June 17, 2006 News British Rowing NewsBritish Rowing EventsRowing CommunityGB Rowing TeamCompetitions and ClubsIndoor RowingPartners#YourStoriesArchive Nine medals for Britain at Poznan World Cup GB Rowing Team Great Britain won nine medals at the season’s second world cup which finished in Poznan, Poland, today. Six of them came in the Olympic classes and both Camelot-backed flagship crews took golds. The men’s four and women’s quadruple scull both dominated their races – the women coming back to beat the Chinese who defeated them in the heats. Alan Campbell, Britain’s new-find single sculler took silver behind world champion Mahe Drysdale, of New Zealand. There were bronzes for the open weight and lightweight men’s doubles and for the women’s eight who beat the 2005 World champions, Australia, to make the podium. Today’s tally of six medals came on top of three lightweight men’s medal from yesterday’s finals, including two golds.ADVERT "We knew this would be a tougher regatta", said GB Team Manager David Tanner, after racing. "We have less golds but some exceptional result across the team. Once again our flagship crews have delivered but watch out, too, for Alan Campbell in the single and our doubles who have established themselves on the world stage here as well as our women’s eight". The next world cup is in Lucerne, Switzerland, in a month’s time. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE =============================== =============================== RACE REPORTS In contrast to yesterday’s hot, windless conditions, today’s racing in Poland took place under grey skies, intermittent rain and with an inconsistent cross to cross-tail wind. The British men’s four, tested in Munich last month, dominated here in Poznan. Peter Reed described the Camelot-backed crew’s performance as "better, cleaner and more organised". His crew-mate Andy Hodge echoed the sentiment. "We’ve made good improvements since Munich", he said after a win in 5:44.92 ahead of Slovenia in second with New Zealand third. "The other crews have been probably studying our times", added Reed. "I know we have a quick start but I was also aware that Slovenia and New Zealand were still with us at the beginning. They are human beings, too, though, so I knew they would pay for that effort later". By the 1500m mark, the British were three seconds up on Slovenia and eight ahead of New Zealand. From there the result was pretty much foregone. Katherine Grainger, Fran Houghton, Sarah Winckless and Debbie Flood in the British women’s quadruple scull, also supported by Camelot, were loathe to fall to the same fate as they suffered in the opening heats here when the Chinese took the reigning world champions by surprise in the final 500m. They began strongly today and had a lead of over two seconds on the Chinese by the midway point with Germany in third. As the raced moved into its third quarter Germany had marginally moved ahead of China to take second position. The British still had a lead of over two seconds. Just as in the heat, though, the Chinese mounted a counter-attack with Germany also showing strongly in the far-side lane. As the Chinese came back to within half a length, the British combination went up a gear and surged ahead to win by just over a second. "It felt good from the start", said. "We knew where our pushes were coming and we felt confident". As the women’s quadruple scull moved out from the medal ceremony pontoon they had a prime slot to cheer on their counterparts in the women’s eight who were flying past to take bronze in their final ahead of the 2005 World Champions, Australia. The GB eight moved steadily up from fifth place at the 500m mark putting in a surge in the second 500m to move up into third. It was a position they held onto despite a big push from Australia. Ahead of the British, Romania were the race winners with China in second. "We nearly left it too late, perhaps we were a bit relaxed on the start but it was a good result in the end", said stroke Elise Laverick. New single sculling talent Alan Campbell blasted away from the start of his final today. By 500m he was a length up on Mahe Drysdale the World Champion from New Zealand – the man who beat him in yesterday’s semi-finals and who is often his training partner at London’s Tideway Scullers club. By 1500m, though, the