Tokyo (AFP) – Australia won two gold medals in Olympic rowing after the men’s and women’s teams dominated their four-row competitions without a leader.
On the men’s side, the Australians advanced in the 500m and had no problems again. While Romania resisted the final attack of Italy by staying with the silver medal.
Australia finished the event in 5 minutes 42.76 seconds, a new Olympic record. Italy won the bronze medal.
The Australians also set a new Olympic record on their way to a gold medal.
And they resisted the undisputed leader throughout the event, the Dutch attack in the last 50 meters to win a time of 6 minutes 15.37 seconds, only 0.34 seconds ahead of the Dutch.
Ireland took the bronze.
Meanwhile, China concluded the final day in historic fashion by breaking the world record in the women’s four short classes.
The Chinese boat finished in 6 minutes 0.13 seconds, almost two seconds short of the previous record set by the Netherlands in 2014. The competition has never been in doubt. Poland took the silver, more than six seconds behind China. Australia took the bronze.
Strong headwinds helped set Olympic or world records in all six finals on Wednesday.
In the men’s division, the Netherlands also set a new world record with a superb finish in the last 500m to win the gold medal in four short rows.
His time of 5 minutes 32.03 seconds exceeded the previous mark of 5:32.26 minutes, set by Ukraine at the 2014 World Championships.
The Netherlands finished fourth after the 500m but gradually closed the gap to beat the leaders of Great Britain.
The British clung to second place and Australia settled for bronze to add four medals on Olympic Rowing Day.
In the early hours, Romanian Ankota Bodnar and Simona Rades took the first gold in the rowing competitions at the Tokyo Olympics, in the form of a pair of short rows.
They took the lead right from the start and didn’t slow down throughout their dominant show.
The rowing finals were postponed one day due to a bad weather forecast due to a tropical storm.
Once in the water, the Romans were unparalleled and took advantage of two boats just 500 meters from the finish line. Bodnar and Radis, both 22, let the rest of the competitors fight for the silver. New Zealanders Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne beat Dutch duo Ross de Jong and Lisa Shenard.
In the men’s branch, French duo Hugo Boucheron and Mathieu Androdias resisted the onslaught of the Dutch team in the last 50 meters to pin the gold medal in the event with a time of 6 minutes 33 seconds, a new Olympic record.
China had a strong exit before France and the Netherlands caught up with it. Dutch boatmen Melvin Tueller and Steve Bruinck briefly put the lead at the 1500m mark.
Boucheron and Androdias quickly overtook the Dutch and barely resisted the final onslaught.
Chinese Zhiyu Liu and Liang Zhang completed the podium.
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