| FRA (1999 silver medalists at Worlds) and GBR were expected to fight this one out for
the gold with AUS. FRA and GBR raced each other in the semi-final, FRA winning in the last
few strokes by a whisker after GBR led all the way. It looks like GBR's strategy was to go
out even faster in the final and put FRA deeper in the hole at the halfway mark. Whatever
GBR's strategy was, it did not work. At the 1000, GBR was in the lead with a half second
larger margin over FRA than in the semi-finals. But in the 3rd 500, GBR fell way off its
own pace. FRA passed GBR for the lead with 500 to go, and YUG, USA and AUS all started
coming back on GBR in that 3rd 500. In the last 500, GBR held off YUG (which placed 5th),
but could not stop the charges by USA and AUS, both of whom went through GBR for the
silver and bronze medals, GBR finishing 4th. RSA finished in 6th place. Look at the JAMCO Replay for this race to see the moves made on GBR down the
course. Click on the country abbreviations for these crews on the race bulletin presented
below to review complete Olympic and World Championship histories for the rowers in this
final.
LANE CREW RELATIVE POSITIONS ELAPSED SPLIT
1500* CREW TIME TIME
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 RSA <RSA GBR 1:35.43 1:35.43
5 YUG <YUG YUG 1:36.61 1:36.61
4 FRA <FRA AUS 1:36.97 1:36.97
3 AUS <AUS USA 1:37.25 1:37.25
2 GBR <GBR FRA 1:37.45 1:37.45
1 USA <USA RSA 1:38.27 1:38.27
---+---+---+---+---+---+
1000*
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 RSA <RSA GBR 3:15.88 1:40.45
5 YUG <YUG YUG 3:17.27 1:40.66
4 FRA <FRA USA 3:18.38 1:41.12
3 AUS <AUS FRA 3:18.60 1:41.14
2 GBR <GBR AUS 3:18.80 1:41.82
1 USA <USA RSA 3:21.08 1:42.81
---+---+---+---+---+---+
500 *
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 RSA <RSA FRA 4:55.66 1:37.05
5 YUG <YUG GBR 4:56.41 1:40.52
4 FRA <FRA YUG 4:57.26 1:39.99
3 AUS <AUS USA 4:57.76 1:39.38
2 GBR <GBR AUS 4:58.35 1:39.55
1 USA <USA RSA 5:02.91 1:41.82
---+---+---+---+---+---+
FINISH*
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 RSA <RSA FRA 6:32.97 1:37.30
5 YUG <YUG USA 6:33.79 1:36.02
4 FRA <FRA AUS 6:34.26 1:35.91
3 AUS <AUS GBR 6:34.38 1:37.97
2 GBR <GBR YUG 6:38.70 1:41.43
1 USA <USA RSA 6:43.10 1:40.19
---+---+---+---+---+---+
|
