Beijing - Denmark successfully defended its men's lightweight fours Olympic title Sunday as rowers from seven different countries enjoyed gold-medal-winning success. The Danish team of Thomas Ebert, Morten Jorgensen, Mads Andersen and Eskild Ebbesen celebrated victory over the 2,000-metre course at Shunyi Olympic Park in a time of 5 minutes 47.76 seconds, finishing 1.63 seconds ahead of Poland with bronze going to Canada.
In the men's lightweight double sculls final, Britain's Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter took over the lead by the halfway stage before rowing to victory in a time of 6 minutes 10.99 seconds.
Greece's Dimitrios Mougios and Vasileios Polymeros finished 0.73 seconds behind the British pair to take silver with bronze going to Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Hansen of Denmark.
In the women's lightweight double sculls race, the Dutch pair of Kirsten van der Kolk and Marit van Eupen started poorly, lying last after 500 metres but finished strongly to win in a time of 6 minutes 54.74 seconds.
Finland's Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen took silver, 1.29 seconds behind the winners while Melanie Kok and Tracy Cameron beat the German crew of Berit Carow and Marie-Louise Draeger by four hundredths of a second to secure bronze for Canada.
China claimed gold in the women's quadruple sculls, Tang Bin, Jin Ziwei, Xi Aihua and Zhang Yangyang catching and passing Great Britain in the closing stages to win in a time of 6:16.06 minutes.
The British team of Annie Vernon, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Katherine Grainger had to be satisfied with silver in 6:17.37 while Germany took bronze ahead of Ukraine.
In the men's quadruple sculls, Poland's Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michal Jelinski and Adam Korol secured gold in a time of 5:41.33. Italy won silver and France bronze.
Romania, defending Olympic champion in women's eights, had to be satisfied with bronze this time around as the United States took gold ahead of the Netherlands.
In the men's eights race, Canada finished ahead of Great Britain and the United States.
