Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Final

New Zealand had the fastest time in their heat two days ago and this earned them a direct path to today’s final. Zoe McBride and Jackie Kiddle of New Zealand missed racing last month at the World Rowing Cup for medical reasons making this their first international race together this season. Poland got away the quickest with Switzerland then having the most speed. Switzerland had to race yesterday in the repechage and despite this extra racing they were the first to get to the 500m mark.

Then McBride and Kiddle really started to move and from their fourth place they were pushing through Russia and then Poland. Weronika Deresz and Martyna Mikolajczak of Poland are the European Champions and they also got silver at last month’s World Rowing Cup. Going through the middle of the race, New Zealand found the lead and once there they started to push clean away from the other five boats. With three-quarters of the race gone, McBride and Kiddle had a huge five second lead. Poland and Russia held on to the remaining medal spots. Rating 43 at the end New Zealand held the lead with Poland at 38 and Russia at 37.

Results: NZL, POL, RUS, SUI, ITA, GBR

Jackie Kiddle (s), New Zealand, gold
“Today definitely went to plan, we had a really good race. I felt we really locked in together. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but each stroke we wanted more and more. I felt we really threw the kitchen sink at it.”

 Weronika Deresz (b), Poland, silver
“We are really pleased with the quality of our rowing today. We are really focused to progress toward the World Champs. We were tired here as we raced a lot this season. It’s the first time the lightweight women’s double from Poland wins the World Cup.”

 Anastasia Lebedeva (s), Russia, bronze
“We are a young crew, it’s our first international start together. The performance was really good today. To prepare for the world champs we will train in Russia and in Trakai, Lithuania.”

B-final

Canada’s new line-up for 2017, Jill Moffatt and Ellen Gleadow led the way in this b-final. Moffatt comes from the 2016 lightweight women’s quadruple sculls while Gleadow raced in the under-23 lightweight double last year. Germany tried to hold on to the Canadian pace, but Moffatt and Gleadow remained in control right through to the final buzzer. Germany and Greece took it to a photo finish. Greece had finished second by 0.01 of a second.

Results: CAN, GRE, GER