Repechage wins put three more U23 crews into World finals
Three more GB Rowing Team crews have booked their places in the U23 World Rowing Championships finals after a good morning of repechage racing in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The women’s eight of Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne, Alice Bowyer, Emily Ford, Chloe Brew, Holly Hill, Madeline Badcott, Anna Thornton, Heidi Long and cox Sasha Adwani controlled their race to make impressive progress.
Rory Gibbs, Matthew Aldridge, Michael Glover, Christopher Heywood and cox Harry Brightmore also looked in fine form as they won their men’s coxed four repechage, while the women’s four of Lauren Kedar, Saska Budgett, Harriet Taylor and Rowan McKellar held off some fierce late pressure to take top spot in an exciting race.
That means four GB crews are now through to the A finals after the lightweight women’s quadruple scull of Mary Wilson, Susannah Duncan, Ellie Lewis and Maddie Arlett booked their place on Sunday.
Six crews are also through to Tuesday’s semi-finals, with the men’s quadruple scull of Harry Leask, Rowan Law, Harry Glenister and Andy Joel joining those who progressed through Sunday’s heats by recording a fourth GB repechage win on Monday morning.
Focus switches to the Senior World Championships on Monday afternoon, with six GB crews competing in heats between 3.15pm and 4.40pm BST.
Race Report
The GB women’s eight had looked in good form as they finished runners-up to the defending champions from the United States in Sunday’s heats.
And Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne, Alice Bowyer, Emily Ford, Chloe Brew, Holly Hill, Madeline Badcott, Anna Thornton, Heidi Long and cox Sasha Adwani impressed again as they won their heat in fine style to wrap up a good morning for the GB U23s.
Germany were first to show but the British eight were moving well and had taken the lead by 400m. New Zealand and Australia were involved in a tussle for second place but were unable to pull back GB, who matched the speed of the pursuing boats to come home with half-a-length advantage.
The women’s four of Lauren Kedar, Saska Budgett, Harriet Taylor and Rowan McKellar had earlier been involved in an exciting three-way battle with Canada and Belarus for one of the two final places available in their repechage.
Canada raced into an early lead but the British four quickly settled into a good rhythm and had pulled ahead at the 500m mark.
They continued to pound away at the front but a big kick at the halfway stage from Belarus – silver-medallists at the Poznan World Cup this season – saw them move level with Canada.
Both chasing crews upped their stroke rate in the last 250m but GB responded well to the pressure and held on for a narrow win, with just half-a-second separating the top three. Belarus took the second final place.
It was a less nail-biting win for the GB men’s coxed four of Rory Gibbs, Matthew Aldridge, Michael Glover, Christopher Heywood and cox Harry Brightmore as they controlled their repechage to reach Thursday’s final.
They took the lead after 225m and had moved half-a-length clear of France at the halfway mark, an advantage they maintained with a confident performance.
The men’s quadruple scull of Harry Leask, Rowan Law, Harry Glenister and Andy Joel narrowly missed out on a semi-final place in Sunday’s heats but comfortably progressed second time round with victory in their repechage.
They were evenly matched with Russia during the first half of the race but upped their stroke rate in the third 500m to move a length clear. With first place secured, they were able to ease off in the closing stages with one eye on Tuesday afternoon’s semi-finals.
There was disappointment for the women’s quad of Flo Pickles, Kyra Edwards, Georgia Francis and Lucy Burgess as they left themselves with too much to do in their repechage.
Needing a top-two finish to qualify for the A final, they found themselves adrift of France and Australia at the halfway mark but kept fighting and dragged themselves back into contention with a big push in the third 500m.
They continued to close on Australia but couldn’t quite overhaul them, meaning the British quad will race in the B final on Thursday.
The rookie men’s pair of Oliver Hines and Graham Ord will also contest the B final after finishing fourth in their repechage.
Italy and South Africa pulled away from the field to claim the two qualifying places but the British pair produced a battling performance and moved past Greece into third just after the halfway mark.
They weren’t quite able to hold on for a top-three finish, though, as Germany – the quickest of the five boats in yesterday’s heats – produced a strong finish to pip GB in the closing stages.
