Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's coxed pair

The semifinals were held on July 31. It was a warm day (23 °C) with a 1 m/s east-northeast wind. The winner of each heat advanced to the A final, with all others going to the repechage. No boats were eliminated in this round.[4]

Romania led throughout, taking a five second lead by the halfway mark and winning by over five and a half seconds. The Yugoslav, American, and West German boats (in that order) were close together through 1000 metres (less than half a second between second and fourth), but separated over the second half of the race. France and Peru were close neither to the lead group nor to each other throughout the course of the contest.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Dimitrie Popescu Vasile Tomoiagă	Dumitru Răducanu	Romania	7:12.18	QA
2	Robert Espeseth Kevin Still	Doug Herland	United States	7:17.80	R
3	Dieter Göpfert Hermann Greß	Rudolf Ziegler	West Germany	7:25.02	R
4	Zlatko Celent Dario Vidošević	Mirko Ivančić	Yugoslavia	7:27.28	R
5	Jean-Pierre Bremer Charles Imbert	Christophe Chevrier	France	7:32.20	R
6	Alfredo Montenegro Francisco Viacava	Arturo Valentín	Peru	7:44.73	R

As with the first heat, there was little question which boat would win the second heat. Italy led early and finished with a five-second win. Indeed, the final positions of the boats were established by 500 metres; the order did not change at the 1000 metre mark, 1500 metre mark, or the finish.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Carmine Abbagnale Giuseppe Abbagnale	Giuseppe Di Capua	Italy	7:13.83	QA
2	Ángelo Roso Neto Walter Soares	Nilton Alonço	Brazil	7:18.96	R
3	Adrian Genziani Bill Lang	Alan Inns	Great Britain	7:20.51	R
4	Harold Backer Tony Zasada	Tan Barkley	Canada	7:24.52	R
5	José Manuel Bermúdez Isidro Martín	Joaquín Sabriá	Spain	7:29.30	R
6	Guy Defraigne William Defraigne	Philippe Cuelenaere	Belgium	7:32.93	R

The repechage was held on August 2. It was a warm day (24 °C for the first heat, 23 °C for the second) with no wind. The top two boats in each heat advanced to the "A" final, with all others going to the "B" final (out of medal contention).[4]

The British boat started off strong, leading at the quarter-mark. By halfway, however, the two teams from North America had moved into the lead, with Canada edging the United States by 0.2 seconds at 1000 metres. At 1500 metres, it was clear that the two teams from the Americas would advance, as they opened a five-second lead over the Europeans. The United States took the lead from Canada in the third 500 metres and held it over the fourth. France passed Great Britain in the fourth quarter, as well. Peru had been close over the first 500 metres but fell well behind all others by halfway, finishing 12 seconds out of fourth place.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Robert Espeseth Kevin Still	Doug Herland	United States	7:22.88	QA
2	Harold Backer Tony Zasada	Tan Barkley	Canada	7:23.74	QA
3	Jean-Pierre Bremer Charles Imbert	Christophe Chevrier	France	7:26.98	QB
4	Adrian Genziani Bill Lang	Alan Inns	Great Britain	7:38.20	QB
5	Alfredo Montenegro Francisco Viacava	Arturo Valentín	Peru	7:50.40	QB

The second repechage heat was a three-way race for the two advancement spots through the first three-quarters of the contest. Brazil took a close lead at the 500 metre mark, followed by West Germany and Yugoslavia. That order reversed at the 1000 metre point, and Yugoslavia looked to have an advancement place when they opened the lead over third-place Brazil to 2.5 seconds at 1500 metres. But the Yugoslav rowers could not keep the pace and faltered in the final quarter, Brazil came charging ahead, and the final order flipped back to the first-quarter order: Brazil, West Germany, Yugoslavia. The final 500 metres was so poor for Yugoslavia that they finished 8 seconds out of second place. Spain and Belgium battled for fourth place over the first half, but Spain took a significant lead by the 1500 metre mark and Belgium was unable to close.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ángelo Roso Neto Walter Soares	Nilton Alonço	Brazil	7:19.40	QA
2	Dieter Göpfert Hermann Greß	Rudolf Ziegler	West Germany	7:20.75	QA
3	Zlatko Celent Dario Vidošević	Mirko Ivančić	Yugoslavia	7:28.26	QB
4	José Manuel Bermúdez Isidro Martín	Joaquín Sabriá	Spain	7:42.23	QB
5	Guy Defraigne William Defraigne	Philippe Cuelenaere	Belgium	7:46.67	QB

The consolation or "B" final, for 7th through 12th place, took place on August 3. It was a warm day (23 °C) with a 0.5 m/s east wind. Yugoslavia, which had come close to joining the "A" final, led from wire to wire, winning the race to take 7th place overall. Great Britain pressed them closely for a while, but fell further behind over the middle 1000 metres and finished 8th overall about 2 seconds behind Yugoslavia. France, Spain, and Belgium followed in a small group well behind the two leaders. Peru stayed with that group over the first 500 metres but could not keep pace and fell behind to finish in last place by 17 seconds.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time
7	Zlatko Celent Dario Vidošević	Mirko Ivančić	Yugoslavia	7:25.60
8	Adrian Genziani Bill Lang	Alan Inns	Great Britain	7:27.56
9	Jean-Pierre Bremer Charles Imbert	Christophe Chevrier	France	7:32.48
10	José Manuel Bermúdez Isidro Martín	Joaquín Sabriá	Spain	7:34.38
11	Guy Defraigne William Defraigne	Philippe Cuelenaere	Belgium	7:35.67
12	Alfredo Montenegro Francisco Viacava	Arturo Valentín	Peru	7:52.59

Italy, just as it did in the second heat, led early and finished with a five-second win. The Americans and Romanians battled for silver and bronze, with the latter team holding the lead the whole way; the United States was within a second of Romania at 1500 metres but fell behind in the final 500 to a 1.6 second defeat. The race for fourth place was also close, with West Germany leading Brazil and Canada at the 500, 1000, and 1500 metre marks but unable to keep pace over the last quarter and falling to sixth. Brazil pulled away from Canada as well in the last 500 metres.[4]

Rank	Rower	Coxswain	Nation	Time
	Carmine Abbagnale Giuseppe Abbagnale	Giuseppe Di Capua	Italy	7:05.99
	Dimitrie Popescu Vasile Tomoiagă	Dumitru Răducanu	Romania	7:11.21
	Robert Espeseth Kevin Still	Doug Herland	United States	7:12.81
4	Ángelo Roso Neto Walter Soares	Nilton Alonço	Brazil	7:17.07
5	Harold Backer Tony Zasada	Tan Barkley	Canada	7:18.98
6	Dieter Göpfert Hermann Greß	Rudolf Ziegler	West Germany	7:25.16