There was no surprise in the penultimate event of the Rowing in Rio 2016, with the American crew taking gold in the Women’s Coxed Eight.
It was not an easy win, but the Americans took control shortly after the halfway stage and never looked like giving the lead away.
A silver for Great Britain meant they took a medal in the race for the first time, whilst former champions Romania pulled off a late surge to take bronze.
How they lined up
The American crew, who were the favorites for the title, were the fastest into the final and rewarded with a place in lane three. On their left were the crew from Great Britain who, like the Americans, won their semifinal.
The Canadian crew, who won the repechage, were in lane five whilst the Romanian crew, who came second in the repechage, were to the right of the Americans in lane two.
The outside lanes were occupied by the Netherlands, who were in lane one, and the New Zealand crew in lane six
Story of the race
The race got off to a pretty even start with not much between the six crews in the first few hundred meters, though it was the Canadian crew who had an early lead ahead of the Dutch.
At the 500 meter stage, the Canadians had a 0.22 second lead over the Dutch, with the American crew just a further 0.07 seconds behind. Over the next few hundred meters very little changed, though the Canadian crew were able to increase their lead slightly to 0.43 seconds at the halfway stage.
With the crews from Great Britain and New Zealand further behind than expect at the halfway stage, the American crew pushed on and took a commanding lead. Meanwhile, the British crew pushed on and were just behind the Canadian crew who held onto second place by a narrow margin.
With the Canadians falling back, Britain moved into silver medal position with the Romanian crew coming back quickly. With the American crew unlikely to be caught, it was seemingly a battle for silver.
The American crew unsurprisingly held on for gold in a time of 6:01.39 and, despite a late Romanian comeback, it was the British crew who took silver ahead of the Romanian crew.
Fourth place was taken by New Zealand with the crew from Canada, who had led for half of race, slumping to fifth and the Dutch finishing in sixth place.
