Australia storm home to win rowing gold in women's four final
The Aussie team pipped the Netherlands to gold in a nail-biting race for the podium positions
Rowing
World champions Australia rowed to a stunning victory in the women's four final, setting an Olympic best time of 6:15.37 just 0.34 seconds ahead of the Netherlands. The Aussie team, made up of Lucy Stephan, Rosemary Popa, Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre, looked as if they would saunter to victory before a spirited Dutch team rallied.
However, Australia would not be denied Olympic glory, as they dug deep to win the gold medal by the smallest of margins. The Netherlands, silver medallists in the 2019 world championships, will once again have to content themselves with the second spot on the podium, while an impressive Ireland team finished third to take bronze.
The Australian team entered the final as favourites, however the race developed into a much closer affair than many had imagined. After taking a commanding lead over the first half of the race, the dynamic of the competition turned on its head as the Netherlands team of Ellen Hogerwerf, Karolien Florijn, Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester, edged past them down the finishing straight. However, in a show of immense strength and determination, Australia fought back to win a memorable gold.
Ireland's team put in a stellar performance to win their first medal of Tokyo 2020, surging forward to beat Great Britain to bronze.
Gold medallist Rosemary Popa, spoke after the race about what it feels like to have your dreams come true: “To be honest it feels everything that you’d expect. It’s such an amazing feeling. I think all the hard work was really, really worth it. To do it with some of the toughest people that I know is such an amazing experience, I wouldn’t have wanted to share it with anybody else.”
Her teammate Lucy Stephan added: “Yeah, amazing. I think it’s still a bit surreal, I can’t believe it’s actually happened. I think you kind of expect when you go do this, you’ve thought about it for so long, that you’re going to feel like a new woman, but I’m just the same old Luce. Just soaking it up.”