Men’s Eight (M8+) – Finals

A–Final

Germany and the Netherlands came directly to this final from winning their heats. The Germans are the World Champions and they have not lost a race since last year’s World Rowing Championships. The Netherlands finished third at World Rowing Cup III and sat next to Germany. But at the start it was Romania who had the fastest pace. Romania finished second last week at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships and they looked fearless as they kept their stroke rate high. Romania got to the first 500m mark in the lead with the Dutch in second. The margins were tight and now the Dutch used the second 500 to really move. They were in the lead going through the middle of the race.

Germany had moved into second with Great Britain coming up to challenge the Romanians. Italy and Russia were the only ones slightly off the pace. Germany now stepped up the pace and they took out seat by seat the Dutch. Romania continued to fight with Great Britain. Germany was at 38 and in the lead. It looked like the Netherlands had no reply. They went to 42 with Germany at 41 and Romania at 47. What a finish! Germany had retained their European Championship title. The Dutch held on to second over the flying Romanians.

Results: GER, NED, ROU, ITA, GBR, ROU

Maximilian Planer, Germany, gold
“It feels amazing to win. It was a hard race, but we knew if we put out our best down we could win. A great experience to be here in Glasgow.”

Diederik Van Engelenburg (c), Netherlands, silver
“A little bit disappointed not to get gold but we’re all happy with the silver medal. We’ve got a training camp tomorrow and we’ll start making the necessary steps towards Plovdiv.”

Constantin Radu, Romania, bronze
“It was a good race, we really flew today but the Netherlands were better than us.”

Re-watch the race here