A gold and six bronzes in Strathclyde

Heather Stanning, from Lossiemouth, and Olivia Whitlam, gave the home crowd cause for celebration by taking women’s pair gold at the World U23 Championships at Strathclyde Park this afternoon alongside Britain’s six other medals – all bronzes – on the event’s final day.

"With 11 crews in finals and seven medals we’ve had a great home-water championships – probably our best ever", said GB team manager Drew Robertson today. "It’s also been a superbly-run event with a real touch of Scottish welcome about it", he added.

Stanning, who trains at the University of Bath and is about to enter the British Army, and Whitlam, from Warrington, are both part of the ARA’s World Class Start Scheme, sponsored by Siemens, which is designed to uncover talent for future national squads.  If today’s performance was an indicator, there could be more to come.

"It was a tremendous performance", said Robertson. "They moved away from the field and just kept on going. They won by six seconds, around three lengths.  It was the most commanding win of the whole event".  [Heather (left) and Olivia are pictured with IOC member and FISA President Denis Oswald above]

Britain’s bronzes meanwhile came in the men’s and women’s fours, the men’s double, women’s quadruple scull, men’s pair and men’s coxed four.

The women’s quadruple scull final was not without drama in the increasingly windy and bumpy conditions. Holland were leading at 500m but caught a crab which put them to the back of the field. The same fate befell the Romanian leaders with 20 strokes to go. Alongside, Britain battled with Germany and ultimately snatched the bronze behind the USA and Australia.

Mo Sbihi and Cameron Nichol, also world class start graduates, were part of the GB men’s four who took bronze. They were behind at the start but rowed back through the field to take their medal in a race in which the winning Germans were described by Robertson as a "seriously top-class crew".

Bill Lucas and Charles Cousins, in the men’s double scull, were on World U23 duty in Scotland after competing in the last two senior world cups. They acquitted themselves well to take bronze today as another duo who are coming through the world class start programme.

The British men’s eight who were so impressive in their semi-final yesterday could not find the same form again today. Australia and Estonia shot out quickly at the start today and the British combination seemed to leave themselves too much to do in the second half of the race, coming home sixth.

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RESULTS
WORLD U23 CHAMPIONSHIPS, STRATHCLYDE
PARK, 26-29 JULY, 2007)
(Races with GB crews only.  Full results
www.worldrowing.com)

FINALS

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

1.  GREAT BRITAIN 7:15.90
2.  Romania 7:21.28
3.  Belarus 7:23.25
4.  Ukraine 7:31.20
5.  Germany 7:33.85
6.  USA 7:35.01

Four

1. Italy 6:45.65
2.  Australia 6:47.43
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:48.53
4.  Germany 6:53.21
5.  Netherlands 6:56.00
6.  Russia 6:56.24

Single scull

1.  New Zealand 7:34.87
2.  Poland 7:40.24
3.  Hungary 7:41.76
4.  Germany 7:44.16
5.  GREAT BRITAIN 7:50.30
6.  Ukraine 7:53.68

Quadruple scull

1.  USA 6:32.59
2.  Australia 6:33.38
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:34.11
4.  Germany 6:34.47
5.  Netherlands 6:41.33
6.  Romania 6:51.70

MEN

Pair

1.  Greece 6:31.51
2.  Italy 6:33.43
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:34.70
4.  Germany 6:37.32
5.  Hungary 6:45.43
6.  Ukraine 6:52.01

Four

1. Germany 5:57.55
2.  New Zealand 6:00.51
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:02.12
4.  Romania 6:07.53
5.  Serbia 6:07.93
6.  Australia 6:11.75 

Coxed four

1.  Italy 6:15.57
2.  France 6:18.45
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:20.92
4.  Germany 6:25.62

Eight

1.  Estonia 5:33.90
2.  Germany 5:34.29
3.  Australia 5:34.73
4.  USA 5:35.08
5.  Poland 5:38.37
6.  GREAT BRITAIN 5:42.41

Double scull

1.  Belarus 6:19.24
2.  Germany 6:19.60
3.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:21.24
4.  Croatia 6:23.62
5.  Austria 6:26.17
6.  Greece 6:29.64
   

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double scull

1.  Poland 7:07.40
2.  Denmark 7:08.66
3.  Italy 7:09.31
4.  Hungary 7:10.59
5.  Spain 7:15.52
6.  GREAT BRITAIN 7:17.27

MEN

Quadruple scull

1.  Italy 5:53.57
2.  France 5:55.90
3.  Denmark 5:57.16
4.  Australia 6:00.47
5.  GREAT BRITAIN 6:03.46
6.  Germany 6:05.87

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GB CREWS FOR WORLD U23 CHAMPS
(Strathclyde Park, July 26-29  )
(NB – listed from bow to stroke with
athlete name followed by club in brackets).

WOMEN

Pair

Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC/Warrington)/Heather Stanning
(Uni of Bath/Lossiemouth)

Coach: Hamish Burrell

Four

Vicky Bryant (Oxford Brookes/Chester-le-Street)/Emily Taylor
(Durham Univ/Lincoln)/Kirsty Myles (Oxford Brookes/Edinburgh)/
Rachel Jefferies (CUWBC/Oxford)

Coach: Nick Strange

Single scull

Ruth Walczak (Hollingworth Lake RC/Rochdale)

Coach:  Ade Roberts

Women’s quadruple scull

Tina Stiller (Nottingham RC/Yarm, N.Yorks/23.6.87)/Franki Jus-Burke (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/3.1.87)/Atlanta St John (Reading Uni/North Leigh/Oxon/13.1.87)/Lauren Fisher (Reading Uni/Reading/17.2.86)

Coach:  Ade Roberts

MEN

Pair

Tom Wilkinson (Leander/Henley)/Charles Burkitt (Leander/Reading)

Coach:  Chris Collerton

Four

Cameron Nichol (Uni of London/Glastonbury)/Oliver Moore (Imperial/Burford)/Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey/Surbiton)/Colin Scott (Cambridge Uni/
Malvern)

Coach:  Peter Sheppard

Coxed four

Ryan Davies (Oxford Brookes/Henley)/Pete Marsland (Molesey/Hampton)/Alex Holden-Smith(Oxford Brookes/Bewdley)/George Laughton (Newcastle Uni/Douglas, I.O.M)/AndyGraham (cox) (Durham Uni/Walton-on-Thames).

Coach:  Andy Bird

Eight

Joshua Davidson (Leander/Richmond)/Matt Tucker (Oxford Brookes/Windsor)/Will Robinson (Oxford Brookes/Reading)/Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell
(Uni of London/Durham)/ Tom Ransley (York City RC/Canterbury)/Nick Clark (Leander/Marlow)/Will Laughton (Imperial College/Douglas I.O.M)/Pete Randolph (Bristol Uni/Twickenham)/Seb Stuart (Durham Uni/Salisbury)

Coach: Stuart Whitelaw

Single scull

Ben Smith (Imperial/Oxford)

Double scull

Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth)/Charles Cousins (Rob Roy/Cambridge)

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double scull

1.  Emma Steel (Durham Uni/Chester-le-Street)/Frances Fletcher (Durham Uni/Chester-le-Street)

Coach: Peter Lee

MEN

Quadruple scull

Henry Chin (Durham Uni/Camberwell)/Bob Hewitt (Scarborough BC/Scarborough)/Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College/Windsor)/Chris Boddy (Tees RC/Thornaby-on-Tees)

Coach:  Nathan Adams

SUPPORT STAFF

Team Manager: Drew Robertson
Doctor: Tom Jenkins
Physio: Su Clark
Equipment Manager:  Maurice Hayes