Four World U23 medals for GB on super Saturday
The GB Rowing Team has its first medals of the World U23 Championships – three silvers and a bronze – after an excellent afternoon of racing in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Richard Clarke, Ross Jarvis, James Johnston and Lewis McCue were involved in a thrilling final race of the day when they took silver in the men’s four whilst Rowan McKellar and Holly Norton were earlier strong runners-up in the women’s pair.
The lightweight men’s quadruple scull of Steven Parsonage, Joel Cassells, Sam Mottram and Jamie Copus also won silver and there was bronze for the women’s four of Emily Ford, Melissa Wilson, Holly Hill and Sam Courty.
Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: “We have had some very, very strong British performances this afternoon to take four medals from six starters.
“Credit to all of those crews and hopefully we will see more good performances from tomorrow’s finalists.”
The men’s four of Clarke, Jarvis, Johnston and McCue have moved on with every race during the past three days and produced a great performance to hold a slender lead over the powerful Romanians for the first 1,500m.
Romania then edged ahead and Canada, who had beaten Britain in the heats, also put in a late challenge but Clarke, Jarvis, Johnston and McCue had done enough to get over the line in a well-earned second place.
Clarke said: “We really needed to step up as we came to the final through the repechages and we did it.”
McKellar and Norton were second throughout the women’s pair final as an impressive performance secured a silver medal.
With the outstanding American pair of Jessica Eiffert and Georgia Ratcliff setting a rapid pace at the front, McKellar and Norton concentrated on their own race and quickly established a clear-water advantage over the chasing pack.
They eventually crossed the line five seconds clear of third-placed Australia and Norton said: “It’s great to be on the podium. It was a tough but good race, it went by so quickly.”
The second GB silver went to the lightweight men’s quadruple scull of Parsonage, Cassells, Mottram and Copus.
They were a narrow fourth at the 1km mark but put in a big push to row through both the German and Danish crews and take second place by 1,500m.
France had led by clear water from the early stages but found themselves being reeled in by the British crew, whose storming finish cut the winning margin to just three-quarters of a length.
It is a third successive silver medal at the World U23 Championships for Cassells, who was part of the lightweight men’s four in both 2013 and 2014. Copus was also in the four last year.
“We are disappointed not to win gold but the French were just on another level,” said Cassells. “I am very proud of the crew, though. We had a good race.”
The first GB medal of the championships went to the women’s four of Ford, Wilson, Hill and Courty, who finished third in their final.
As in their previous two outings, the British crew took the race by the scruff of the neck and matched the United States stroke for stroke for the first 600m.
The US, looking to defend the title won 12 months ago in Varese, edged ahead and a big push from the Canadians took them into second place.
However, the British four had established themselves in the medal positions and were untroubled by a late sprint from Australia as they took bronze in 6:56.83.
“It’s awesome,” said a delighted Courty. “We had a good start and then we just stuck to the plan.”
It was a second successive World U23 Championships medal for Courty and Wilson, who were part of the women’s eight that won silver in 2014 while Wilson and Hill represented Cambridge in the first Women’s Boat Race this year.
Courty and Hill are also part of the GB Rowing Team Start Programme, an innovative and successful talent identification and development initiative through which, since 2001, rowers like Helen Glover, Moe Sbihi, Sam Townsend and others have emerged to win either Olympic or World medals.
The lightweight women’s quad of Maddie Arlett, Ellie Lewis, Flo Pickles and Lucy Cruxton finished just outside the medals in their final.
Italy were clear winners after a powerful performance but the British crew were in touch with Germany and France throughout in the battle for the podium places.
They were closing in on third place around the 1,250m mark but France responded to the threat and went on to pip Germany to silver, with the British crew fourth in 6:56.08.
James Goble and Tom Marshall had to settle for fifth place in the lightweight men’s pair final after being overtaken by a fast-finishing United States crew in the closing stages of their final.
The British pair had sat in fourth for most of the race behind Italy, Turkey and Greece, who went on to take gold, silver and bronze respectively.
Sunday’s A finals get under way at 8.40am BST with James Rudkin and Tom George in the men’s pair, followed by Georgia Francis and Mathilda Hodgkins-Bryne in the women’s double scull at 8.55am.
The lightweight men’s four of Ed Fisher, Ben Reeves, Jonathan Jackson and Alastair Douglass contest their final at 9.25am and Jack Beaumont goes in the single scull at 10.25am.
