Olympic Rowing 2016: Medal Winners, Table and Times for Thursday's Results
Germany's rowers won two gold medals in the quadruple sculls as both their women's and men's teams prevailed in their finals on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas at Rio 2016 on Thursday.
New Zealand's indomitable duo Hamish Bond and Eric Murray successfully defended their Olympic title in the men's pair final—they beat South Africa into silver and Italy to bronze—to maintain their staggering seven-year unbeaten record.
Poland's pairing of Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj got their tactics spot on in the women's double sculls, ousting Great Britain and Lithuania. In the men's version, it was brothers Valent and Martin Sinkovic who won gold for Croatia.
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Here are the results from the rowing finals on Thursday:
| Final | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men's Quadruple Sculls | Germany (6:06.81) | Australia (6:07.96) | Estonia (6:10.65) |
| Women's Quadruple Sculls | Germany (6:49.39) | Netherlands (6:50.33) | Poland (6:50.86) |
| Men's Pair | New Zealand (6:59.71) | South Africa (7:02.51) | Italy (7:04.52) |
| Women's Double Sculls | Poland (7:40.10) | Great Britain (7:41.05) | Lithuania (7:43.76) |
| Men's Double Sculls | Croatia (6:50.28) | Lithuania (6:51.39) | Norway (6:53.25) |
| Lightweight Men's Four | Switzerland (6:20.51) | Denmark (6:21.97) | France (6:22.85) |
The men's quadruple sculls kicked off a day of six finals in the rowing after the second postponed day of the competition on Wednesday due to bad weather.
Defending their 2012 Olympic title, the German quartet held off a surging Australian crew to take victory on the line with Estonia finishing in the bronze medal position.
The women's race was even tighter as Poland led for the majority of the run but could just not hold on to the line.
They were overhauled by both Germany and the Netherlands with the foursome of Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Julia Lier and Lisa Schmilda coming home strongly for gold.
Murray and Bond had clear water between them and the rest of the field after 1000m and kicked on to win with ease in the men's pair and reconfirm their dominance of the event.
The fight for the silver medal was very tight with 500m to go between Great Britain, Italy and South Africa, with the latter two coming home the stronger for the medals.
In the semi-finals on Thursday, the Great Britain's men's four of Mo Sbihi, George Nash, Alex Gregory and Constantine Louloudis laid down a significant marker, cruising home ahead of Canada and the Netherlands, per GB Rowing Team:
"So impressive from the @TeamGB men's four there, clear-water winners and through to tomorrow's #Rio2016 final pic.twitter.com/9u2XG30rGo
— GB Rowing Team (@GBRowingTeam) August 11, 2016"
Team GB's dominant women's pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning also won their semi-final with ease after very nearly being beaten for the first time since 2011 in the heats by Denmark.
The Danes will look to run Glover and Stanning close again in the Friday's final, along with the USA, South Africa, New Zealand and Spain.
In the women's double sculls, Poland’s Fularczyk and Madaj produced a searing finish to overhaul Great Britain in the final quarter, timing their run to the line perfectly.
The margin was a narrow one in the end, with the British pairing of Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley leading at the halfway point. However, in the latter stages, the duo started to feel the pain, allowing Fularczyk and Madaj to slowly reel them in.
Although Grainger and Thornley looked disappointed after finishing in second, their effort impressed four-time Olympic champion Matthew Pinsent:
Lithuania were also fast finishing, although Milda Valciukaite and Donata Vistartaite had to settle for bronze medals in the end.
Following them was the men's equivalent, as Croatia’s brilliant Sinkovic brothers, already the world champions, stormed to victory in Rio following an entertaining battle with Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis and Saulius Ritter.
The Lithuanian pairing were in fast form for the first half of the race, and it looked as though they would spring a big shock on the pre-race favourites. But with the finishing line in sight, the Sinkovic brothers upped the ante and were able to create a sizeable gap between their rivals.
Coming home in third was Kjetil Borch and 40-year-old veteran Olaf Tufte of Norway, who undoubtedly have to be delighted to have taken bronze in a high-quality field.
In the last final on Thursday, it was Switzerland who clinched gold in the men's coxless lightweight fours. Simon Niepmann, Lucas Tramer, Mario Gyr and Simon Schuerch rowed their way to the Olympic title in this one, comfortably ahead of Denmark and France, who took silver and bronze, respectively.
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