Men’s Eight (M8+) – Final

A-Final

Coming from the heats on Friday, the Netherlands had the fastest time with the World Champions Germany the next fastest. They sat in the centre lane having had a day’s rest. The United States and Australia One also came through from the heats. Canada and New Zealand raced in the repechage yesterday and sat in the outside lanes. In the opening of the race Australia was the fastest and they got to the 500m mark in the lead. Both Germany and Australia sat on a 41 stroke rate pace going through the second 500. But there was very little between the entire field and at the half way point only a couple of seconds separated the entire field. Only Canada was a little off the pace.

Germany now picked up the pace and tried to move on the leading Australians. Coxed by Martin Sauer, Germany got their nose ahead of Australia with the United States and the Netherlands still very much in medal contention. Australia went to 42, Germany to 43 and the Dutch starting to get the better of the US under-23 crew. Australia gave it their all to get the gold. Germany held them off with the Dutch grabbing bronze.

Results: GER, AUS1, NED1, USA, NZL, CAN

Martin Sauer (c), Germany, gold
“Really hard race today and we’re absolutely exhausted but fair credit to Australia, they went at it from stroke one. I’m pleased as it was also a good race for spectators and we’ll look to the European Championships and then the World Rowing Championships.”

Liam Donald (b), Australia, silver
“We had a good start, which we’ve been practicing. We needed to then work hard in the 1000 meters to push on and forwards. It’s actually my first time here in Lucerne, so this result feels really special.”

Nelson Ritsema (s), Netherlands, bronze
“The start was a bit disappointing as we had a really good warm-up. I think we were forth or fifth for quite a while but we were able to fight back hard to come third.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

The fastest from yesterday’s repechage was Netherlands Two. Today they led the way over Poland and China. As the Dutch took to being in the lead, Poland and China swapped their second place positions several times as they tussled for the finish line. Poland had the better sprint.

Results: NED2, POL, CHN