Great Britain add two more medals to their tally on the final day of racing at the U23 World Rowing Championships

A seventh win in a row in the Men’s Eight and a silver medal for the Women’s Eight means Great Britain finish third on the medal table

Great Britain won gold and silver on the final day of racing at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Duisburg, Germany. This adds to the two golds won yesterday in the Men’s Four and Quadruple Sculls as well as the two silvers won in the Women’s Four and Quadruple Sculls.

The results mean Great Britain finished second on the medal table behind Greece, after an incredibly successful U23 World Rowing Championships.

Following a delay to racing getting underway as the British Men’s Eight got aligned, the crew unleashed a ferocious start which saw their bow ball leap into the lead, hitting the 500m marker in pole position. Going with them were the United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand, but come halfway, the Brits still had the advantage, and the same was the story at 1500m.

With just over 300m to go, Matt Johnston, Osian James, Kai Schlottmann, Christian Reese, Kynan Tallec-Botos, Alex Perkins, Tom Corbett, Patrick Wild, and cox Nat Toms started to walk away and open up their advantage by a fraction as they came past the grandstands, soaking in the applause as Great Britain win their seventh title in a row in the U23 Men’s Eight. Toms became the first British woman to win gold in the Men’s Eight at U19 and U23 level.

“There’s a lot of good training gone into it, and I’m just happy that it went our way on the day,” said Johnston in conversation with World Rowing.

Toms added, of the start delay: “All you can really do is deal with the hand you’ve got. On race day, stuff usually goes wrong; you kind of need to expect it to go wrong. The important part is you can capitalise, and for me it’s keeping the guys really internal, really focused, really relaxed.

“I felt like, if anything, we came out the other side of that start much stronger than the other crews because we kept our heads cool.”

Credit: Benedict Tufnell

After the race for lanes in the Women’s Eight, it was clear that the USA were going to be tough to topple. Come the A Final. Lola Crampin, Izzie Kennedy, Allegra O’Sullivan, Matilda Drewett, Alice Baker, Ellie Sillar, Maddie Greenstock, Martha Shepherd, and cox Nikita Jacobs blasted out of the blocks, starting with such intent and leading at 500m.

Come halfway, the lead had changed, and the USA started to stretch out their advantage throughout the second half of the race. At the finish, Great Britain held off the fast-finishing Germans to win a brilliant silver medal.

The morning’s racing also saw Meg Knight in action in the B Final of the Women’s Single Sculls. Passing halfway, the field was a compact one, with less than five seconds separating all six scullers. However, the Greek sculler consolidated her leading position ahead of the USA. Come the finish, Knight fought to the end, eventually placing sixth, 12th overall in the Women’s Single Sculls.

Knight has now raced in all three sculling boat classes at three consecutive U23 World Rowing Championships, having won bronze in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls before racing in the Women’s Double Sculls last season.

“We are absolutely delighted to come away from this Championships with six medals: Three gold, three silver and yet again GB are top of the Olympic class medal table. We’ve had really strong performances across all our boats which shows we are in a healthy position as we look towards the LA and Brisbane Olympic Games” said GB Rowing Team Head Coach for the Olympic Pathway Pete Sheppard

“Our athletes have worked incredibly hard throughout the year to be in a position to take on the world. Behind each athlete is a network of support which allows our young athletes to perform and we must thank clubs, coaches, family and friends for their part in each athlete’s journey. Congratulations to all athletes and coaches on another successful U23 campaign”