Chaos rocks final as Australia wins more gold on stunning morning

Australia stormed home to win its second gold medal of the morning but the Men’s Four final was rocked by a dramatic moment.

There was huge drama in the rowing final.

Australia enjoyed a golden morning on the water but one of its finals came with plenty of controversy.

Our rowers started the day on a stunning note. The Aussie Women’s Four team held off a fast-finishing Dutch quartet to win its final, then 30 minutes later the Men’s Four team powered its way to victory.

Twenty-five years after the original Oarsome Foursome won gold in Atlanta, we were on top of the world once again.

While there was no doubt about Australia’s victory in the men’s event, there were chaotic scenes in the rest of the field.

The Great Britain team was a boat length behind the Aussies in second with 500m to go in the 1500m race, but they soon went off track - literally. The Brits veered badly off course and made a beeline for the Italian team hunting a podium finish on their right.

With just 250m to go, the Italians looked like they may have been put off by Great Britain’s misadventure. Thankfully though, the boats didn’t touch as team GB rectified its mistake just in time to avoid contact.

Italy still managed to come third, behind Romania in second. Great Britain’s slip-up cost it badly as it dropped down to fourth.

Talk about taking a wrong turn.

Great Britain nearly found itself in the wrong postcode.

Channel 7 commentator Nick Green called it a “chaotic finish” but was confident any issues would not impact Australia’s finishing place, because the new Oarsome Foursome was well clear of the danger area.

There was speculation the Brits’ blue may have led to a protest, but that didn’t eventuate.

“Great Britain were trying to chase and just couldn’t and ... they were just starting to stumble a bit and the boat went off (course),” Green said.

“Hope there’s not a protest but we’ll see what goes on. It won’t impact the lead. The Australians in my view were clearly in front.

“Watch here, the British crew second from the bottom start to steer into the Italians.

“Whether that might have impacted the Italians to get the silver or the gold, who knows. They didn’t hit but very close.”

A new Oarsome Foursome.

The Aussie women put on a powerhouse display, shooting out to an early lead and showing plenty of grit to keep their lead in the face of a Dutch comeback.

Jess Morrison, Annabelle McIntyre, Rosie Popa and Lucy Stephan got off to a fantastic start and never took their foot off the throat.

It was a two-horse race for gold betwen Australia and the Netherlands, and our golden girls won by a nose, finishing just 0.34 seconds ahead of their closest rivals.

You bloody beauty.

The medal rush continued as the Aussies picked up more bling in later rowing events. We edged out Great Britain by 0.22 seconds to win bronze in the Men’s Quadruple sculls final, then in the women’s event we pulled out an astonishing performance to claim third.

Germany was looking solid in second but faltered late in the race, allowing Poland to surge into the silver medal position as the Aussies snuck home for bronze.