Rowing Netherlands, China wins world best times on fast day of competition

TOKYO, Jul 28 (Reuters) – The Netherlands and China set world best times to win gold in the men’s and women’s quadruple sculls when Olympic rowing resumed action at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo on Wednesday.

China secured the women’s double fours in 6: 05.13 minutes, more than six seconds ahead of silver medalists Poland and bronze winners Australia.

For the men, the Netherlands won gold – one of four medals they won during the day of the competition – in 5: 32.03, 1.72 seconds ahead of the British team, while Australia took bronze.

The races started on Wednesday in hot and windy conditions after the organizers suspended the competition for two days due to adverse weather forecasts.

“We knew that the wind would be difficult and that the crosswind would have very difficult conditions in the first part,” said Lucas Theodoor Dirk Uittenbogaard, Dutch Quad-Scull team member.

“We had to stay cool, stay relaxed and concentrate on rowing well.”

The first two rowing medal races of the Tokyo Games provided a thrill as Romanian Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis won gold in the women’s double scull while Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias of France triumphed in the men’s, both with Olympic bests.

Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne from New Zealand took silver in the women’s category and Roos de Jong and Lisa Scheenaard from the Netherlands took bronze.

Melvin Twellaar and Stef Broenink from the Netherlands took silver in the men, the Chinese Liu Zhiyu and Zhang Liang took bronze.

A rematch of the 2019 World Cup race between Australia and the Netherlands in the women’s four did not disappoint when Australia was ahead again – this time with a scorching 6: 15.37 – and the Dutch women took silver.

Ireland shot past Great Britain in the final quarter of the race to claim bronze for their second Olympic rowing medal. Continue reading

They have a chance for gold in the lightweight double sculls after Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won their semi-finals in a world best time of 6: 05.33 hours.

It wasn’t the only heartbreak Britain suffered on the water on Wednesday when their golden run in the men’s foursome abruptly stalled.

The British, who had been on the podium in the last five games, left their lane on the home straight and finished fourth. Australia took gold in an Olympic best time of 5: 42.76 ahead of Romania and Italy.

“It’s obviously devastating,” said Matthew Rossiter, 31, who helped Britain win the European Championship earlier this year. “It’s probably one of the hardest things we’ve had to swallow in our rowing careers.”

Reporting by Amy Tennery in Tokyo; Edited by Kenneth Maxwell & Shri Navratnam

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