GB Rowing Team off to a flying start at World Rowing Cup II
The Great Britain Rowing Team didn’t let stormy conditions faze them as they qualified 13 boats for the semi-finals and three for A finals on the first day of World Rowing Cup II in Poznan, Poland
Reflecting on a long day of racing against a field from across the world, British Rowing Director of Performance Brendan Purcell said: “Our objective this weekend is to see where we are in relation to Olympic and Paralympic qualification in each event and how we’re sustaining and improving the performance of our crews.
“This World Cup adds another dimension from Europeans with the rest of the world here competing. The crews have all taken that challenge on with three boats already though to their A finals; the performances today show that we’ll be fighting for more A finals tomorrow.”
A thrilling lightweight women’s doubles heat saw GBR1’s Imogen Grant and Ellie Piggott and GBR2’s Maddie Arlett and Emily Craig line up against each other to contest for two spots in the semi-finals. After the Australian crew of Sarah Pound and Alice Arch took an early lead, the GBR crews fought hard for the whole two kilometres to eventually cross the line less than a canvas ahead of the Australians in third.
Speaking after the heat, Arlett said: “That race was tough! The Aussies went out hard so we were having to chase them down the whole way. It’s good to see that we’ve definitely stepped up since Lucerne [the European Championships] and we just tried to focus on our boat and do our own thing.”
In the men’s four, the GBR1 crew of European champions Sholto Carnegie, Rory Gibbs, Matt Rossiter and Ollie Cook put on an incredible final sprint to beat the USA to first place and go through to the semi-final as fastest qualifiers.
“That was a good first race to brush out the cobwebs,” Carnegie said after the race. “We didn’t have the ideal first kilometre but, in the second half, we were calm in our rhythm and rowed down a fast USA crew. We’re really pleased to progress through to the semi-final and to keep progressing over the regatta.”
The experienced GBR2 men’s four of Will Satch, Tom Jeffrey, Alan Sinclair and Adam Neill also progressed through to the semi-finals after pushing hard to take second place in both their heat and repechage.
On his return to racing after injury Satch finished the day in a positive frame of mind: “It’s been a heavy welcome back [to racing]. We were very disappointed with this morning but this afternoon was a lot better, we feel much more competitive going into tomorrow.”
The GB Para-rowing Team are also competing at World Cup II and Ben Pritchard showed his power on the water in his PR1 men’s single sculls heat, taking a comfortable 50m win over his rivals. Teammate Andy Houghton pushed hard to take second place in his heat to Rio 2016 champion Roman Polianskyi, meaning both scullers progress through to the A/B semi-finals.
Following the race, Pritchard said: “I’m pleased to have won the heat, but the big competition lies in the semi final. I’m going to go back, recover and get ready for tomorrow”.
From the PR2 single sculls exhibition race, Paralympic champion Lauren Rowles became the first member of the GB team to progress to Sunday’s finals.
In the men’s double sculls John Collins and Graeme Thomas showed their training since the European Championships had paid off as they led their heat from start to finish. In the afternoon they finished their quarter final in a comfortable second place behind the Polish crew, putting them through to tomorrow’s semi-finals.
After the quarter-final, Thomas said: “We’ve learned our lessons from Lucerne. We don’t want to show our hand too much today, we want to build through the regatta and get it right on semi-final and final day”.
The European bronze medal-winning men’s quad of Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, Angus Groom and Pete Lambert continued their excellent form by taking the lead in their heat at the 1,000m mark and finishing half a length ahead of New Zealand to take the sole automatic qualifying spot.
Walton is upbeat about the weekend ahead. “It’s always nice to win in the heats. There was a lot going on in the race but we dealt with it all well. We’re really looking forward to the final now and hoping to deliver a strong race again.”
The European silver medal-winning men’s eight of Tom Ford, James Rudkin, Tom George, Mohamed Sbihi, Jacob Dawson, Ollie Wynne-Griffith, Mat Tarrant, Josh Bugajski and cox Henry Fieldman finished a length and a half ahead of Australia to take the one automatic qualifying spot for Sunday’s final.
The women’s eight of Fiona Gammond, Zoe Lee, Jo Wratten, Hattie Taylor, Rowan McKellar, Rebecca Shorten, Karen Bennett, Holly Norton and cox Morgan Baynham-Williams finished in second place to the USA crew, just missing out on the one automatic qualifying spot for the final and instead putting them through to tomorrow’s repechage.
The GBR1 women’s four of Sara Parfett, Caragh McMurtry, Beccy Girling and Emily Ford fought hard in a hotly contested heat, taking third place to go through to the semi-finals.
“We’re really pleased,” Ford said. “We went out and delivered the race plan that we’ve been practicing in training and came out with the result that we needed. We need to do a lot of recovery now but we’re really looking forward to tomorrow.”