Race Results
(Events featuring GB Rowing Team crews only. For full results – www.worldrowing.com)
REPECHAGES
OPEN
WOMEN
Four
1. Lauren Kedar/Saska Budgett/Harriet Taylor/Rowan McKellar (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:42.90
2. Aliaksandra Yukhnovich/Yana Tsupa/Anastasia Siamionava/Kseniya Ramanouskaya (Belarus) 6:43.00
3. Jessica Stewart/Morgan Cathrea/Karen Lefsrud/Sierra Bronkhorst (Canada) 6:43.58
4. Mingwei Zhao/Jie Pan/Shuxian Zhang/Huiru Wei (China) 6:49.62
5. Katarzyna Pilch/Agneszka Robaszkiewicz/Karolina Smyrak/Monika Sobieszek (Poland) 6:56.90
6. Raisa Rudenko/Kateryna Klymenko/Alla Sarkanych/Darya Galagan (Ukraine) 7:00.02
Eight
1. Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne/Alice Bowyer/Emily Ford/Chloe Brew/Holly Hill/Madeline Badcott/Anna Thornton/Heidi Long/Sasha Adwani (cox) 6:18.80
2. New Zealand 6:20.05
3. Australia 6:20.53
4. Germany 6:22.77
5. Czech Republic 6:29.12
6. France 6:34.62
Quadruple scull – R2
1. Laura Tarantola/Camille Juillet/Marie Jacquet/Anne-Sophie Marzin (France) 6:28.34
2. Bridget Badenoch/Caitlin Cronin/Tessa Carty/Rowena Meredith (Australia) 6:30.09
3. Flo Pickles/Kyra Edwards/Georgia Francis/Lucy Burgess (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:30.79
4. Mingna Kuang/Xiaoman Liu/Jing Chen/Kaifeng Huang (China) 6:36.55
MEN
Pair
1. Dano Favilli/Alberto Dini (Italy) 6:39.73
2. Garth Holden/James Mitchell (South Africa) 6:42.29
3. Benedikt Mueller/Johannes Rentz (Germany) 6:47.13
4. Oliver Hines/Graham Ord (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:47.80
5. Paschalis Konstantas/Thomas Karamitros (Greece) 6:50.75
Coxed four – R2
1. Rory Gibbs/Matthew Aldridge/Michael Glover/Christopher Heywood/Harry Brightmore (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:14.63
2. France 6:15.14
3. Serbia 6:15.89
4. Canada 6:16.40
5. Austria 6:37.47
Quadruple scull – R1
1. Harry Leask/Rowan Law/Harry Glenister/Andrew Joel (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:54.05
2. Evgenii Kashirin/Nikolay Pimenov/Maxim Babadzhanov/Pavel Sorin (Russia) 5:56.18
3. Daniel Buckley/Jack Casey/Patrick Boomer/Charles McKeown (Ireland) 5:57.67
4. Peterris Vilums/Martins Blumbergs/Janis Igo Niedzviedzis/Kaspars Golmeisters (Latvia) 6:09.57
5. Travis Taaffe/Isaac Mocarski/Spencer Haas/John Kelley III (USA) 6:11.02
Crew List
U23 World Rowing Championships, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, August 21-28, 2016
(Listed bow to stroke; club, hometown, date of birth)
OPEN
WOMEN
Four
Lauren Kedar (Oxford Univ Women’s BC/Reading/13.08.95)
Saska Budgett (Tideway Scullers’ School/Acton/21.09.96)
Hattie Taylor (Sport Imperial BC/Sunningdale/14.02.94)
Rowan McKellar (Broxbourne RC/Glasgow/24.05.94)
Coaches: Lauren Fisher & Mathilda Horne
Eight
Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne (Univ of London BC/Hereford/08.10.96)
Alice Bowyer (Reading RC/Hilldale/26.02.97)
Emily Ford (Newcastle Univ BC/Holmes Chapel/08.11.94)
Chloe Brew (Plymouth ARC/Plymouth/14.09.95)
Holly Hill (Isle of Ely RC/Gossington/23.01.94)
Maddy Badcott (Oxford Univ Women’s BC/London/15.06.95)
Anna Thornton (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/19.07.97)
Heidi Long (Marlow RC/Chalfont St Peter/29.11.96)
Sasha Adwani (cox) (Newcastle Univ BC/Oxford/27.06.96)
Coach: Lauren Fisher & Mathilda Horne
Double scull
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Reading Univ BC/Hereford/01.10.94)
