Men’s Eight (M8+) – Finals

A–Final 

The last time the United States raced was a year ago when they took silver at the World Rowing Championships. They won their heat earlier in the week and today they faced the World Champions, Germany for the first time since 2017. Germany come to this regatta following an unbeaten season and they sat next to Australia. The Australians finished second at World Rowing Cup III and they were a crew to watch. At the start of the race the Germans decided to dominate straight away and they took off in the lead. Australia chased hard and got to the 500m mark in second.

Then Germany did a push that got them away from Australia but then Great Britain moved into a piece and overtook Australia. The Germans were ready and they went again. It didn’t take long for any of these boats to get to the final sprint and margins had closed up. Germany was at 40 with Great Britain right there. Australia though had gone to 49 pushed by coxswain Kendall Brodie. Germany had retained their World Championship title. Australia had piped Great Britain at the line by just 0.03 of a second. The US had missed out on a medal by 0.17 of a second. What a race!

Martin Sauer (c), Germany, gold
“We went really well until the 1500 meters, but after that we had some trouble with the rough water. It’s been a tough year with some really tough races. Many eights have improved their crews this year.”

Kendall Brodie (c), Australia, silver
“It was tricky conditions out there, we didn’t get out as fast as we hoped. In the third 500 meters, we had to believe that we could do it and I’m glad that brought Great Britain in the last 500 meters.

Mohamed Sbihi, Great Britain, bronze
“This is the better side of not getting a medal, Friday was torture. Today we really attacked, we almost got silver so we can hold our heads high. We’ll move forward and keep trusting the programme and the process.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

The repechage was very hotly contended earlier this week and it saw three very good crews end up in the B-final. Canada leapt out at the start with this crew stroked by former Olympian Conlin McCabe. But the Dutch and New Zealand were chasing hard. Then the Netherlands did a push and overtook the Canadians. Once in front the Netherland kept their stroke rate high and managed to push away from Canada with New Zealand closing the gap on the leading crews. The Dutch took a very solid win.