The Italian Team reaches 13! Castaldo, Lodo, Montrone and Vicino win bronze in Men's Four

ROWING
The Italian Team reaches 13! Castaldo, Lodo, Montrone and Vicino win bronze in Men's Four

And Italy reaches 13! Rowing once again provides Italy with another medal at Rio 2016, this time with the Men's Four made up of Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo, Domenico Montrone and Giuseppe Vicino. The Italian quartet fight back in the final few metres, denying South Africa a medal, and earning (in 6:03.85) the final place on a podium completed by Great Britain (5:58.61) and Australia (6:00:44).


Italy's Olympic rowing regatta finishes with this amazing bronze medal. After 12 years the coxless four achieves Olympic success which is added to the bronze medal won yesterday by the coxless pair of Giovanni Abagnale and Marco Di Costanzo. Domenico Montrone, Matteo Castaldo, Matteo Lodo, Giuseppe Vicino had the task of confirming Italy at the top in the world after being crowned champions at the worlds last year in Aiguebelette. The final on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas went to the form books with the favourites, Britain leading from the first strokes pursued by Australia, which had already shown in the preliminary rounds to be the biggest threat to the British team. The Italian boat, after a good start, settled into fourth position, trying to increase speed without losing its composure, making sure to keep in touch with the medal positions.


The race steadily intensified with the top four positions unchanged until the last part of the race, when the four Italian rowers launched a thrilling finish (fastest in the last 500 metres with 2 "19 ahead of the British "giants") which literally left South Africa stunned guaranteeing the Italians a second splendid bronze medal.