Women’s Quadruple Sculls (W4x) – Final

Poland and Great Britain had recorded the fastest times coming through from the heats with Poland having a better pedigree having won two World Cups this season. Out from the start, Poland was the quickest off the blocks. Poland also took bronze at the Rio Olympics with Germany the Olympic Champions. Germany has dominated this boat class over recent years, but they seem to be rebuilding this year and they come to these World Championships with mixed results including having to make the final through the repechage.

Poland’s Kobus, Wieliczko, Springwald and Zillmann now pushed away to a small lead with the Netherlands, Australia and Germany absolutely level across the course. Five boats were within two seconds of each other through the middle of the race. Only the United States was a little bit back. Poland continued to look like the strongest crew and they got to the final 500m mark still in front. Then the Dutch and Great Britain did a push with Germany still on the pace as the US overtook Australia. What a finish! Van Rooijen, Janssen, Souwer and Beukers of the Netherlands had gone to 39 and were reeling in the Poles with Great Britain at 35 but solidly in third. The Dutch had outsprinted Poland to take gold.

Results: NED, POL, GBR, GER, USA, AUS

Sarah Hawe, Molly Goodman (s), Australia, gold
“This is incredible, we didn’t know if we had won. We knew it was going to be a really challenging field, but our finish is usually strong, we have a good wind. I actually took a break from rowing to become a vet, so it’s great to be back.”

Maria Wierzbowska (s), Poland, silver
“This was the best race of my life. I knew we could do this. I used to have my sister in this boat, but she got hit by a car a couple weeks ago. She is doing better now, she is very strong, very ambitious and she wants to go to Tokyo.”

Ekaterina Potapova, Russia, bronze
“It was a very hard race, very intense. The last 500m was fantastic. The only thing I could think of was, I can, I MUST, ROW FASTER. This was for our whole team, we did this together.”

B-final

China was the fastest qualifier from their repechage earlier this week and they sat in the middle lane. At the start France got away very quickly, but the margins were tight and at the half way point only two seconds separated the entire field. Then China moved into a push in the third 500 at a 36 stroke rate pace. This got them not only into the lead, but helped them break away from the field. Ukraine chased hard, but China was able to hold them off.

Results: CHN, UKR, FRA