British Rowing Champs: “A Great Success”
The 2013 British Rowing Championships have been hailed a “great success” following an action-packed weekend that saw Olympic and World Champions competing alongside the cream of British domestic rowing.
Leander dominated the October 19-20 event at the National Water Sports Centre in Holme Pierpoint, which was one of the most competitive national championships in years.
“It is great to see the GB team here. Their standard of rowing is just wonderful to watch,” said British Rowing Championships Chairman, Jim Harlow. “The new format that we have started to use, where the time trials lead to seeded semi-finals and finals, has delivered some good quality and close racing. And everyone gets three races. Even down to the G, H and I finals some of the racing has been so close.
“It’s been a great success. We spent 18 months planning this and it has gone really well. As always there are lessons to learn, which we are really keen to learn.”
Leander claimed seven of the eight gold medals on offer, fielding crews packed with current Olympic and World Champions.
A composite women’s quad was the only non-Leander crew to take home gold, as London 2012 gold medallist Katherine Copeland and fellow Tees RC rowers Bethany Bryan and Kristina Stiller teamed up with Hollingworth Lake RC’s Jessica Leyden to claim an emphatic win.
“It was great to get a chance to row for my club because I am really proud of the club,” said Copeland, “and to row with my friends was fun.”
The 2013 Champs also saw a sizable entry for the Para-Rowing events, which were significantly more competitive than in previous years.
“Previously the British Championships have only really seen two or three entries for the para rowing,” added Harlow, “but we had some really good racing and stronger entries.”
Results are available at http://www.britchamps.org/seniors/draw, and there is also a complete list of the plaque-winning lightweight, U23, U19 and university crews. A selection of photos can be found on the British Rowing and BritChamps Facebook pages.
Check out the November/December edition of Rowing & Regatta magazine for the full report from the 2013 British Rowing Championships.
