Australia added to its medal haul from the World Rowing U23 Championships when the U23 Men's Pair claimed silver in their A-Final and the U23 Men's Quadruple Scull snapped up a bronze medal in their A-Final. This brings Australia's total medal haul for the event to four, after the U23 Women's Quadruple Scull claimed silver and the U23 Women's Pair claimed bronze yesterday.
The U23 Men's Pair of Jack Hargreaves and Nick Wheatley came into the final as the silver medallists from the 2014 event, and current members of the Senior Australian Rowing Team, and were the hot favourites in the event having won their heat and semi-finals. The Australians took the middle lane alongside fellow favourites, Romania, and as the starting light turned green the Romanian duo propelled themselves out at a stroke rate of 38, they were doing all they could to increase their lead over Hargreaves and Wheatley who were in second at the half-way mark.
Romania were still leading by one boat length ahead of Australia at 1500m, despite Australia having the faster times in the qualification rounds and it was Romania's gutsy race that led them to cross the line in gold despite a valiant effort from the Australians who finished in silver medal position, 1.24 seconds behind the winners.
Post-race, Wheatley said: "It's probably our best race of the regatta. We gave everything we had, we are a little disappointed not to get gold, but the Romanians were really strong. We'll go back to training in Varese now at the AIS ETC ahead of travelling to Aiguebelette for the World Rowing Championships and Olympic qualifiers."
In the U23 Men's Quadruple Scull, Australia took Lane 5 and were up against an inform Canada, who led the A-Final from the get-go. The Canadians rated hight to hold off the Australian charge from Robert Black, Alexander Purnell, William Mure and Christopher Hayes who were in second at the halfway mark. Meanwhile, Poland and New Zealand crossed the half-way mark nearly level in third and fourth, the two were going to chase each other down to the line, fighting for a spot on the podium. In the final 500m, Canada increased their margin over Australia and charged for the line and unluckily for Australia they caught a crab in the final strokes and was unable to withstand a charging New Zealand who finished ahead in silver. Post-race Purnell said: "Overall we're very happy with the race and to walk away with a medal is just great. We really felt we found a good rhythm this week and kept it to the line in the Final today."
Australia raced in three B-Finals today, the U23 Lightweight Women's Double Scull, the U23 Lightweight Men's Single Scull and the U23 Men's Double Scull.
Australia were the leaders in the B-Final of the lightweight women's double sculls, with Germany following in a steady second position. With 500m to go, Australia had more than a boat length's lead over Germany and was rating 35 strokes per minute. Despite a comfortable lead throughout the race, Australia's Amy James and Holly Lawrence kept their stroke rate high until the line to claim the final position of seventh overall.
In the B-Final fo the Lightweight Men's Single Scull, Jack Kelly finished in third place, while in the U23 Men's Double Scull of Tom Schramko and Luke Letcher were fourth in their B-Final.