Men’s Quadruple Sculls (BM4x) – Final

A–Final

The British crew of Meijer, Armstrong, Haywood and Law are having a great regatta and they come through to the final as the favourites following a very fast semifinal yesterday. The British had a great start and they had the early lead with Italy (the winner of the other semi) the closest follower. Great Britain remained in the lead and even got a bit of a margin over Italy who must have been able to see Germany coming. The field remained rather tight and this race was likely to be decided in the third 500.

Great Britain moved clear away from the rest of the field in the third 500 with Italy really having to keep an eye on Germany. These three countries looked to be the medal winners. But what colour? Then Hungary was coming with every stroke. Germany had their work cut out for them. At a 39 stroke rate Great Britain had won. Italy, at 38, grabbed second and Germany held on to third.

Results: GBR, ITA, GER, HUN, UKR, SUI

Rowan Law (b), Great Britain, gold
“That was exactly what we wanted! We’ve been nailing it on the head each race so far. It was about using the experience in the crew. Considering that we have only been together for two and a half weeks, it’s an extremely exciting project. During the race we had no specific pushes and we were able to get ahead at the start to drive on.”

Luca Chiumento, (s), Italy, silver
“It was a good race. We knew that GB was going to be fast but we really just wanted it to be our race without looking out of the boat. Around the middle we lost our balance but we were able to get it back and get back into the fight.”

Johannes Lotz (s), Germany, bronze
“We didn’t really know if we could medal or not but we felt strong coming into the race and did all we could to fight for a position on the podium.”

B-final

Moldova shot out in the lead and held it until the middle of the race with last year’s under-23 champions, New Zealand then taking over in the lead. Then disaster for Spain. It the third 500 a bad stroke by bow’s Rifi Carbo brought them to a stop. They fought back. At the front of the field New Zealand crossed the line in first. Belarus didn’t race for medical reasons.

Results: NZL, MDA, BEL, FRA, ESP