Men’s Pair (M2-) – Final

A–Final

Croatia comes into this final with the fastest qualifying time and they come out at the start in third. At the front was Valentin and Theophile Onfroy of France. The Onfroy brothers got to the first 500m in the lead with Romania and Croatia neck-and-neck. Meanwhile the reigning European Champions Italy sat at the back of the field. Matteo Lodo won gold last year for Italy and he has a new partner in Domenico Montrone.

Going through the middle of the race there was only a second between the top four boats with Serbia in the mix. The Onfroy brothers went to 42 to try and maintain the lead in the final sprint. Croatia’s Valent and Martin Sinkovic also went to 42 and left Romania behind and went after the French. The Olympic Champions from the double, the Sinkovics took gold. They win their first European Championship title in the pair.

Results: CRO, FRA, ROU, SRB, ITA, BLR

Martin Sinkovic (b), Croatia, gold
“We had a not so great start and didn’t really catch ourselves on the 1st 1000. Were really proud of the finish we put on at the end. And now we have the European champion title – it’s our first big title in the pair.”

Theophile Onfroy (s), France, silver
“A very tight race, we were ahead of the Sinkovics for a good bit, but they pushed ahead in the end. We know them well, they are great competitors. We’re happy to come away with 2nd today.”

Ciprian Tudosa (s), Romania, bronze
“Race was very tough. It was very close so we’re very happy with our result. Today we wanted a good race and the medal is a nice bonus.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

After a false start, the race got away with a clean start and it was rapid for the Germans as Paul Schroeter and Laurits Follert of Germany moved into the lead. Schroeter and Follert had taken the pressure off in yesterday’s semifinal as maybe they planned to save energy for today. Great Britain slotted into second. The British were unlucky not to have made the a-final after competing in a very fast semifinal yesterday. Oliver Cook and Matthew Rossiter of Great Britain then moved on Germany and into the lead. The Germans could not hold them off in the final sprint.

Results: GBR, GER, RUS, NED, IRL, UKR

Re-watch the race here