Both still in their early twenties, the young Italian pair of Matteo Lodo and Giuseppe Vicino stunned the crowds at the 2017 World Rowing Championships as they overhauled the indomitable Sinkovic brothers in the final stages to take gold.
They are no strangers to success, especially when rowing together. While it was their debut on the senior world stage in the pair, in 2014 they won in the same line-up at the U23 world championships.
Lodo and Vicino also made up the stern pair of the senior world championship-winning Italian coxless four the next year (2015) and took bronze in the same event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.