World Rowing Cup II Day Three

Great Britain continue to lead the World Rowing Cup standings after a fine display on the final day in Poznan which saw the team win five medals, adding to yesterday’s double silver success.

The men’s quadruple sculls upgraded their bronze from World Rowing Cup I with a superb gold medal winning performance in their A final on Lake Malta.

Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, John Collins and Pete Lambert have looked in good form all weekend and pulled away from the field in the second 1000m to claim the win.

Vicky Thornley continued her fine season in the single sculls, winning a silver medal close behind Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig who recorded a World Cup best time of 7:13.26 in the final.

The 29-year-old now has three medals this season, with today’s silver sitting alongside World Rowing Cup I bronze and European gold.

The men’s four of Matt Rossiter, Mohamed Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant and Will Satch secured their second World Cup medal of the season, adding silver today to their gold from Belgrade.

The Australian crew led from the start in the final and held off a hard-fought fight back from the British crew to take the win by half a length.

Medals continued for GB in the women’s eight as the crew pushed the New Zealand gold medallists throughout to claim silver ahead of the USA, the boat’s first medal of the season.

And the final GB medal success of day came in the last race with the men’s eight winning bronze, pushing the Australian boat into fourth to round off a fine day for British rowers in Poznan. That final also included a world’s best time, with Germany clocking 5:18.68.

In the women’s pair final, the British duo of Anastasia Chitty and Rebecca Girling, who replaced Karen Bennett and Holly Norton for the regatta in Poznan, finished sixth having performed well yesterday to make the A final.

The gold medal eventually went to the New Zealand pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler, who set a world’s best time of 6:49.08 in the race, eclipsing the previous best held by double Olympic champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning.

The lightweight double scull of Kathrine Copeland and Emily Craig finished their A final in an agonising fourth, with the European bronze medallists fighting back over the second 1000m but unable to haul in the second Chinese crew who clinched third.

Tom Barras, in just his first season as a senior, finished a creditable fifth in his men’s single sculls A final – a race that included a new world’s best time of 6:30.74 from Robert Manson of New Zealand.

Earlier in the day, Ellie Piggott and Gemma Hall won their lightweight women’s double sculls B final before the men’s quad, a lightweight crew competing in a largely open weight field, finished an impressive second in their B final.

There were also second places for the men’s double sculls of Nick Middleton and Frazier Christie as well as Georgia Francis and Emily Carmichael in the women’s double sculls, while Josh Armstrong finished his first ever senior regatta with a fifth place finish in the men’s single sculls B final.

British Rowing Performance Director Sir David Tanner said: “The Team have produced some fine and encouraging results this weekend and it’s great to see us hold onto our lead at the top of the World Rowing Cup standings. To come away with seven medals, five in the Olympic classes, is very pleasing for the squad.

“The performances certainly bode well for the final World Cup of the season in Lucerne and then ultimately the World Championships in three months’ time.”

Pete Lambert said: “I’m really happy for the guys. I’ve been in this boat a while but for the others this is their first full season in the quad so to go out and do that in that time makes us really happy and that’s a benchmark of where sculling is at the moment in Britain. We are all returning Olympians who didn’t achieve quite what we wanted in Rio so there’s a desire and a hunger to do good things in this boat.”

Mohamed Sbihi said: “It’s been a tough few weeks after the disappointment of the Europeans but this is a step in the right direction. This is a long-term project and we’ve got to get it right in three months’ time at the Worlds and that’s the key target. It’s been tough but it will be worth it in the end.”

Matilda Horn said: “Winning a silver medal feels incredible. That was probably the best race we could have had out there. We trusted our rhythm and won a medal so couldn’t have asked for anything more. The girls have really bought into the pattern that James [Harris, the coach] has led and with a little bit of experience from Karen and the extra trust in each other we’ve really come together and done something special.”

Adam McNeil said: “We had a tough race yesterday, but I felt we came together better today and we are starting to get there as a whole.”

Vicky Thornley said: I rowed well but it wasn’t good enough for the gold today but we’ll go back and figure out how to go even faster. The conditions were lovely and that was certainly the fastest I’ve done. I’m just loving it at the moment. These races are really enjoyable to be a part of and it seems to be going well this season.”

Results

Lightweight women’s double sculls B Final
1. Eleanor Piggott & Gemma Hall (GBR) 7:02.77
2. Georgia Nesbitt & Amy James (AUS) 7:04.00

Men’s quadruple sculls B Final
1. New Zealand 5:44.78
2. Great Britain (Ed Fisher, Jamie Copus, Gavin Horsburgh & Sam Mottram) 5:47.71
3. China 5:51.00

Men’s double sculls B final
1. Bastien Quiqueret & Maxime Ducret (FRA) 6:16. 67
2. Nick Middleton & Frazier Christie (GBR) 6:18.37
3. Petr Melichar& Klang Matyas (CZE) 6:18.65

Women’s double sculls B final
1. Jingjing Li & Yan Jiang (CHN) 6:58.04
2. Georgia Francis & Emily Carmichael (GBR) 6:58.04

Men’s single sculls B final
1. Stanislau Shcharbachenia (BLR) 6:47.36
2. Marko Marjanovic (SRB) 6:47.66
3. Brian Rosso (ARG) 6:50.07
–
5. Josh Armstrong (GBR) 6:54.21

Lightweight women’s double sculls A Final
1. Fang Chen & Dandan Pan (CHN) 6:50.93
2. Weronika Deresz & Martyna Mikolajczak (POL) 6:52.63
3. Cuiming Chen & Feihong Pan (CHN) 6:52.63
–
4. Katherine Copeland & Emily Craig (GBR) 6:54.15

Men’s four A Final
1. Australia 5:44.34
2. Great Britain (Matt Rossiter, Mohamed Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant & Will Satch) 5:45.57
3. Germany 5:55.25

Men’s quadruple sculls A Final
1. Great Britain (Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, John Collins & Peter Lambert) 5:36.42
2. Netherlands 5:38.97
3. Norway 5:39.42

Women’s pair A final
1. Grace Prendergast & Kerri Gowler (NZL) 6:49.08 WB
2. Megan Kalmore & Tracy Eisser (USA) 6:54.61
3. Sarah Hawe & Molly Goodman (AUS) 7:03.08
–
6. Anastasia Chitty & Rebecca Girling (GBR) 7:08.45

Women’s eight A Final
1. New Zealand 6:01.27
2. Great Britain (Annie Withers, Sara Parfett, Caragh McMurtry, Rebecca Chin, Josephine Wratten, Rebecca Shorten, Karen Bennett, Katherine Douglas & cox Matilda Horn) 6:02.31
3. USA 6:04.05

Men’s single sculls A Final
1. Robert Manson (NZL) 6:30.74 WB
2. Angel Fournier Rodriguez (CUB) 6:38.67
3. Nico Stahlberg (SUI) 6:40.25
–
5. Tom Barras (GBR) 6:45.46

Women’s single sculls A Final
1. Magdalena Lobnig (AUT) 7:13.26
2. Vicky Thornley (GBR) 7:14.74
3. Jingli Duan (CHN) 7:15.48

Men’s eight A Final
1. Germany 5:18.68
2. New Zealand 5:23.20
3. Great Britain (Tom Jeffery, Tom Ford, Jacob Dawson, Adam McNeil, Cameron Buchan, Callum McBrierty, James Rudkin, Lance Tredell & cox Henry Fieldman) 5:25.97