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Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x)

Reigning World Champion Duncan Grant of New Zealand and Jaap Schouten of the Netherlands have been going head to head all season. At each of the Rowing World Cups, at each of their meetings, Schouten has gotten the better of Grant and won. Grant gave it his best shot two days ago to beat Schouten in the semifinal, but he was unable to. Today, after a false start, Grant jumped out into the lead followed by Olympic medallist Lorenzo Bertini of Italy with Schouten back in fifth.

Going through the middle of the race, Grant, Bertini and Shadi Naghadeh of Iran were all in medal spots with a gap back to Schouten, now in fourth. Then going through the third 500, around the 1200m mark, Schouten began to move. Schouten overtook Iran, then Italy and went after Grant. Grant was waiting for him. The sprint to the line was on with Greece’s Ilias Pappas joining in. With every stroke Schouten gained on Grant. Grant held on. At the line Grant had defended his title, just. Schouten takes silver and a massive sprint by Pappas gives him bronze with a shattered Bertini stopping just before the line.

Results: NZL, NED, GRE, ITA, IRI, AUT

Gold: Duncan GRANT (NZL)
“It's just a great feeling. As I had a back injury I was struggling. Some months ago when we arrived in Europe I started to prepare for this big day and now it's just an amazing moment.”

Bronze: Ilias PAPPAS (GRE)
“I had to fight a lot and it's just an amazing feeling. It's a good place to make perfect races.”

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-)

In the semifinals Greece’s Nikolaos and Apostolos Gkountoulas managed to beat the reigning World Champions, Andrea Caianiello and Armando Dell’Aquila of Italy. Could they do it where it counted, in the Final? The Gkountoulas brothers got out to a massive start forcing Caianiello and Dell’Aquila to take up chase. Serbia followed in third. Going through the middle of the race the Gkountoulas’s continued to hold the edge over Italy. The Greek pair have been competing together internationally in various boats since 2001, and this year at the Poznan Rowing World Cup, they took gold.

Today the Gkountoulas brothers earned their first senior World Championship title by staying ahead of Italy right to the line. The Italians take second and Serbia’s Goran Nedeljkovic and Milos Tomic hold on for third.

Results: GRE, ITA, SRB, NED, RUS, AUT

Gold: Nikolaos GKOUNTOULAS (GRE)
“We had a good start and a good feeling and a good chance to continue the race.”

Silver: Andrea CAIANIELLO (ITA)
“It was a very hot race as we nearly crashed with the Greeks. And now we are happy to celebrate this day.”