World Rowing Championships: Day Four

Holly Hill and Melissa Wilson secure A final spot with victory in the women’s pair repechage, while Tom Barras moves into the semi-finals of the men’s single sculls

Victory for Holly Hill and Melissa Wilson in the women’s pair (W2-) repechage secured a fifth A final place of the week for Great Britain on day four of the 2017 World Rowing Championships.

Hill and Wilson were the first of three British boats in action in Sarasota-Bradenton and the duo were quickly up to speed, creating clear water between themselves and the rest of the field by the 500m mark.

The pair, who finished second to the formidable New Zealand crew of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler in their heat on Monday, opened up a five second advantage by halfway and eventually finished in 7:25.99, 6.35 seconds clear of Germany. The victory means Hill and Wilson, who are racing in their first senior regatta in the pair, progress to Saturday’s A final.

In the men’s single scull (M1x) quarter-final, 23-year-old Tom Barras followed up his heat victory with a second place today, moving him into the semi-finals on Friday.

Marko Marijanovic of Serbia led for much of the opening half of the race before Barras and four-time world champion Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic came through in the latter 1,000m. Both rowers finished with just 0.6 seconds between them and over six seconds clear of Marijanovic in third.

The second repechage of the day for GB crews saw Caragh McMurtry, Rebecca Girling, Rowan McKellar and Sam Courty finish third in the women’s four (W4-).

The young crew, with three of the four competing in their first ever World Championships, will race in the B final after China and Poland secured the two A final places by finishing ahead of the British boat.

Melissa Wilson said: “We knew from the heat that we wanted to get out quickly from the start and push on from that. We did that and got out in front and then held that lead on Germany down the course.

Holly Hill said: “That’s given us a huge amount of confidence. We came into the regatta not knowing a huge amount about where we might place having not done the World Cups as a pair so this was a really big opportunity for us to go out and see what we could do. To stay ahead of the Germans by such a margin is a real positive and hopefully we can take this forward to Saturday.”

 

Results

Women’s pair repechage (Two progress to final)
1. Great Britain (Holly Hill & Melissa Wilson), 7:25.99
2. Germany, 7:32.34
3. China, 7:39.34

Women’s four repechage (Two progress to final)
1. China, 6:41.43
2. Poland, 6:41.46
3. Great Britain (Caragh McMurtry, Rebecca Girling, Rowan McKellar & Sam Courty), 6:47.38

Men’s single scull quarter-final (Three progress to semi-final)
1. Czech Republic, 6:47.22
2. Great Britain (Tom Barras), 6:47.83
3. Serbia, 6:54.02