GBR2’s Sam Courty, Holly Hill, Polly Swann and Annie Withers narrowly missed out on the three qualification spots from their heat and competed again in the afternoon’s repechage, finishing in third place just over a second ahead of Canada to go through to the semi-finals.
Rio 2016 silver medallist Swann was encouraged by the performance today. “The race this afternoon was a big step on from this morning. We’re through to the A/B semi-finals which is the most important thing but we need to keep upping our game tomorrow and as the regatta goes on.”
In the single sculls, Vicky Thornley and Tom Barras progressed through to the semi-finals after achieving comfortable second places in their heat and quarter final respectively. Fellow single sculler Harry Leask was withdrawn as a medical precaution before competition started.
Making their debut for the GB Rowing Team, Leander Club athletes Ruth Siddorn and Georgie Brayshaw put in a strong shift in the women’s double, finishing their repechage in third to progress to the C final. GB’s women’s pair Anastasia Posner and Oonagh Cousins finished fifth in their repechage to go through to tomorrow’s D final.
The GBR1 men’s pair of Harry Glenister and George Rossiter just missed out on the one automatic qualification spot from their heat after a strong final sprint saw them move from fourth to second place. They battled hard in their repechage to finish a canvas behind the winning Chinese crew and progress through to tomorrow’s semi-final.
After narrowly being beaten to third place in a closely contested heat, the GBR2 men’s pair of Morgan Bolding and James Johnston finished fourth in their repechage to go through to tomorrow’s C final.
In the lightweight men’s double sculls, both crews progressed to the repechages but sadly the GBR1 crew of Will Fletcher and Zak Lee-Green were withdrawn on medical before they could contest their second race. Jamie Copus and Sam Mottram, racing in the GBR2 boat, won their repechage by almost a length putting them through to tomorrow’s semi-final.
Speaking after the race, Copus said: “That was a really good race. We were feeling it in the legs a bit after the heat this morning but we recovered well and made sure we kept the rhythm. France tried to come at us but we kept our heads and burned it out in the second half.”
Results
Morning session
PR1 men’s single sculls (Heat 1)
1. Ben Pritchard (GBR) 09:48.79
2. Dzmitry Ryshkevich (BLR) 10:10.54
3. Augustas Navickas (LTU) 10:14.39
PR1 men’s single sculls (Heat 2)
1. Roman Polianskyi (UKR) 09:53.94
2. Andy Houghton (GBR) 10:11.36
3. Jaroslaw Kailing (POL) 10:22.03
PR2 women’s single sculls (Exhibition race)
1. Annika van der Meer (NED) 09:27.27
2. Lauren Rowles (GBR) 09:34.73
Women’s pair (Heat)
1. Alessandra Patelli and Sara Bertolasi (ITA 2) 07:07.10
2. Miaomiao Qin and Linlin Guo (CHN 2) 07:09.55
3. Claire Feerick and Eimear Lambe (IRL) 07:10.31
…
5. Anastasia Posner and Oonagh Cousins (GBR) 07:24.97
Men’s pair (Heat 3)
1. Thomas Murray and Michael Brake (NZL 1) 06:23.60
2. Besim Sahinoglu and Selahattin Gursoy (TUR) 06:29.23
3. Ignacio Abraham and Cristopher Kalleg Andrate (CHI) 06:29.74
4. Morgan Bolding and James Johnston (GBR 2) 06:31.76
Men’s pair (Heat 4)
1. Kai Langerfeld and Conlin McCabe (CAN 1) 06:26.86
2. Harry Glenister and George Rossiter (GBR 1) 06:29.87
3. Xavier Vela Maggi and Pau Vela Maggi (BRA) 06:30.89
Women’s double sculls (Heat 3)
1. Shiyu Lu and Yuwei Wang (CHN 1) 06:53.78
2. Leonie Menzel and Carlotta Nwajide (GER 1) 06:59.04
3. Valentina Iseppi and Alessandra Montesano (ITA 2) 07:01.08
4. Ruth Siddorn and Georgie Brayshaw (GBR) 07:04.66
Men’s double sculls (Heat 1)
1. John Collins and Graeme Thomas (GBR) 06:16.75
2. Dovydas Nemeravicius and Saulius Ritter (LTU) 06:18.55
3. Rodrigo Murillo and Cristian Rosso (ARG) 06:22.29
Women’s four (Heat 1)
