The last day of the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France ended with a bang as seven different countries won World Championship titles.
The blue riband women’s eight from the United States won the World Championship title and extended their winning streak to a total of ten consecutive World and Olympic titles. New Zealand’s women’s eight won their first ever medal (silver) in this boat class. Canada took bronze. The men’s eight ended in a stunning victory for Great Britain who made it three World Championship titles in a row. Olympic Champion Germany nearly overtook the British in the last couple of strokes of the race. The Netherlands followed Germany into third. “We just executed our race plan,” said Great Britain’s Matthew Gotrel. “It was the best row we’ve ever had. We had a lot of pressure, but it is the best job I’ve ever had.”
The men’s single sculls came down to a stunning two-way duel between Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand and World Champion, Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic. Synek won in the last three metres of the race. Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis took bronze. The women’s single sculls went to Kim Crow of Australia, extending her unbeaten season. Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic was second and Jingli Duan of China was third.
Croatia’s rowing heroes Valent and Martin Sinkovic successfully defended their World Championship title in the men’s double sculls. The Sinkovic’s were pushed so hard by silver medallists, Lithuania and bronze medallists, New Zealand that they nearly broke their own World Best Time. The women’s double sculls was won for a second year in a row by New Zealand. The crew of Zoe Stevenson and Eve MacFarlane took gold ahead of Greece and Germany.
Switzerland won an impressive gold in the lightweight men’s four, dominating a boat class field that is usually known for being incredibly close. Behind the Swiss, 2014 World Champions Denmark, won silver and France took bronze.
Topping the overall medals table for the 2015 World Rowing Championships was Great Britain with a total of 15 medals, five of them gold. Last year’s overall winners New Zealand finished second with nine medals, five of them gold. Germany was third winning three gold medals and a total of nine.
Earlier in the day the B-finals concluded the qualifying places for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Overall 32 countries qualified boats for the Olympic Games along with 16 for the Paralympic Games. Great Britain has qualified the most getting 12 spots out of the 14 boat classes that will be raced at the Olympics. The United States have qualified ten boats including all six of the women’s boat classes. Germany and New Zealand both qualified nine boats. Doing the best for Latin America was Cuba with two boats qualified for Rio.
There will be further Olympic qualification chances at the continental qualification regattas as well as the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in May 2016.
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