-to-head just a fraction behind the Germans. Then a third 500 push by the Kiwis, who only just missed out on the A-final in yesterday’s repechage, propelled them into the lead. Australia and Germany held on with Australia’s Hamish Playfair and Simon Keenan of Australia getting to the line first.

Results: AUS, NZL2, ARG, GER