Women’s Eight (W8+) – Final

A-Final

The reigning European Champions, Romania has entered a crew that includes many new members. Great Britain have put together a new boat and they won the preliminary race on Friday. Russia has built their boat around their medal-winning women’s four. The Dutch got away very quickly and they were at the first 500m mark in first. But the first place was marginal with Great Britain right with them. The Netherlands took gold at the World Rowing Cup I last month, beating Romania but with a Romanian boat with different athletes. The Netherlands continued in the lead and Great Britain continued to stick with them

Romania was also very much in the action and only half a second separated the top three crews. Then Great Britain got themselves into the lead as the Dutch began to slip back. Romania then came through and got ahead of the British as the Netherlands slipped to the back behind Russia. Romania was at 50 strokes per minute and holding off the British, Romania had won by just 0.06 of a second.

Results: ROU, GBR, RUS, NED

Amalia Beres, Romania, Gold
“We wanted to win but we know that Great Britain are a very good adversary. We are really thankful for this result.”

Karen Bennett (b), Great Britain, Silver
“It was a good race but unfortunately we weren’t quite there today. We’ve got a good mental side to us and we look forward to the future.”

Ekaterina Potapova, Russia, Bronze
“We had a good race. The team is really young and we have a lot of new rowers but I think this is a good start to our season.”

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