experienced Drysdale had reeled him back in and overtaken. Did Campbell have a finishing sprint left after the initial effort? Yes, but it was not quite enough. Drysdale took victory by around three-quarters of a length on the line. The winning time of 6:39.12 was just three seconds off the world best time set by Marcel Hacker, today’s bronze medallist, four years ago in a raging tail wind at the world championships in Seville. "It really was a good battle today", said Campbell afterwards. "I knew Mahe was going to be the strongest competition. He deserved to win. He’s the one to beat". The men’s double scull combination of Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham made a good start and were in third by the 500m mark with Slovenia and France leading the race at that stage. In a closely bunched leading pack the British duo were fourth, just a whisker behind Germany in third, at the mid-way point but still in touch ahead of Hungary and the Ukraine. By 1500m they were just four tenths behind Germany and battling for bronze. As the line approached France were the clear leaders but a huge battle broke out behind them. Britain overhauled the Germans and held off a finishing burst by the Hungarians to take bronze with Slovenia in silver medal position. France’s winning time was a world best time. "It’s incredible what’s happening to British sculling", said Stephen Rowbotham after the race. "First Alan in the single and now we’re going well, too". "We were aware of everything that was going on around us at the end. It was a good race, especially as Steve came out of his seat on the first stroke at the start", said Wells. Their lightweight men’s double scull team-mates were not to be outdone on this fast Poznan course today. James Lindsay-Fynn and Mark Hunter took world cup bronze in a race won by Denmark with Italy second. The British duo put themselves into contention early in the race. They battled hard with Australia who overhauled them to move into second place in the second 500m but who dropped back down after a strong GB push in the third 500m. In the race for the line, Britain held onto bronze despite a final effort from the Australians. "We knew we were capable of doing it today", said Lindsay-Fynn after the race. "We just needed to tick over at a higher rate", added Hunter. "It’s important that we keep stepping up in this tough Olympic class", concluded Lindsay-Fynn. The lightweight men’s four were next on the course. Egypt made the best start in this final with Great Britain in second. Ireland moved through to take the lead at the midway point. In a superbly contested finish the British quartet were rowed out of the medals in the dying metres by a superb spurt from both Australia, eventual silver medallists, with Egypt coming back to take bronze ahead of Germany. The result, though, was a significant step forward for this British crew. Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington, world cup winners last month, found themselves facing world and Olympic champions, the Evers-Swindell sisters also of New Zealand, in their final today in Poznan as well as stiffer Australian and Chinese opposition. Today the New Zealanders and the Chinese got off to the best starts, leaving Vernon and Bebington in fifth place at the 500m mark behind two Australian crews. In the second 500m they attempted to mount a fightback but were still fifth at 1000m and at 1500m and, whilst they still looked relatively strong in the final 500m they made no impression on the leaders to finish fifth in 6:51.82. Helen Casey and Jane Hall have been newly-formed as a combination in the lightweight women’s double scull this season. With every race they have made improvements. Today they raced in their first major final. Whilst they were sixth overall in 7:05.20 they were not out of touch at the line in a race won by China in 6:49.77 – a world’s best time. In the morning’s B Finals, U23 squad member Alex Gregory put in a storming final 300m to finish third. His result put him in the top nine single scullers in the world this weekend. In a tightly-bunched finish to the men’s eight B final, Britain’s second-ranked crew, composed largely of U23s and world class start athletes, emerged briefly into second place but could not quite hold off the faster-finishing Estonian crew and were nudged into third place on the line. Britain’s lightweight women’s doubles crews of Hester Goodsell/Jenny Goldsack and Lindsay Dick/Antonia van Deventer were third and fourth respectively in their B final. For each crew, their participation here represented a battle to come back from injuries. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE =============================== =============================== RESULTS – POZNAN WORLD CUP FINALS DAY – Saturday 17th, 2006 (Crews bow to stroke – plus cox – clubs in brackets. GB crews only. Full results at: www.worldrowing.com) FINALS OPEN WOMEN Eight 1. Romania 6:04.22 2. China 6:08.00 3. Baz Moffat/Alison Knowles/Vicki Etiebet/Carla Ashford/ Natasha Howard/Natasha Page/Katie Greves/Elise Laverick (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:09.63 4. Australia 6:10.33 5. France 6:16.03 6. Belarus 6:16.20 Double scull 1. Georgina & Caroline Evers-Swindell (New Zealand) 6:42.96 2. Dana Faletic/Sally Kehoe (Australia) 6:44.16 3. Catriona Sens/Sonia Mills (Australia) 6:44.28 4. Li Qin/Tian Ling (China 3) 6:45.46 5. Annie Vernon/Anna Bebington (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:51.82 6. Yana Dementieva/Natalia Ryzhkova (Ukraine) 6:55.38 Quadruple scull 1. Debbie Flood/Sarah Winckless/Frances Houghton/ Katherine Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:15.32 2. China 6:16.60 3. Germany 6:18.75 4. Denmark 6:21.74 5. Romania 6:26.12 6. Australia 6:27.35 MEN Four 1. Alex Partridge/Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Andy Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:44.92 2. Slovenia 5:47.81 3. New Zealand 5:51.07 4. Czech Republic 5:51.93 5. Ireland 5:56.22 6. Poland 6:02.52 Single scull 1. Mahe Drysdale (New Zealand) 6:39.12 2. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.82 3. Marcel Hacker (Germany) 6:44.70 4. Lassi Karonen (Sweden) 6:46.34 5. Olaf Tufte (Norway) 6:46.51 6. Ariel Suarez (Argentina) 7:04.19 Double scull 1. Jean-Baptiste Macquet/Adrien Hardy (France) 6:03.25 2. Luka Spik/Iztok Cop (Slovenia) 6:04.44 3. Matthew Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:04.57 4. Akos Haller/Tibor Peto (Hungary) 6:04.82 5. Rene Bertram/Robert Sens (Germany) 6:05.76 6. Zaitsev Kostyantyn/Hennadii Zakhachenko (Ukraine 1) 6:14.93 LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN Double scull 1. Xu Dongxiang/Yan Shimin (China) 6:49.77 2. Fan Xuefei/Chen Haixia (China 2) 6:52.78 3. Sinead Jennings/Niamh Ni Cheilleachair (Ireland) 6:57.38 4. Magdalena Kemnitz/Ilona Mokronowska (Poland) 7:00.36 5. Sanna Sten/Minna Nieminen (Finland) 7:02.06 6. Jane Hall/Helen Casey (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:05.20 MEN Four 1. Ireland 5:55.23 2. Australia 5:56.70 3. Egypt 5:56.80 4. Germany 5:57.22 5. Matt Beechey/Daniel Harte/Paul Mattick/James Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:57.62 6. China 5:59.90 Double scull 1. Mads Rasmussen/Rasmus Quist (Denmark) 6:13.52 2. Marcello Miani/Elia Luini (Italy) 6:17.04 3. James Lindsay-Fynn/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:19.92 4. Tom Gibson/Sam Beltz (Australia) 6:21.62 5. Yunior Perez/Eyder Batista (Cuba) 6:24.00 6. Nuno Mendes/Pedro Fraga (Portugal) 6:31.17 B FINALS OPEN MEN Eight 1. Egypt 5:38.19 2. Estonia 5:39.93 3. Matthew Tucker/Ryan Davies/Nick Lloyd/James Orme/ Sam Townsend/Tom Parker/Marcus Bateman/Simon Fieldhouse/Seb Pearce (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:40.63 4. Ukraine 5:42.81 Single scull 1. Yoennis Hernandez Arruez (Cuba) 6:57.74 2. Gabor Bencsik (Hungary) 7:00.43 3. Alex Gregory (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:01.70 4. Daniel Frateanu (Romania) 7:03.25 5. Christof Uhl (Austria 1) 7:05.05 6. Loenid Gulov (Estonia 1) 7:13.63 LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN Double scull 1. Daniela Reimer/Marie-Louise Draeger (Germany) 7:01.47 2. Liu Jing/Chen Lihong (China) 7:03.95 3. Hester Goodsell/Jennifer Goldsack (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:07.44 4. Lindsay Dick/Antonia van Deventer (GREAT BRITAIN 3) 7:07.64 5. Lena & Sara Karlsson (Sweden) 7:12.88 6. Ola Ahmed/Manal Hassan (Egypt) 8:02.37 SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE =============================== =============================== GB ROWING SQUADS = HOME TOWNS LIST BRITISH ROWING SQUADS NAME D.O.B/PLACEofBIRTH/HOMETOWN/LIVING/ROWING CLUB Carla Ashford 13.3.79/Northallerton, N.Yorks/Masham, N.Yorks/Brentford/ Chris Bartley 2.284/Farndon, Cheshire/Nottingham/Notts Uni Marcus Bateman 16.9.82/Bermuda/Torquay/Henley on Thames/Reading Uni Anna Bebington 13.2.83/Leek, Staffs/Leek/Crowthorne, Berks/Leander Matt Beechey 3.4.77/Worcester/Worcester/Henley on Thames/Leander Nick Brodie 6.8.96/Oxford /Oxford/Oxford/OUBC Alan Campbell 5.9.83/Coleraine/Coleraine/Mortlake/Tideway Scullers Helen Casey 6.2.74/Stockport/Oxford/Oxford/Wallingford Richard Chambers 10.6.85/??