Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x) – Finals

A-Final

Belarus shot out at 52 strokes per minute. But the competition was so high that it was Great Britain that got to the 500m mark in the lead. In the British boat was Imogen Grant who took gold in the lightweight single at last year’s World Rowing Under 23 Championships. But then France’s Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove grabbed the lead. Tarantola won the lightweight single at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. Meanwhile the reigning World Champions, Romania sat at the back of the field.

Belarus was under-rating the rest of the field and had managed to push past Great Britain and France. The Belarus boat included Alena Furman who won the lightweight single at World Rowing Cup I last month. Belarus continued to move as France went to 40 and Switzerland went to 41 with Great Britain in the mix as Romania came flying down the outside. Belarus had won. France held on to second with the Swiss snatching bronze.

Results: BLR, FRA, SUI, GBR, ROU, ITA

Alena Furman (b), Anastasiia Ianina (s), Belarus, Gold
“We really enjoyed that race! This is actually our first regatta racing together. We had a good race as well considering we had to adapt our style because the water back at home (Belarus) is very cold. We’re really happy with our medal!”

Claire Bove (s), France, Silver
“This is a nice return to international racing for me. Last year I was KO and Laura did a lot in the single. She did really well and that inspired me to come back and want to continue. I’m so happy this is the result we got on our first race back.”

Frederique Rol (s), Switzerland, Bronze
“It’s our first World Rowing event of the year, so we wanted to go out there and see how we compared to other crews and what we need to work on for the rest of the season. It’s great to be on the podium, and this just inspires us to continue.”

Click here to see the full race

B-final

The Netherlands led the way in this b-final. The crew of Ilse Paulis and Martine Veldhuis were silver medallists last month at World Rowing Cup I and they only missed out on making the A-final here by 0.31 of a second. The Dutch looked smooth and relaxed as they held off Germany, then Austria through to the line.

Results: NED, AUT, GER, ESP, DEN, IRL