Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Final

The unbeaten Olympic and World Champions, Pierre Houin and Jeremie Azou of France sat in the centre lane. Could they be beaten today? The French had recorded the fastest qualifying time in both the heats and semifinals this week and all eyes were on them. All boats got away together with perhaps Poland being a little bit back. Houin and Azou had the fastest pace and they were doing what they love to do – lead from start to finish. Italy was keeping up though. Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta of Italy. Ruta and Oppo took a World Cup medal this season and also finished third at the World Rowing Championships. China’s Man Sun and Junjie Fan were in third with Poland now up with China.

France remained in the lead at the half way point with Italy and China overlapping with the leaders. Houin and Azou then went to 43 coming through to the final sprint as they knew they didn’t have much of a lead. The crews were in the low 40s with China and Italy neck and neck. France retained a small lead to cross the line first and maintain their winning streak. Italy and China went to a photo finish with Poland. Just half a second separated these three boats. Italy had won silver and China bronze.

Results: FRA, ITA, CHN, POL, BEL, GER

Pierre Houin (b), France, gold
“It’s amazing for us to win, it was a great race, but definitely not our best. We managed to push each stroke and follow China and the Italians. In a great final sprint we managed to just push ahead.”

Stefano Oppo (b), Italy, silver
“That was a great race. We are very happy with the result, particularly considering this is the first year post-Olympics. It would be great to continue this momentum into next year and through the Olympics.”

Junjie Fan (s), People’s Republic of China, bronze
“We had a really good race. We were happy with our bronze medal. It was tough out there bcasue of the humidity, but we’re delighted overall.”

B-final

Great Britain’s Samuel Mottram and Jamie Copus only just missed out on making the A-final during their semifinal race and today they sat in the centre lane next to the Czech Republic crew of Jiri Simanek  and Miroslav Vrastil. Simanek and Vrastil got to the lead at the start and held on gaining an open water lead by the middle of the race. In the final sprint the Czechs still had a big lead but then Denmark came charging through to close the gap and take a very close second.

Results: CZE, DEN, UKR, GBR, ESP, RSA