1 August 2024

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch posts a media release from World Rowing summarising the sixth day of the 2024 Olympic Regatta.

For immediate release: Paris, Thursday, 1 August. 

The temperature was hot on and off the water at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on the sixth day of racing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Regatta, when a further four sets of medals were awarded after epic races.

Thursday’s racing began with the last of the semifinals where both the women’s and men’s boat classes went fairly as expected with the reigning World and Olympic Champions in both cases confirming their place in the Olympic finals. Germany’s Olli Zeidler, who missed out on the final in Tokyo is out for redemption in Paris. He comes in as reigning World Champion and set a new Olympic Best Time in the semifinal, beating the reigning Olympic Champion, Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece. It will be exciting to see what happens in Saturday’s final.

The repechages of the eights saw the last four places booked for the finals. It wasn’t to be for Denmark’s women’s eight or Italy’s men’s eight; they were the only crews to miss out in the brutal progression system.

The medal finals began with the women’s double sculls which saw New Zealand’s Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors prevent Romania from defending their Olympic Champion title. Simona Radis and Ancuta Bodnar, who won the silver medal, will be going for gold again in the Romanian women’s eight on Saturday. It was bronze for Great Britain’s women’s double of Becky Wilde and Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne, who had come through the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta a few weeks ago. This race was particularly momentous as both Kiwis and GB’s Hodgkins Byrne who all raced at Tokyo 2020 and the three of them have all become mothers in the three years since, and returned and won Olympic medals.

In the men’s double sculls, history was made in multiple ways. The gold was claimed by Andrei Sebastian Cornea and Marian Florian Enache of Romania – the first ever Olympic gold medal for Romania men’s sculling. For Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink, it was a second Olympic silver in this boat class and it was an historic bronze medal for Ireland. Ireland’s podium finish was particularly pleasing for Phil Doyle, who raced in the same boat at Tokyo 2020 and finished tenth.

The women’s four saw the reigning World Champions from the Netherlands come in wanting to add the title of Olympic Champions to their honours. Great Britain had set a faster time than the Dutch in the heats and piled the pressure on every stroke of the race but it wasn’t quite enough and the Dutch four crossed the line 0.18 seconds ahead to secure Olympic gold. With Great Britain taking the silver, and New Zealand the bronze.

In the men’s four, it was Great Britain that came in as reigning World Champions and arguably the crew to beat, but New Zealand had beaten them in the heats and the USA had also posted a faster time. That was exactly how it went in the final. The USA got out fast and led the entire race ahead of New Zealand while Great Britain, who were sixth at 500m, worked their way through the field to take a bronze medal. For the USA, it was the first Olympic gold in this boat class since 1960, and New Zealand, the first medal in the men’s four since 1984.

Friday, Day 7 of the Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta, will start at 09:30 CET with the first medal final at 11:30 CET. The day will see A Finals in the men’s and women’s pair, and the lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls. For the full Friday start list, click here.

For start lists, race reports, results and photos go to www.worldrowing.com

Live updates are on World Rowing’s social media channels:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WorldRowing
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/worldrowingofficial/
X – https://x.com/WorldRowing

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On Thursday, S. Redgrave won Silver with the GB Women’s Four and J. Christ joined the German Men’s Eight, coming second in the repechage. Sadly for those looking for a high-profile figure to cross traditional gender divides or for those that follow one who can walk and row on water, this refers to Samantha (not Steve) Redgrave and Julius (not Jesus) Christ. Mattes Schoenherr was replaced in the Deutschland-Achterby by Christ for medical reasons.

The fourteen-event Olympic Regatta runs 27 July – 3 August. The five-event Paralympic Regatta runs 30 August – 1 September.