After today's outstanding Olympic Gold Medal performance by GBR in the men's eight, a
new head-style regatta entitled "Head of the Class" should be reserved
exclusively for the Thames tideway. This is GBR's first Olympic Gold Medal in eights since
1912. The prediction analysis for this race from Great Britain's Perspective noted that
"GBR has to make sure it does not have a bad first 500 meters, as it did in its
heat." Well, on that score and many more, GBR definitely took care of business, and
actually led the field at both the first 500 and 1000 meter marks. At the 1000, GBR was
slightly more than a second ahead of second place CRO. The first move on GBR by another
crew began in the 3rd 500 with ITA , and continued to the end. When GBR entered the last
500, it was still over 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place CRO. This is usually where a
"catch me if you can" strategy gets tough. There was no exception here. In the
last 500, three crews (AUS, CRO and ITA) were closing on GBR. (see instant replay) AUS
started its move from 4th place with 500 to go, over a length behind GBR, and closed to
within a quarter length of GBR for the silver medal when the finish line came rushing up.
In the process of trying to chase down GBR, AUS passed both ITA and CRO to get the silver.
CRO held off ITA for the bronze, and ITA, USA (the 3 time World Champions), and ROM
finished 4th, 5th and 6th. Look at the JAMCO Replay for this
race and click on the country abbreviations for these crews in the race bulletin that
follows to review each rower's complete Olympic and World Championship histories.LANE CREW RELATIVE POSITIONS ELAPSED SPLIT
1500* CREW TIME TIME
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 ROM <ROM GBR 1:21.02 1:21.02
5 USA <USA CRO 1:21.62 1:21.62
4 CRO <CRO ITA 1:22.90 1:22.90
3 AUS <AUS ROM 1:23.59 1:23.59
2 GBR <GBR AUS 1:23.95 1:23.95
1 ITA <ITA USA 1:24.37 1:24.37
---+---+---+---+---+---+
1000*
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 ROM <ROM GBR 2:44.55 1:23.52
5 USA <USA CRO 2:45.66 1:24.04
4 CRO <CRO ITA 2:47.49 1:24.59
3 AUS <AUS AUS 2:47.91 1:23.95
2 GBR <GBR USA 2:48.88 1:24.51
1 ITA <ITA ROM 2:50.13 1:26.53
---+---+---+---+---+---+
500 *
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 ROM <ROM GBR 4:08.77 1:24.22
5 USA <USA CRO 4:10.89 1:25.23
4 CRO <CRO ITA 4:11.58 1:24.08
3 AUS <AUS AUS 4:12.36 1:24.44
2 GBR <GBR USA 4:13.82 1:24.94
1 ITA <ITA ROM 4:16.67 1:26.54
---+---+---+---+---+---+
FINISH*
---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 ROM <ROM GBR 5:33.08 1:24.31
5 USA <USA AUS 5:33.88 1:21.52
4 CRO <CRO CRO 5:34.85 1:23.95
3 AUS <AUS ITA 5:35.36 1:23.78
2 GBR <GBR USA 5:39.16 1:25.33
1 ITA <ITA ROM 5:43.89 1:27.21
---+---+---+---+---+---+
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