The championships conclude with the eights finals, with the women racing at 10.40am and the men at 11.10am.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE
=================================================
RESULTS
(Events featuring GB Rowing Team crews only. For full results – www.worldrowing.com)
A FINALS
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
1. Jessica Eiffert/Georgia Ratcliff (USA) 7:33.64
2. Rowan McKellar/Holly Norton (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:40.40
3. Addy Dunkley-Smith/Katrina Werry (Australia) 7:45.32
4. Lea Duret/Claire Chanut (France) 7:50.24
5. Anna Sture/Hanna Inntjore (Norway) 7:51.13
6. Marisa Staelberg/Sophie Oksche (Germany) 7:56.76
Four
1. Kendall Chase/Mia Croonquist/Elizabeth Youngling/Sarah Dougherty (USA) 6:53.68
2. Caileigh Filmer/Morgan Cathrea/Hillary Janssens/Nicole Hare (Canada) 6:55.00
3. Emily Ford/Melissa Wilson/Holly Hill/Sam Courty (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.83
4. Rachel Engel/Georgina Howe/Jacinta Edmunds/Sarah Davis (Australia) 6:57.97
5. Holly Fletcher/Holly Greenslade/Elizabeth Ross/Jackie Gowler (New Zealand) 7:00.05
6. Svenja Schomburg/Laura Priess/Frauke Lange/Janka Kirstein (Germany) 7:17.65
MEN
Four
1. Dumitru Mariuc/Neculai Aniculesei/Danut-Viorel Rusu/Alexandru-Cosmin Macovei (Romania) 6:10.64
2. Richard Clarke/Ross Jarvis/James Johnston/Lewis McCue (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:13.07
3. Jakub Buczek/Lucas Degelder/Mackenzie Copp/David de Groot (Canada) 6:13.44
4. John Carroll/Julian Hagberg/Timothy Tracey/Kyle Flagg (USA) 6:14.78
1. Guglielmo Carcano/Pietro Zileri/Luca Lovisolo/Matteo Borsini (Italy) 6:27.17
6. Sergio Garcia Sanjulian/Marco Sardelli Gil/Pau Franquet Monfort/Jaime Lara Pacheco (Spain) 6:29.33
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Quadruple scull
1. Valentina Rodini/Nicole Sala/Greta Masserano/Georgia Lo Bue (Italy) 6:49.59
2. Anna Piveteau/Marie-Margot Joannes/Laura Tarantola/Selma Dhaoudi (France) 6:53.07
3. Lena Daniel/Caroline Meyer/Luisa Werner/Clara Bergau (Germany) 6:53.32
4. Maddie Arlett/Ellie Lewis/Flo Pickles/Lucy Cruxton (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.08
5. Larissa Conrad/Amanda Luescher/Adeline Seydoux/Pauline Delacroix (Switzerland) 7:00.31
6. Sara Nissen/Charlotte Thor Petersen/Olivia Meinert Cardel/Mette Nielsen (Denmark) 7:12.33
MEN
Pair
1. Lorenzo Gerosa/Giovanni Ficarra (Italy) 6:53.14
2. Mert Kaan Kartal/Faith Unsal (Turkey) 6:54.49
3. Ioannis Petrou/Stefanos Ntouskos (Greece) 6:55.54
4. Jordan Tewksbury/Alexander Bonorris (USA) 6:55.59
5. James Goble/Tom Marshall (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:57.81
6. Vincent De Vegt/Just Jan van der Endt (Netherlands) 7:03.92
Quadruple scull
1. Francois Teroin/Thibault Remy/Maxime Demontfaucon/Morgan Maunoir (France) 6:05.61
2. Steven Parsonage/Joel Cassells/Samuel Mottram/Jamie Copus (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:07.68
3. Fredrik Leicht/Jesper Fredsted/Alexander Modest/Peter Holmquist (Denmark) 6:10.70
4. Jan Knipschild/Jannik Menke/Joachim Agne/Cedric Kulbach (Germany) 6:13.39
5. Michele Quaranta/Federico Gherzi/Edoardo Buoli/Davide Magni (Italy) 6:17.12
6. Maxim Serlez/Ruben Somers/Aurelien Goubau/Niels van Zandweghe (Belgium) 6:23.70
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE
=================================================
CREW LISTS (Includes club(s), home town, date of birth)
GB Rowing Team for World U23 Championships
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, July 22-26
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Rowan McKellar (Broxbourne RC/Glasgow/24.05.94)
Holly Norton (Leander Club/Johannesburg, SA/01.01.93)
Coach: Peter Sheppard
Four
Emily Ford (Newcastle Univ BC/Crewe/08.11.94)
Melissa Wilson (Cambridge Univ Women’s BC/Edinburgh/10.06.93)
Holly Hill (Cambridge Univ Women’s BC/Gossington/23.01.94)
