German eight dominate European Rowing Championships

Men’s eight favourites Germany defended their European Rowing Championships title with ease.

The world champions have not lost a race since last year’s World Rowing Championships, and for good reason.

The Germans surged into the lead at the half-way point and controlled the race in Glasgow from there on out.

There was another world champion performance from Jeannine Gmelin, who took the women’s single sculls.

The Swiss hauled in fast-starting Austrian Magdalena Lobnig, before sealing the win with a powerful sprint finish.

Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic struck gold in the men’s pair.

The Olympic champions were forced to overcome another set of brothers in French pair Valentin and Theophile Onfroy.

It is the third European title the Croatian pair have won together, to go with their four world titles and one Rio 2016 gold medal.

Dutch duo Marieke Keijser and Olympic champion Ilse Paulis secured a hard-fought win in the lightweight women’s double sculls.

With four boats neck-and-neck at the halfway point, Keijser and Paulis pushed clear and sprinted home for the win.

Rio 2016 bronze medallists Kristoffer Brun and Are Strandli edged the lightweight men’s double skulls in a thrilling sprint finish.

The Norwegians emptied the tank to beat Irish Olympic silver medallists, the O’Donovan brothers, in a photo finish.

Romania win classic encounter

Romania won a nail biting women’s eight final.

The reigning world and European champions were narrow favourites heading into the race.

But with all boats in the final finishing within half a second of each other in the test run a day previously, this was never going to be plain sailing.

Romania took a narrow lead into the final quarter of the race.

But with Madalina Beres and Denisa Tilvescu having won gold in the women’s pair earlier in the day, fatigue started to kick in.

In the end Romania held on for a narrow victory and retained their European title.