British Championships curtailed by conditions
The second day of the British Rowing Championships in Nottingham had to be curtailed after gusts of nearly 40mph at Holme Pierrepont meant the semi-finals and finals could not go ahead.
Instead the medals in the quads and eights were presented to the top three in each category based on the morning’s time trials, with men’s eight gold going to a Leander A crew featuring a host of GB Rowing Team Olympic and World champions.
Chris Bartley, Richard Chambers, Matthew Gotrel, Alex Gregory, Phelan Hill, Matt Langridge, Adam Neill, Peter Reed and William Satch clocked 5mins 42.9secs, almost three seconds clear of the Oxford Brookes University A team of Joel Cassells, Peter Chambers, Jamie Copus, Rory Copus, Matthew Tarrant, Edward Grisedale, Scott Durant, Timothy Grant and Petru Alin Zaharia.
Bronze went to the Molesey A crew of Dave Bell, Philip Congdon, Henry Fieldman, James Foad, Karl Hudspith, George Nash, Mohamed Sbihi, Josh Tonnar and Andrew Triggs-Hodge.
The University plaque went to the Oxford Brookes D team of Rory Gibbs, James Stanhope, Michael Glover, Matthew Wray, Matthew Hnatiw, Morgan Bolding, Callum Jones, Richard Hawkins and cox Harry Brightmore.
Leander also took top spot in the women’s eight as a crew featuring GB internationals Katie Greves, Louisa Reeve, Monica Relph, Polly Swann and cox Zoe de Toledo, along with Karen Bennett, Rosamund Bradbury, Katherine Douglas and Pippa Whittaker, completed the shortened 1,750m course in 6:23.6.
That was 17 seconds quicker than the Imperial College London crew of Donna Etiebet, Georgia Francis, Nicola Mason, Sara Parfett, Joanna Thom, Michelle Vezie, Isabell von Loga, Helen Wood and cox Christopher Au, who were runners-up.
University teams made up the next three placings, with the Newcastle crew of cox Sasha Adwani, Katherine Bulmer, Martha Dixon, Sarah Fabes, Emily Ford, Natasha Harris-White, Grace Hockenhull, Helen O’Riordan and Bridget Stratford beating Oxford Brookes and Durham to bronze.
In the men’s quad, Reading University’s Sam Townsend – a World and European silver-medalist in this category in 2014 – teamed up with Rufus Briggs and Christopher Lawrie of Sir William Borlase’s GC plus Agecroft’s Zak Lee-Green to set the fastest time of 6:01.5.
That meant Leander had to settle for silver and bronze, with the B team of Jack Beaumont, Angus Groom, Stewart Innes and Daniel Boddington beating their more experienced A counterparts of John Collins, Charles Cousins, Peter Lambert and Jonny Walton to second place.
Imperial College London (Sam Scrimgeour, Constant Ryngaert, Wilf Kimberley and Timothy Richards) took the lightweight honours, while Leander claimed plaques for both under-23 (Jonathan Jackson, Andrew Joel, Harry Leask and Edward Fisher) and under-19 (Leon Redman, Cameron Murray, Graham Lyons and Jack Webber).
The composite London RC, Imperial College, Minerva Bath and Army crew of Jess Eddie, Helen Glover, Zoe Lee and Heather Stanning followed up yesterday’s fours victory by clocking 7:04.5 for gold in the women’s quad – despite their inexperience in sculling.
The Wallingford lightweight team of Gemma Hall, Louise Hart, Miriam Jones-Walters and Elizabeth Polgreen won silver, while bronze went to the Glos Hartpury, Gloucester and Reading University composite of Charlotte and Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Flo Pickles and Beth Rodford after they edged out the Tees team by just two-hundredths of a second.
University of Exeter (Hannah Traylen, Jess Elkington, Anna Newton and Alex Flynn) topped the under-23 rankings and Gloucester Hartpury (Frances Russell, Francesca Ford, Sophia Heath and Alice Bowyer) took the under-19s plaque.
The Victor Lodorum, for most successful club at the championships, went to Leander with 3,684 points. Oxford Brookes and Molesey made up the top three on 1,516 and 1,499 respectively.
For full results and race videos, visit www.britchamps.org.
For further information contact British Rowing: 0208 2376700