Sam Courty (Bath Univ BC/Alnwick/07.01.93)
Coach: Peter Lee
Eight
Beth Bryan (Tees RC/Stockton-on-Tees/23.04.93)
Katie Bartlett (Nottingham RC/Loughborough Students RC/Nottingham/02.02.94)
Hattie Taylor (Sport Imperial/Sunningdale/14.02.94)
Holly Nixon (Leander Club/Enniskillen/07.12.93)
Annie Withers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Surrey/22.02.93)
Alice White (Imperial College/Bradford/20.01.93)
Gillian Cooper (Nottingham RC/Oakham/14.02.93)
Nicole Lamb (Newcastle Univ BC/Hexham/20.01.93)
Morgan Baynham-Williams (cox) (Leander Club/Ross-On-Wye/28.06.94)
Coach: Lauren Fisher
Double scull
Georgia Francis (Imperial College BC/Newbury/18.08.94)
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Reading Univ BC/Reading RC/Hereford/01.10.94)
Coach: Dan Moore
MEN
Pair
James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ BC/Northampton/07.07.94)
Tom George (Leander Club/Oxford/22.09.94)
Coach: Angelo Savarino
Four
Richard Clarke (Univ of London BC/Kingston-upon-Thames/06.11.93)
Ross Jarvis (Univ of London BC/Upminster/19.08.94)
James Johnston (Leander Club/Henley/26.08.94)
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon Univ BC/Aberdeen/26.12.94)
Coach: Brian Young
Eight
Rory Gibbs (Oxford Brookes University/Lane End/03.04.94)
Will Hall (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Winchester/08.05.94)
Harry Leask (Leander Club/Edinburgh/16.10.95)
Rufus Scholefield (Edinburgh Univ BC/Jersey/29.10.93)
Henry Millar (Edinburgh Univ BC/Fivemiletown/25.02.94)
Oli Knight (Newcastle Univ BC/Addlestone/15.09.95)
Henry Swarbrick (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Richmond/05.04.94)
Morgan Bolding (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Withiel/13.05.95)
Harry Brightmore (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Chester/01.07.94)
Coach: Henry Bailhache-Webb
Single scull
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.93)
Coach: Matt Beechey
Quadruple scull
Tom Barras (Cardiff Univ RC/Staines/07.01.94)
Frazier Christie (Bath Univ BC/Bath/11.01.93)
Andy Brown (Tees RC/Yarm/12.01.93)
Andy Joel (Leander Club/Windsor/08.06.95)
Coach: Dan Harris
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Quadruple sculls
Maddie Arlett (Edinburgh Univ BC/Selkirk/07.06.94)
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft RC/Marlow/14.04.94)
Flo Pickles (Gloucester Hartpury/Cheltenham/02.11.96)
Lucy Cruxton (Reading Univ BC/Stoke-on-Trent/22.12.93)
Coach: Tom Pattichis
Spare
Emma McDonald (Glasgow Univ BC/Lochwinnoch/11.10.94)
MEN
Pair
James Goble (Eton Vikings/Winchester/23.11.95)
Tom Marshall (Leander Club/Mold/12.03.94)
Coach: Phil Gray
Four
Ed Fisher (Leander Club/Nottingham/16.04.94)
Ben Reeves (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Wilmslow/10.05.94)
Jonathan Jackson (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/02.06.95)
Alastair Douglass (Molesey BC/Shepperton/22.06.95)
Coach: Franz lmfeld
Quadruple sculls
Steven Parsonage (Leander Club/Norwich/16.01.96)
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/15.06.94)
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/14.11.94)
Jamie Copus (Oxford Brookes Univ/BC/Watlington/30.01.93)
Coach: Ross Hunter
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE
=================================================
CONTACT DETAILS
For background information about the The GB Rowing Team contact the Press office via [email protected] or 07831 755351
For picture requests please contact: [email protected]
GB Rowing Team website, including full rower biogs: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
Follow us on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gbrowingteam
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gbrowingteam
Youtube: www.youtube.com/gbrowingteam
=================================================
THE GB ROWING TEAM is supported by the Lottery through UK Sport.
Gallery
