Men’s Four (M4-) – Final

A-Final 

The reigning World Champions, Australia sat in the favoured lane with Romania (winner of the other semifinal) one lane over. Australia has retained two members of the 2018 winning crew – Hill and Hargreaves with O’Brien and Purnell joining the crew. Romania got out at 52 strokes per minute and got a canvas lead. Poland then did a push and moved out in front with the British moving at their pace. Poland continued to push on. They finished sixth at World Rowing Cup III and they were not favourites to win. But Poland now had over a boat length lead with the Italians moving into second. There was still half a race to go and Poland’s Wilangowski, Burda, Brezezinski and Szpakowski were motoring. The final sprint was beginning and Great Britain were coming up to challenge Poland as the crowd cheered on the United States. Poland rated 42, Romania was at 45, Great Britain at 44. The Poles had won. Romania took second with Great Britain in third.

Results: POL, ROU, GBR, ITA, USA, AUS

Michal Szpakowski (s), Poland, Gold
“We simply wanted to win and we weren’t really expecting it. Throughout the race we were sticking to our race plan and it worked. We made a great comeback. The end was really tough and just wanted the race to be over.”

Cosmin Pascari (s), Romania, Silver
“The race was so good. I am so happy, cause it is like the Olympic Games for me. For the Tokyo2020, I need much more training, then maybe I win.”

Rory Gibbs, Sholto Carnegie (s), Great Britain, Bronze
“I’m happy with that. You’ve got to be happy with the medals that are given to you. The bigger ones are nicer though. Looking ahead, we’ve got so much depth in our squad, it’s really promising.”