Two golds on opening day

Great Britain produced a flying start to its Australian Youth Olympic Festival campaign in soaring temperatures (over 40 degrees C) in Sydney today with two golds, four silvers and a bronze.

The wins came from Aylebsury’s Stephanie Mottram in the women’s single scull and through the men’s pair of Tom Lucy and Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell of Monmouth and Durham respectively.

Mottram, who trains at Marlow RC, produced a storming race, leading throughout.  Lucy and Reilly O’Donnell won by clear water from their GB team-mates Lewis Beech and Mohammed Sbihi who put in a startling finishing burst to take silver.

"I felt that all of the men’s crews stepped up in racing today", said Reilly O’Donnell, the GB men’s captain after racing which took place in searing temperatures. "The heat was a challenge but I felt that the coaches had prepared us well for that challenge. In my own race everything went to plan and it was great that the other GB pair took silver".

"We’ve certainly had a very good day’s racing", added GB Team Manager, David Tanner, today. "It was a strong overall team performance with a medal in every event. That has given us confidence going into tomorrow’s bigger boat races".

Australia, competing as individual states, tops the  medals table with three golds. Britain lies in second with China third.

Britain’s silvers on the opening day of racing came from Beech and Sbihi in the men’s pair, the men’s single scull and the two lightweight double scull boats.  The women’s pair of Vicky Bryant and Rosanna Collings, from Chester Le Street and Nottingham, took a bronze.

Maidenhead’s Martin Haymes was GB’s silver medallist in the men’s single scull.  Haymes,  who has made huge strides at this event,  moved up through the field in the final quarter of the race but couldn’t quite catch the Chinese who won gold. Scarborough’s Bob Hewitt was eighth in the event.

Britain’s lightweight women’s double of Emma Steel and Frances Fletcher, both Durham University students, were just half a second off the gold which was won by Australia.  The men’s equivalent boat featuring Chris Boddy, from Thornaby, and Flintshire’s Nick Fearnhead stormed through the field in the second half of the race, moving up from fifth at the 1000m mark to take the silver.

Bryant and Collings produced a similar second half performance to take their bronze in the women’s pair.  GB’s Jacqui Round and Stephanie McDowall, of Nottingham and Aberdeen University, had shown early promise in this final, holding second place in the early stages but were unable to hold on and finished fifth.

Britain later qualified four boats into tomorrow’s finals, three of which produced heat wins – the men’s and women’s four and the women’s quadruple scull – with the men’s quadruple scull qualifying in third place.

There will also be finals tomorrow in the men’s and women’s eights and GB has a boat in each.

"This is an interesting and tough competition", said Tanner today of the team event in which each athlete has to compete in three different boat classes and complete a 2000m race three times in seven hours on each day . "The Australians have produced an innovative event which is a good experience for all the athletes.  They have tried something different without compromising on the quality of the event".

For further information on GB Rowing please
contact:  Caroline Searle on (01225) 383518 or
(07831) 755351 OR [email protected]

For further information on Team GB please
contact:  Graham Newsom or Louisa Huddy via
(0208) 871 2677.

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DIGEST OF RESULTS
(GB Crews only. Full results available
through:  http://www.rowingmanager.
com/rm/?results=1258)

Golds

Women’s single scull
Men’s pair

Silvers

Men’s pair
Men’s single scull
Lightweight women’s double scull
Lightweight men’s double scull

Bronze
Women’s pair

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GB ROWING SQUAD/AYOF:
Listed from bow to stroke plus cox
(Rowing Club/Home Town in brackets after
name where known)

WOMEN

Pairs (two boats)

Stephanie McDowell (Aberdeen Uni/Edinburgh)/
Jacqui Round (Nottingham RC/St Neots)

Vicky Bryant (Oxford Brookes/Chester-Le-Street)
Rosanna Collings (Nottingham RC)

Four

Bryant/Collings/McDowell/Round

Eight
Stephanie Mottram (Marlow RC/Aylesbury)
Rachael Jefferies (CUBC/Abingdon)
Emma Steel (Durham Uni)
Collings
Bryant
Round
McDowell
Frances Fletcher (Durham Uni)
Zoe de Toledo (Oxford Brookes/London)

Single scull (2 boats)

Jefferies

Mottram

Quadruple scull

Bryant
Collings
McDowell
Round

MEN

Pairs (two boats)

Lewis Beech (Stourport BC/Stourport)
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton)

Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell (Uni of London/Durham)
Tom Lucy (Oxford Brooks/Monmouth)

Four

Beech
Sbihi
Lucy
O’Donnell

Eight

Nick Fearnhead (Durham Uni/Rhosemor, Nr Mold, Flintshire)
Bob Hewitt (Scarborough/Scarborough)
Chris Boddy (Yarm School/Thornaby)
Beech
Sbihi
Reilly O’Donnell
Lucy
Martin Haymes (Oxford Brookes/Maidenhead)
Sebastian Stuart (Durham Uni/Shaftesbury)

Single Sculls (two boats)

Haymes

Hewitt

Double scull

Boddy
Fearnhead

Quadruple scull

Boddy
Hewitt
Haymes
Fearnhead

TEAM MANAGER
David Tanner

COACHES

Peter Sheppard
Tim Dorrell
Emma Hall-Craggs
Nick Strange

PHYSIO
Jenny Conway

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INFORMATION FILE

DATES

The Festival takes place from January 17-21.
Rowing events are on January 20 and 21

ROWING EVENTS

Men
Single Scull (M1x)
Double Scull (M2x)
Lightweight Double Scull (LM2x)
Quadruple Scull (M4x)
Pair (M2-)
Four (M4-)
Lightweight Four (LM4-)
Eight (M8+)

Women
Single Scull (W1x)
Double Scull (W2x)
Lightweight Double Scull (LW2x)
Quadruple Scull (W4x)
Pair (W2-)
Eight (W8+)

Useful websites:

www.biro.org.uk
www.olympics.org.uk
www.olympics.com.au

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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about British Rowing please contact:

Caroline Searle

T:  (01225) 383518
M:  (07831) 755351

e:  [email protected]

GB Rowing website www.biro.org.uk – full senior
squad biogs and past news releases available here.
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Sports Fund as part of UK Sport’s Podium Programme.

GB Rowing News bulletins are issued by British
International Rowing.