Men’s Double Sculls (M2x) – Finals

A-Final

It was almost impossible to pick a favourite in this race. The six top times from yesterday’s semifinals had a time spread of less than a second. Switzerland were the fastest by just a fraction, but they were up against home favourites, Poland 1. Switzerland’s Roman Roeoesli and Barnabe Delarze had raced Poland’s Mateusz Biskup and Miroslaw Zietarski at the European Championships earlier this month. Poland had won by a fraction of a second. They sat next to each other again today with the two crews taking off in the lead. Biskup and Zietarski got to the first 500m mark just ahead of Switzerland with Germany 1, Great Britain and Australia 1 forming a line behind the two leaders.

Then Germany 1 of Tim Ole Naske and Stephan Krueger stated to move up and got a slight edge over Australia and Great Britain. At this stage just two seconds separated the top five boats. In the third 500 Great Britain’s John Collins and Graeme Thomas did a big push and got into second. The margins remained tight. It was all down to the final sprint. Naske and Krueger went to 41, so did Collins and Thomas. Delarze and Roeoesli were at 40 with Biskup and Zietarski just holding on at 38. The Swiss had won on the line. The British grabbed silver and Germany took bronze.

Results: SUI, GBR, GER1, POL1, AUS1, LTU

 Roman Roeoesli (s), Switzerland, gold
“This is not an easy season, the Men’s Double field is very close and very competitive. We had a tough last few races but the victory in the men’s double goes to those who better manager their race. We didn’t have the best start so we had to catch up a little bit. This medal is special for us because it is our first gold in the double and it’s even more special as it was a really tough race but a really good one.

Graeme Thomas (s), Great Britain, silver
“It was a very tight race! I’m not too gutted, we have to be happy with that result. We had a look round and thought it might have been on. It’s a little frustrating but they are great crews.”

Tim Ole Naske (b), Germany, bronze
“It was definitely a close race and we managed to get close in the last 50 meters but fourth is a hard position to control from. We just had to give it everything in the last part of the race. We had a pretty good pace in the 1000 meters but for us, we were a little slow at the start.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

When you’ve got the World Champions in the b-final you know it’s going to be a fast race. Also there was the unstoppable Olaf Tufte rowing in stroke seat for Norway. At the start France’s Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias had the lead with Germany 2 challenging hard. Hans Gruhne and Stephan Riemekasten of Germany 2 then got into the lead. But France held on with China’s Zhiyu Liu and Liang Zhang coming up to challenge for the lead. Going to a 42 stroke rate Liu and Zhang overtook the field and held off France at 41, to win the race.

Results: CHN, FRA, GER2, ITA2, NOR2, ITA1