Rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's coxless pair

Heats

10 boats competed in two heats on 14 August, 2004. The top 3 pairs from each heat advanced to the final.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete Name	Country	Time
1	Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh	Belarus	7:29.04
2	Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop	Great Britain	7:29.04
3	Maren Derlien and Sandra Goldbach	Germany	7:29.04
4	Sophie Balmary and Virginie Chauvel	France	7:29.04
5	Sarah Jones and Kate Mackenzie	United States	7:29.04

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete Name	Country	Time
1	Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu	Romania	7:29.04
2	Darcy Marquardt and Buffy-Lynne Williams	Canada	7:29.04
3	Milka Tancheva and Anna Chuk	Bulgaria	7:29.04
4	Cong Huanling and Feng Xueling	China	7:29.04
5	Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles	New Zealand	7:29.04

Final

Rank	Athlete Name	Country	Time
	Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu	Romania	7:29.04
	Katherine Grainger and Cath Bishop	Great Britain	7:29.04
	Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh	Belarus	7:29.04
4	Darcy Marquardt and Buffy-Lynne Williams	Canada	7:29.04
5	Maren Derlien and Sandra Goldbach	Germany	7:29.04
6	Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles	New Zealand	7:29.04

The Romanians never looked likely to lose as they led throughout. At 1,000 metres they were nearly two seconds clear of the Canadians who were half a second ahead of Belarus with world champions Great Britain a further second back. By 1,500 m. they had extended their lead with no change in positions in the trailing pack. Just after this mark Belarus and Great Britain both made a move to push past Canada who could not respond. The British kept their push going and passed the Belarusians and by the finishing line had just about overlapped the dominant Romanians. Belarus were two thirds of length back with a very tired looking Canada a further one and a half lengths away.