Women's Eight (W8+)- Final

In the preliminary race for lanes two days ago, the World and Olympic Champions, United States proved to be the fastest but they had to overcome a gutsy effort by Great Britain. Today it was the race for medals. In the American boat, Grace Luczak and Felice Mueller had already taken gold earlier today in the women’s pair. The United States got to the first 500m mark just a fraction ahead of Great Britain. Then the United States started to push away to a half boat length lead over Great Britain. New Zealand was on the pace in third.

At the half way point Great Britain, who became the European Champions earlier this month, was under threat from last year’s silver medallists, New Zealand. Coming through to the last 500m the British and New Zealanders were neck-and-neck for second. This helped them close the gap on the United States. American coxswain, Katelin Snyder looked out of the boat and saw the British coming. Rating 37 to the British 38, the US crossed the line in first. They had been pushed to a finishing time just seven seconds outside of the World Best Time.

Results: USA, GBR, NZL, CAN, RUS

Emily Regan, United States of America, gold
“Our new stroke Amanda set the most amazing rhythm for the middle thousand and it felt really, really good. Now are going back home to the USA for a week of training before we have our final selections coming up.”

Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Great Britain, silver
“It was a great race, a bit of a show for the spectators. Every race we are finding more speed and getting together. We could hear the Americans shouting at each other, that motivates us.”

Frances Turner (c), New Zealand, bronze
“We had a reasonable start and a nice position after that. It felt really comfortable around the 1000m, however, we couldn’t quite push with GBR after that. It is really great to have exactly the same crew as last year to race with this year.”