Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) – Finals

A-Final

Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne of Germany shot out at 50 strokes per minute. They are the current European champions and a new German combination for 2019. In the semifinals yesterday Italy had recorded the fastest time and the crew of Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta were the first to make it to the 500m mark. Rommelmann and Osborne followed very closely in second with Australia, Denmark and Canada still very much on the pace. Rating 39, Italy and Germany, at 37, were matching each other through the middle of the race. Behind them a line formed between Denmark, Canada and Australia. Only New Zealand was off the pace.

Rommelmann and Osborne then managed to pull away from Italy despite underrating the Italians. But Italy had a huge number of supporters in the crowd. Could they help bring their crew home? Canada had now managed to drop Denmark and the crew of Patrick Keane and Maxwell Lattimer were trying to inch away from Australia.

Germany went to 40 to stay ahead of Italy who were at 45. Australia’s Hamish Parry and Leon Chambers were at 40 and had overtaken Canada. The medals had been decided.

Results: GER, ITA, AUS, CAN, NZL, DEN

Jason Osborne (s), Germany, gold
“It’s very nice to win, we’re very happy. Our preparations for this paid off. Our heat was not so good, but we’ve been getting better and better.”

Stefano Oppo (b), Italy, silver
“For this race, we were expecting the headwind, so we planned for it. Our plan was to start with Germany. In the last 500 meters, we went all out.”

Hamish Parry (b), Australia, bronze
“To be honest I’m just very excited to be here, even in the warm-up I was getting excited. We’ve been really training hard and we did well in tricky conditions today. We’ll be back here on the water at 07:00 before our flight to Varese. I’m very grateful to have a strong partner with me.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

Great Britain 2 of Samuel Mottram and Jamie Copus did not make the a-final by just 0.10 of a second in yesterday’s semifinal. Did they have some energy left for today? At the start Slovakia’s Marek Reznak and Peter Zelinka had the lead. Through the middle of the race Slovakia and Switzerland 2 were neck and neck. This close tussle continued into the final sprint. Slovakia held on and with Switzerland 1 and Switzerland 2 now challenging Reznak and Zelinka gave it their all to finish first.

Results: SVK, SUI2, SUI1, GBR2, POL, FRA1