Lightweight Men’s Quadruple Sculls (BLM4x) – Final

A – Final

In the heats the United States recorded the fastest qualifying time and they came up against Denmark – the winner of the other heat- today for the first time. Denmark took silver at World Rowing Cup III earlier this month. All other boats raced in the repechage to make it to the final with Italy and Ireland the next fastest. France and Italy came out rating 50, but the first to show was Spain. Spain hit the 500m mark just in the lead, but with less than two seconds separating the entire field, the race was still anyone’s. Italy then took over in the lead with Denmark, the United States and France neck-and-neck. The boats charged through the third 500 with the United States moving up on Italy. France and Denmark moved with them. Then Ireland came flying. What is going on in Irish rowing!? Ireland had overtaken the US and France and were gaining on Italy. The Italians went to 40 and outrated the field, holding onto the gold medal.

Results: ITA, IRL, USA, DEN, FRA, ESP

Niels Torre, Italy, gold
“We’re very happy as we didn’t know how well it would go. In the first race we were forth but it has just gotten better over the week and thankfully today it was the best.”

Andrew Goff (s), Ireland, silver
“There’s a head wind out there so it made it feel like a long race but we really fought hard the whole way. Towards the end we were just thinking where the finish line was though. The lads really stepped it up today.”

Samuel Melvin (b), United States of America, bronze
“We knew that we would be down at the start so we just tried really hard to naturalise that gap. The race went really well but obviously not the result that we wanted but what a race!”

B-final

Germany missed out in the a-final by just half a second and they sat in the centre of this b-final. After an initial lead by Austria, Germany moved out in front and once there they did not look back. But the margins were close and with 500m left to row just two seconds separated the top four boats. Germany’s sprint was the best.

Results: GER, JPN, GBR, AUT, NOR, EST