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Hollis native finishes Olympic debut in rowing

The United States men’s eight rowing team – featuring Hollis native Alex Karwoski – finished fourth in the Olympic final on Saturday at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.

Britain claimed the gold medal with a time of five minutes and 29.63 seconds. Germany took silver at 5:30.96, while the Netherlands crossed the finish line at 5:31.59 to pick up bronze.

Karwoski and the rest of the Americans followed at 5:34.23, beating out fifth-place Poland (5:34.62) and sixth-place New Zealand (5:36.64).

The 25-year-old Karwoski, born in Nashua and a graduate of Groton School (Mass.), made his Olympic debut on Monday when the United States placed second behind Germany in the men’s eight Heat 2 with a time of 5:40.16. The Americans topped the five-boat field to win the men’s eight repechage (5:51.13), where the top four boats joined heat winners Britain and Germany in the final.

Rowing was among the early events of the 2016 Games, so to conserve energy Karwoski and his teammates didn’t participate in the opening ceremonies. Prior to departing for the Summer Games, he said he was looking forward to the post-competition experience.

"Since we’re done at the end of that first week," Karwoski said, "then we really get to take everything in during that second week and then enjoy the closing ceremonies."