1. Australia 06:32.50
2. USA 06:33.57
3. Great Britain 1 (Sara Parfett, Caragh McMurtry, Rebecca Girling and Emily Ford) 06:35.69
Women’s four (Heat 2)
1. Denmark 06:33.33
2. USA 06:35.69
3. Germany 06:40.37
4. Great Britain 2 (Sam Courty, Holly Hill, Polly Swann and Annie Withers) 06:41.62
Men’s four (Heat 3)
1. Australia 05:55.43
2. Great Britain 2 (Will Satch, Tom Jeffrey, Alan Sinclair and Adam Neill) 06:03.57
3. Switzerland 06:06.04
Men’s four (Heat 4)
1. Great Britain 1 (Ollie Cook, Matt Rossiter, Rory Gibbs and Sholto Carnegie) 05:49.41
2. USA 2 05:50.78
3. South Africa 06:01.86
Women’s single sculls (Heat 1)
1. Magdalena Lobnig (AUT) 07:33.88
2. Victoria Thornley (GBR) 07:38.33
3. Samantha Voss (NZL 2) 07:47.82
Men’s single sculls (Heat 2)
1. Kjetil Borch (NOR) 06:51.83
2. Tom Barras (GBR) 06:52.92
3. Thibault Verhoeven (FRA 1) 07:00.07
Lightweight women’s double sculls (Heat 2)
1. Imogen Grant and Ellie Piggott (GBR) 07:11.19
2. Maddie Arlett and Emily Craig (GBR) 07:11.67
3. Sarah Pound and Alice Arch (AUS) 07:11.86
Lightweight men’s double sculls (Heat 1)
1. Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta (ITA) 06:34.09
2. Matthias Fernandez and Jan Schaeuble (SUI 2) 06:38.44
3. Will Fletcher and Zak Lee-Green (GBR 1) 06:41.25
Lightweight men’s double sculls (Heat 3)
1. Patrick Keane and Maxwell Lattimer (CAN) 06:29.36
2. Sam Mottram and Jamie Copus (GBR 2) 06:32.50
3. Emil Espensen and Alexander Modest (DEN) 06:34.54
Men’s quadruple sculls (Heat 1)
1. Great Britain (Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, Angus Groom and Pete Lambert) 05:53.55
2. New Zealand 05:55.07
3. China 05:57.78
Women’s eight (Heat 2)
1. USA 06:11.27
2. Great Britain (Fiona Gammond, Zoe Lee, Jo Wratten, Hattie Taylor, Rowan McKellar, Rebecca Shorten, Karen Bennett, Holly Norton and cox Morgan Baynham-Williams) 06:16.30
3. China 06:19.01
Men’s eight (Heat 2)
1. Great Britain (Tom Ford, James Rudkin, Tom George, Mohamed Sbihi, Jacob Dawson, Ollie Wynne-Griffith, Mat Tarrant, Josh Bugajski and cox Henry Fieldman) 05:30.48
2. Australia 05:35.08
3. Poland 05:37.72
Afternoon session
Women’s pair (Repechage 3)
1. Sydney Payne and Hillary Janssens (CAN 2) 07:13.54
2. Kiri Tontodonati and Aisha Rocek (ITA 1) 07:16.29
3. Dora Polivka and Eszter Kremer (HUN) 07:20.99
…
5. Anastasia Posner and Oonagh Cousins 7:28.07
Men’s pair (Repechage 1)
1. Dzmitry Furman and Siarhei Valadzko (BLR 1) 06:32.04
2. Leonardo Pietra Caprina and Giuseppe Vicino (ITA) 06:33.58
3. David de Groot and Tim Schrijver (CAN 2) 06:35.10
4. Morgan Bolding and James Johnston (GBR 2) 06:35.74
Men’s pair (Repechage 4)
1. Xunman Cheng and Pengpeng Cai (CHN) 06:41.02
2. Harry Glenister and George Rossiter (GBR 1) 06:43.67
3. Marc Leske and Anton Braun (GER 1) 06:48.13
Women’s double sculls (Repechage 4)
1. Daniela Schultze and Pia Greiten (GER 2) 07:11.89
2. Stefania Buttignon and Stefania Gobbi (ITA 1) 07:14.27
3. Ruth Siddorn and Georgie Brayshaw (GBR) 07:22.34
Men’s double sculls (Quarter final 3)
1. Mateusz Biskup and Miroslaw Zietarski (POL 1) 06:28.31
2. John Collins and Graeme Thomas (GBR) 06:30.48
3. Simone Venier and Domenico Montrone (ITA 2) 06:32.27
Women’s four (Repechage 1)
1. Croatia 06:47.12
2. Ireland 06:47.49
3. Great Britain 2 (Sam Courty, Holly Hill, Polly Swann and Annie Withers) 06:48.19
Men’s four (Repechage 2)
1. Austria 06:05.72
2. Great Britain (Will Satch, Tom Jeffrey, Alan Sinclair and Adam Neill) 06:07.68
3. Czech Republic 06:08.79
Men’s single sculls (Quarter final 2)
1. Sverri Nielsen (DEN) 06:59.90
2. Tom Barras (GBR) 07:03.71
3. Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (POL) 07:05.96
Lightweight men’s double sculls (Repechage 3)
1. Sam Mottram and Jamie Copus (GBR 2) 06:28.54
2. Julian Mueller and Fiorin Rueedi (SUI 1) 06:30.43
3. Thibault Colard and Ferdinand Ludwig (FRA 2) 06:38.72
