Leander Club dominant at British Rowing Championships

October 20, 2013

Leander Club won three of the four available event titles at the British Championships in Nottingham today to build in their multiple wins of yesterday.

A women’s quadruple scull featuring Olympic Champion Kat Copeland with Tina Stiller, Bethany Bryan and Jess Leyden were the only crew to break the Leander winning streak.

“It has been great to come here and exciting to win. I’ve really enjoyed rowing for my club and it’s good for Northern Rowing to win here”, said Stiller.

Otherwise, the Henley-on-Thames club won the men’s quadruple scull, the women’s eight and the men’s eight today.

Equipment issues had earlier delayed the start of the second men’s eight semi-final in Nottingham today. Leander’s all-star eight made short work of winning once the race was underway. With Olympic men’s four and World men’s eight Champions Alex Gregory and Peter Reed, joined by Olympic medallists and World Champions Tom Ransley, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill as well as World Champion Dan Ritchie, Matt Gotrel, Lance Tredell and Alan Sinclair.

The opposing semi-final was won by a Molesey Club line-up including World Champions and Olympic medallists George Nash and Mohamed Sbihi with Olympic medallist James Foad as well as former World University Champion and European finalist Fred Gill.

In the final, Leander got their nose ahead by 250m gone and gradually built enough lead to hold off Molesey’s determined effort.

The women’s quad or Copeland, Stiller and Bryan of Tees RC with World Junior single scull champion Jess Leyden rowing this afternoon under her own club colours of Hollingworth Lake, looked smooth in qualifying for today’s final.

Their main rivals, based on semi-final results, looked set to be the lightweight quad from Wallingford RC of 2013 World finalist Kathryn Twyman, Brianna Stubbs, Elizabeth Polgreen and Caroline Greves. In the end the verdict went comfortaby to the “Stiller quad”.

Competition in the women’s eight was always likely to be between Leander Club and a composite crew called “GLOM” in which several rowers represented their original clubs. Leander was coxed today by Zoe De Toledo from the GB women’s eight and featuring squad members Katie Greves, Frances Houghton, Caragh McMurtry, Vicky Meyer-Laker, Louisa Reeve, Polly Swann and Vicky Thornley with Pippa Whitaker substituting for Monica Relph.

“GLOM” included squad members Olivia Carnegie Brown, Helen Glover, Zoe Lee, Imogen Walsh and Melanie Wilson with Helen Wood in lieu of Yasmin Tredell and coxed by Morgan Baynham-Williams.

Ultimately, Leander proved too strong and streaked to victory with the GLOM composite hanging on their coat tails but, in their turn, way ahead of the rest of the field.

Leander Club “A” and Agecroft RC were the winning men’s quadruple scull semi-finalists.

Agecroft was stroked here by Graeme Thomas, World men’s sculling bronze medallist, and the crew included world U23 single scull finalist Zak Lee-Green, one of the Start Programme’s Apogee Scholars, with Hugh Gallie and Oliver Lee. Leander’s fire-power included Olympians Charles Cousins and Matt Langridge with John Collins and Jonathan Walton.

Another victory went to Leander who were a class-act but Thomas and his crew never gave up battling.

Lawrence Whiteley, Samuel Murray, 2008 Beijing Paralympic Champion Tom Aggar, Sophie Brown and Caroline MacDonald were amongst the para-rowing winners. There were para-rowers in non-disabled crews, too, including 2012 Champion Pamela Relph, and World Champions Oli Hester and Oliver James.

The inclusion of the GB Rowing Team national squad at this year’s British Championships has been made possible by a shift on the calendar for the event from its traditional July slot.

For results please visit: http://res.britchamps.org

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