Jessica Leyden (Leander Club/Todmorden/22.02.95)
Coach: Dan Moore
Quadruple scull
Flo Pickles (Gloucester Hartpury/Cheltenham/02.11.96)
Kyra Edwards (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/12.08.97)
Georgia Francis (Imperial College BC/Newbury/18.08.94)
Lucy Burgess (Agecroft RC/Swindon/27.04.94)
Coach: Peter Lee
MEN
Pair
Oliver Hines (Imperial College BC/Kingston-upon-Thames/18.01.94)
Graham Ord (Edinburgh Univ BC/Hamilton/23.02.95)
Coach: Stuart Whitelaw
Four
James Johnston (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/26.08.94)
Tom George (Leander Club/Cheltenham/22.09.94)
James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ BC/Litchborough/07.07.94)
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon Univ BC/Aberdeen/26.12.94)
Coach: Brian Young
Coxed four
Rory Gibbs (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/High Wycombe/03.04.94)
Matt Aldridge (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Christchurch/11.03.96)
Michael Glover (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Burnham/03.06.95)
Chris Heywood (Molesey BC/Ascot/29.05.94)
Harry Brightmore (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Chester/01.07.94)
Coach: Colin Williamson
Eight
Calum Irvine (Edinburgh Univ BC/Aviemore/07.05.94)
Oliver Wynne-Griffith (Leander Club/Guildford/29.05.94)
Matthew Benstead (Molesey BC/Twickenham/06.05.95)
Tim Livingstone (London RC/Putney/06.12.95)
David Bewicke-Copley (Eton College BC/Lutterworth/21.09.97)
Sholto Carnegie (Leander Club/Oxford/28.02.95)
Robert Hurn (Leander Club/Glasgow/26.01.95)
Arthur Doyle (Univ of London BC/London/07.12.96)
Ian Middleton (cox) (Cambridge Univ BC/Oxford/27.06.95)
Coach: Pete Sheppard
Single scull
Tom Barras (Leander Club/Staines/07.01.94)
Coach: Clive Cooper
Quadruple scull
Harry Leask (Leander Club/Edinburgh/16.10.95)
Rowan Law (Leander Club/Nottingham/01.12.96)
Harry Glenister (Leander Club/Princes Risborough/02.07.95)
Andrew Joel (Leander Club/Windsor/08.06.95)
Coach: Ross Hunter
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Quadruple scull
Mary Wilson (Wallingford RC/Nottingham/08.04.94)
Susannah Duncan (Exeter Univ BC/Aiguebelette, France/13.05.97)
Maddie Arlett (Edinburgh Univ BC/Selkirk/07.06.94)
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft RC/Marlow/14.04.94)
Coach: Richard Tinkler
MEN
Four
Ed Fisher (Leander Club/Nottingham/16.04.94)
Ben Reeves (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Wilmslow/10.05.94)
Alastair Douglass (Molesey BC/Shepperton/22.06.95)
Jonathan Jackson (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/02.06.95)
Coach: Franz lmfeld
Single scull
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/14.11.94)
Coach: Clive Cooper
Quadruple scull
Hugo Coussens (Durham Univ BC/Henley-on-Thames/07.07.96)
Ollie Varley (Newcastle Univ BC/Durham/06.12.95)
Matthew Curtis (Edinburgh Univ BC/Durham/14.10.95)
Gavin Horsburgh (Edinburgh Univ BC/Lochwinnoh/26.08.97)
Coach: Colin Williamson
Contact Info
For background information about the The GB Rowing Team contact the Press office via comms@gbrowingteam.org.uk or 07831 755351
For picture requests please contact: GBRTpressoffice@gbrowingteam.org.uk
GB Rowing Team website, including full rower biogs: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
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