Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls (BLW4x) – Final

The fastest qualifying time went to Germany, but the Italian boat was loaded with talent. These two crews sat in the middle of the field. Italy’s Maregotto, Piazzolla, Rodini and Schettino got away the quickest with the Netherlands chasing hard. Italy then tried to get a bit of an edge over the rest of the field. Italy won gold last year in this boat class and two of the crew remained the same this year. Going through the middle of the race Italy had a huge four second lead with the Netherlands and Germany now fighting it out for second.

Switzerland, who won silver in 2016, desperately tried to move into a medal potential spot, but it looked like the leading pace was too much. Italy continued to march away leaving the real battle on for second. Germany was at 36 and the Dutch on 35. Germany was gaining on the small Dutch lead with every stroke. They ran out of water. Gold for Italy and silver for the Netherlands. Italy had set a new under-23 World Best Time. The new standard is 6:25.96, breaking the time set in Rotterdam last year by Poland.

Results: ITA, NED, GER, SUI, GBR, AUS

Paola Piazzolla, Italy, gold
“The first part we really concentrated and we didn’t look around at all. It’s a great result as we’ve only had four days together as a whole crew. We hope to go to Sarasota, Florida, but we’re not sure yet.”

 Martine Veldhuis (s), Netherlands, silver
“It was amazing, we thought we got bronze, but our coach told us it was silver. We are very happy with that result.”

 Luise Asmussen, Germany, bronze
“We caught a crab before the thousand metre mark, but we managed to recover and everything was ok in the end.” 

B-final

Looking very much in control the United States led the race from start to finish. This left Austria and Denmark to go stroke for stroke through the middle of the race before Austria was able to get a small margin and hold it over Denmark until the end.

Results: USA, AUT, DEN, HUN