Men’s Four (M4-) – Finals

A-Final

It was a good clean start with Italy rating clearing the highest. In the semifinals yesterday Australia had recorded the fastest time with Poland the second fastest. The crowd was taking a keen interest. Australia’s crew of Masters, Purnell, Hargreaves and O’Brien include two members of the crew that became World Champions last year. They got to the first 500m mark in the lead with Poland right on their tails.

Both Australia and Poland went into the body of the race at a 38 stroke rate pace. This looked to be a different strategy for Australia who chose to rate higher yesterday. But it was working as they had a full boat length lead over Poland at the half way point. Just half a second separated Poland, Italy and the United States 2 at this point with Great Britain 1 and South Africa still very much within striking distance.

Italy then got a very slight margin over Poland as Australia continued to move away from the field. The sprint was on and in the crowd it was a competition between Italy and Poland. Australia went to 42 with Poland hanging on at 39 and Italy going to 46. Australia had won gold, Italy had snatched silver and Poland had hung on for bronze.

Results: AUS, ITA, POL, GBR1, USA2, RSA

Timothy Masters (b), Nicholas Purnell, Jack Hargreaves, Joseph O’Brien (s), Australia, gold
“We all come from very different rowing backgrounds and were all in very different crews last year, so it’s nice to come together to such a result. We’re really happy with it.”

Giovanni Abagnale (b), Italy, silver
“It was a good race as we didn’t perform as we wanted to in the Europeans. It is a special part of the year now. We won’t be competing in Rotterdam so we can prepare specifically for the World Rowing Championships in Linz-Ottensheim.”

Marcin Brzezinski, Poland, bronze
“I am happy with the race but we really wanted to win. As we won our semi-final we were hoping to win today but it’s fantastic to race here in Poznan. We could hear the crowd down the course and they gave us extra power.”

Re-watch the race here

B-final

From yesterday’s semifinal the United States 1 had the next fastest time with Germany 1 recording a similar time. It was Germany 1 who held the lead at the start. At the half way point Switzerland was up with Germany and Austria was also very much on the pace. Then Germany really started to move and took nearly a boat length over Switzerland. Their rating went to 39 then 40 and they moved away from the field in the final strokes of the race.

Results: GER1, BLR, SUI, AUT, USA1, GBR2