Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-) – Final

A–Final

Three boats contended this final so everyone was guaranteed a medal. At the start the young Greek crew took the bull by the horns and went sprinting out. Antonios Papakonstantinou and Ioannis Marokos of Greece have been racing a lot this season including the European Championships and the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. At the under-23s they finished with silver. At the Europeans they raced in the double and at 18 years old they have a lot of racing ahead of them. Italy followed in second with the United States in third.

By the middle of the race Greece had a boat length lead over Italy and now Giuseppe Di Mare and Alfonso Scalzone of Italy began to move and make a stab at the gold medal spot. The US was back a bit now and looked like they would have to settle for bronze. Coming into the last 500m of the race Italy managed to get their bow ahead of the Greeks. Once in front Italy managed to move ahead of Greece. Both boats rated 45 to take gold and silver.

Results: ITA, GRE, USA

Giuseppe Di Mare (b), Italy, gold
“We’re really happy with the victory! It was a good race but we had a very slow start. Greece were very strong here but down the course we managed to over-take and win.”

Ioannis Marokos (s), Greece, silver
“We were second in Poznan so we wanted to do better than that. At the start we came ahead but Italy was really good and we just didn’t have anything left at the end.”

Thomas Foster (s), United States of America, bronze
“We haven’t been together for too long so we’re happy with this. The level is really world class and this is where we are at right now.”

Re-watch the race here