/??/Oxford/Oxford Brookes James Clarke 13.12.84/London/London/Durham/Durham Uni Ryan Davies 16.2.85/??/Henley on Thames/Oxford Brookes Jonno Devlin 17.3.76/South Africa/Oxford/Putney/Oxford Brookes Lindsay Dick 27.7.71/Strathaven/??/??Glasgow RC Jess Eddie 7.10.84/Durham/Durham/Chiswick/Uni of London Richard Egington 26.2.79/Knutsford/n/a/Henley on Thames/Leander Robin Ejsmond-Frey 14.3.86/London/Hammersmith/Oxford/OUBC Nick English 11.5.78/Coventry/Whitley Bay/Nottingham/Notts&Union Simon Fieldhouse 4.9.76 n/a/n/a/Thames Ditton, Sy/Molesey Debbie Flood 27.2.80/Harrogate/Leeds/Henley on Thames/Leander Toby Garbett 14.11.76/Chertsey, Sy/West Byfleet/Ascot, Berks/Leander Hester Goodsell 27.6.84/London/London/Cambridge/Rob Roy Katherine Grainger 11.12.75/Glasgow/Aberdeen/Bisham, Bucks/St Andrew Alex Gregory 11.3.84n/a/Wormington/Reading/Reading Uni Katie Greves 2.9.82/London/Oxford/Mortlake/Uni of London Joanna Hammond 28.1.80/Leamington Spa/Leamington/Cambridge/Leander Daniel Harte 12.12.75n/a/n/a/Putney/London Mike Hennessy 24.12.76/London/Deptford/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers Rob Hollis 14.2.84/Wendover/Monmouth/Cowley/Oxford Brookes Naomi Hoogesteger 22.5.81n/a/Wells/Spennymoor/Durham Uni Frances Houghton 19.9.80/Oxford/Oxford/Putney/Uni of London Natasha Howard 3.9.80/Harare, Zimbabwe/West Runton/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers Mark Hunter 1.7.78/Forest Gate, London/Romford/Cadmore End, Bucks/Leander Tom James 3.11.84/Cardiff/Wrexham/Cambridge/CUBC Simon Jones 8.6.78n/a/n/a/Cropwell Butler/Leander Alison Knowles 27.3.82/Bournemouth/Bournemouth/Putney, London/Thames Matthew Langridge 20.5.83/Northwich, Cheshire/Northwich/Henley on Thames/Leander Elise Laverick 27.7.75/Rustington, Sx/Poling, W Sx/Putney/Thames Ian Lawson 4.3.77/Bradford/Otley, W.Yks/Henley on Thames/Leander Hugo Lee 5.3.84/Guildford/Jeburgh, Scottish Border/Oxford/Oxford Brookes James Lindsay-Fynn 29.9.75/Dublin/Trim, Ireland/London/London Rachel Loveridge 7.5.80/Swindon/Hayling Island/Putney/Thames Tim Male 9.7.75/Yeovil, So/Yeovil/Chiswick/Tideway Scullers Paul Mattick 25.4.78n/a/Oxford/Wallingford Acer Nethercott 28.11.77/Newmarket/Harlow, Ex/Oxford/OUBC Lorna Norris 23.12.75n/a/na/a/Mortlake/Mortlake Anglian Caroline O’Connor 25.4.83Ealing/Ealing/Ealing/Oxford Brookes Natasha Page 30.4.85n/a/Hartpury/Reading/Reading Uni Charlie Palmer 25.10.78/Melbourne Hagley, Tasmania/Cambridge/CUBC Tom Parker 24.10.82/Hammersmith/Winchester/Oxford/OUBC Alex Partridge 25.1.81/San Francisco/Alton, Hants/East Sheen/Leander Seb Pearce 10/5/82/?/Bromsgrove/Oxford/OUBC Peter Reed 27.7.81/Seattle, USA/Nailsworth/Oxford/Leander Beth Rodford 28.12.82/Burton/Trent/Gloucester/Cowley/Thames Steve Rowbotham 11.11.81n/a/Winscombe/West Molesey/Leander Rebecca Rowe 16.5.81/Bridgend/Cardiff/Cardiff/Rebecca Phil Simmons 6.2.75/Wimbledon/Thames Ditton/Thames Ditton/Molesey Colin Smith 3.9.83/ Harare, Zimbabwe/Henley on Thames/Oxford/OUBC Tom Stallard 11.9.78/London/Welwyn, Herts/London/Leander James Stephenson 4.4.77/n/aChipstead/Thames Ditton /Molesey Florence Temple 11.3.79/Harlow/Northampton/Putney/Thames Sam Townsend n/a/ Reading/Reading/Reading/Reading Uni Andrew Triggs Hodge 3.8.79/Aylesbury/Hebden, Skipton/East Molesey/Molesey Matt Tucker 5.1.85/??/Winkfield, Nr Windsor/Oxford Brookes Antonia van Deventer 23.7.78/?/London/Rob Roy Annie Vernon 1.9.82n/a/Wadebridge, Cornwall/Marlow, Bucks/Thames Matthew Wells 19.4.79/Bradford/Hexham, Northumberland/East Sheen/Uni of London Josh West 25.3.77/Santa Fe, USA/Santa Fe/Oxford/Leander Kieran West MBE 18.9.77/Kingston-upon-Thames/W. Byfleet/Mortlake/CUBC Steve Williams 15.4.76/Warwick/Cheltenham/Henley/Leander Sarah Winckless 18.10.73/Reading/Hurley, Bucks/Marlow, Bucks/Walbrook ADVERT