Men’s Four (M4-) – Final

The British are the World and Olympic Champions in this boat class, but they haven’t been dominating this week as stroke man Will Satch was out of the boat due to illness. Satch was back today and they sat next to Australia who over the years have become their arch rivals. Australia was still at 43 with 500m gone. They wanted to really show the British. Australia now had nearly a boat length over the rest of the field with a line forming behind them. Olympic bronze medallists, Italy was in second, but the pack was still tightly packed together.

Going into the second half of the race Great Britain’s crew of SAtch, Tarrand, Sbihi and Rossiter did a push and moved on Italy. Australia now had an open water lead. Could the Olympic silver medallist Australians retain this blistering pace? Stroked by Alexander Hill with Hargreaves, Turrin and Hicks all in the boat, the Australians continued to be the fastest moving boat on the course. In the final sprint Great Britain went to 42 with Italy at 45 and Australia at 44. Italy was closing on Australia, but they had run out of water. Gold to Australia.

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

Joshua Hicks (b), Australia, gold
“We’ve been targeting this boat for many, many years, so it is great to finally win it again. From these big races, I don’t remember much. We just took the lead and just had to hold onto that in the last 500m. Once I get back to Australia, I’ll be secluded in my room to catch up on uni work.”

Matteo Castaldo, Italy, silver 
“It was an amazing race, we knew Australia had a very strong first thousand so our plan was to stay close. We knew we only were one second behind GBR. And the last 500m is our strongest part. Step by step we just pushed on, we were very close to Australia, but today they were just better. Congratulations to my dad, today is his birthday”

Mohamed Sbihi, Great Britain, bronze
“Australia showed their quality today. We weren’t able to race them in Lucerne, so we weren’t sure how we would compare. It’s been a difficult summer, but we gave it our all today. I think we may have raced a bit too much by numbers, rather than racing itself.”

B-final

The United States and France both only just missed out on making the A-final when they raced in their semifinal and all eyes were on these two crews. But it was France in the lead at the start with Spain the closest challenger. Spain did a great push in the third 500 and with 400m to row Spain was in the lead. The Canadian and USA supporters tried to drown each other out, but Spain continued to lead. Carazo Tobar, Montes, Canalejo Pazos and Garcia Ordonez got to the finish line first.

Results: ESP, CAN, FRA, USA, AUT, NZL