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Golden moment for America's 9/11 hero
The United States, with September 11 hero Jason Read on board, brought the curtain down on the Olympic Games rowing regatta on Sunday by winning their first men's eights gold medal for the first time since 1964.
The United States, with September 11 hero Jason Read on board, brought the curtain down on the Olympic Games rowing regatta on Sunday by winning their first men's eights gold medal for the first time since 1964.
America won in a time of 5min 42.44sec ahead of the Netherlands with Australia taking bronze while Canada, the double world champions, crept home in a disappointing fifth place.
Read, a New Jersey fire chief who toiled in the wreckage and the carnage of the ruins of the World Trade Centre, had set his sights on winning gold and he duly delivered with teammates Chris Ahrens, Wyatt Allen, Daniel Beery, Pete Cipollone, Matt Deakin, Joseph Hansen, Beau Hoopman and Bryan Volpenhein.
America dominated from the start opening up a length's lead by the 1500 metre mark and held on to take a convincing win despite late pressure from the Dutch who took silver in a time of 5:43.75.
Meanwhile reigning world champions Denmark took gold in the men's lightweight four in a time of 6:01:39 with Australia winning silver, their same result as in Sydney four years ago, with Italy taking bronze.
The women's lightweight double sculls went to Romania for the third successive Games with Constanta Burcica and Angela Alupei pushing the German and Netherland pairs into the silver and bronze medal places.
