Greece hit the water again. And again they were flying.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)

As commentator, David Goldstrom said, ‘this is all about Greece’. Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou of Greece are the reigning World Champions and they faced this year’s silver medallists, Magdalena Kemnitz and Agnieszka Renc of Poland.

Giazitzidou and Tsiavou got off the line first and held their stroke rate at 42 for a good portion of the race’s start. This duo teamed up earlier this season after Tsiavou’s Olympic partner retired. The young combination is working well as the duo settled into a high 36 stroke rate pace. Kemnitz and Renc looked like they had no answer and sat an open water length back in second. Could anyone challenge the Greeks?

Giasitzidou and Tsiavou held their aggressive 36 stroke rate and continued to charge on turning this race into a procession. Meanwhile a huge finishing sprint by Austria (Stefanie Borzacchini and Michaela Taupe-Traer) brought them out of the fourth place and into the bronze medal position.

Results: GRE, POL, AUT, HUN, RUS, FRA

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)

As the wind turned around to a tail, Greece hit the water again. And again they were flying. Vasileios Polymeros and Dimitrios Mougios of Greece are the defending European Champions and Beijing Olympic medallists. With that pedigree the Greeks had the confidence to jump out into the lead at the start and challenge anyone to overtake them.

Italy’s Lorenzo Bertini and Elia Luini did their best to hold on to the Greeks and they did a fine effort through the first half of the race. But then Polymeros and Mougios, rating a solid 34 through the body of the race, managed to move away from the Italians. Meanwhile France’s Pierre-Etienne Pollez and Maxime Goisset was having a huge battle with Austria. In the sprint to the line Greece continued to hold the pace. Italy remained in second and France held off Austria to take third. Greece gain their fourth gold medal of this regatta.

Results: GRE, ITA, FRA, AUT, POR, POL

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

The six scullers coming into this race knew that they all had a chance of becoming the European Champion. There was only three seconds separating the entire field. Lightweight sculler, Frederic Dufour of France jumped off the line in first with just three seconds separating the fleet after 500m had been rowed. But then going through the middle 1000 of the race, the field began to spread out quite remarkably. Bulgaria dropped right back while Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania had moved clearly into the lead.

Surprisingly Griskonis had almost lost an oar at the 100m mark, but he managed to quickly get his rhythm back and leave that bad stroke far behind. Griskonis now began to dominate with only reigning European Champion, Ioannis Christou of Greece within striking distance.

Griskonis continued to charge away from the field and, although Christou gave all to come back on Griskonis, the Lithuanian was in the great position to counter any move that Christou may have. Taking his stroke rate to 36, Griskonis continued to lead until the final buzzer. Christou had to settle for silver with Croatia’s Mario Vekic charging through at the end to be the bronze medallist.

Results: LTU, GRE, CRO, SVK, FRA, BUL

Men’s Four (M4-)

At the start there was very little in it for the entire field. Belarus was in the lead, with reigning European Champions, Greece three seconds back at the rear of the field. This had all changed going through the middle of the race. Greece had managed to move through to the third place with Romania slipping back. Belarus remained in the lead while the Czech Republic held on to second. The Czechs finished fourth last month at the World Rowing Championships while Belarus were sixth at the same event.

With the crowd urging the Belarus crew onwards, Greece continued to make advances with the Czech Republic now charging past Belarus. The crowd did not seem to be helping. Belarus was slipping back. At the line Greece had pulled through to first, but only just ahead of the Czech Republic. Spain held on to get third. Belarus, meanwhile, had slipped to the back of the field.

Results: GRE, CZE, ESP, UKR, ROU, BLR

Men’s Pair (M2-)

Due to technical problems for the Polish pair, this race was delayed until the end of the morning’s racing. When they returned to the Brest regatta course waters, a cross wind meant that these pair rowers had the added challenge of keeping their boat straight. Greece’s Apostolos and Nikolaos Gkountoulas did it the best. The twin brothers who finished third at last month’s World Rowing Championships are part of a huge surge in recent positive results amongst Greek rowers.

Today the Greek’s took their boat into the lead and moved away from the field so that by the second half of the race they were in a position that meant it was almost impossible to catch them. Serbia’s Nikola Stojic and Goran Jagar gave it a good shot and so did the French. Greece remained in front and become European Champions.

Results: GRE, SRB, FRA, POL, HUN, GER
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