Great Britain claim three medals on penultimate day of World U23 Rowing Championships

Great Britain claimed a fantastic three medals as the men’s and women’s quads both became World Champions in the last A finals of the day

George Bourne, Matthew Haywood, Josh Armstrong and Samuel Meijer, coached by Kieran Clark of Tideway Scullers School, led their race for the final kilometre to claim gold and retain their World Championship title in the men’s quadruple sculls.

Meijer is now a three-time U23 World Champion, having won gold in the quadruple sculls in 2018 and double sculls in 2017. He said of the race: “It feels absolutely amazing to defend our title. We’ve put a lot of work in as a crew and it feels like George has been in the crew since last year as well.

“It’s been an amazing regatta, we’ve built on every race and had a really fast semi-final. That final race was a really good way to earn the win – it was extremely hard-fought all the way to the line but was so much fun to be a part of.”

The women’s quad of Lola Anderson, Ella Toa, Molly Harding and Lucy Glover took the lead in the final 500m and held on to take gold and the World Champion title. The crew, coached by U23 Chief Coach Pete Sheppard, features three GB U23 debutants with Glover the only crew member to have raced at a U23 World Championships before.

“It feels amazing to be World Champions!” said Toa after the final.  “The race plan went better than we could have hoped – we kept our head in the boat, knew when we had to move and did it.”

The men’s coxed four claimed a fantastic silver medal in a final which saw less than a second separate the top three crews. The crew of Henry Jones, Oscar Lindsay, Casper Woods, Cormac Molloy and Scott Cockle, coached by Hugo Gulliver of University of London BC, put on a phenomenal final sprint to take the silver medal and finish just 0.09 seconds behind the Australian boat.

Earlier in the day, the women’s pair of Emily Lindberg and Esme Booth won their B final to take seventh place overall, while James Snowball and Rufus Biggs finished sixth in their A final for the men’s pair. Double scullers Victor Kleshnev and James Cartwright and lightweight single sculler Gavin Horsburgh both came fourth in their semi finals and will contest tomorrow’s B finals.

The GB U23 Rowing Team will be back in action for five A finals and four B finals tomorrow – watch all the action live at www.worldrowing.com.

Results

Men’s double sculls (Semi-final)

1. Oliver Maclean and Jack Lopas (NZL) 6:21.81

2. Anton Finger and Henrik Runge (GER) 6:23.31

3. Mikhail Kushteyn and Johann Poolak (EST) 6:28.42

4. Viktor Kleshnev and James Cartwright (GBR) 6:29.97

Lightweight men’s single sculls (Semi-final)

1. Obbe Durk Tibben (NED) 07:00.85

2. Alexandros Zisimidis (CYP) 07:02.76

3. Samuel Melvin (USA) 07:03.00

4. Gavin Horsburgh (GBR) 07:03.14

Women’s pair (B final)

1. Emily Lindberg and Esme Booth (GBR) 07:33.09

2. Akiho Takano and Yui Nishida (JPN) 07:34.61

3. Emma Cornelis and Maya Cornut (FRA) 07:36.54

Men’s coxed four (A final)

1. Australia 06:10.03

2. Great Britain (Henry Jones, Oscar Lindsay, Casper Woods, Cormac Molloy and Scott Cockle) 06:10.12

3. Italy 06:10.66

Men’s pair (A final)

1. Dumitru-Alexandry Ciobica and Florin-Sorin Lehaci (ROU) 06:29.24

2. Povilas Stankunas and Mantas Juskevicius (LTU) 06:31.01

3. Ioannis Kalandaridis and Athanasios Palaiopanos (GRE) 06:33.09

…

6. James Snowball and Rufus Biggs (GBR) 06:43.49

Women’s quadruple sculls (A final)

1. Great Britain (Lola Anderson, Ella Toa, Molly Harding and Lucy Glover) 06:31.80

2. Germany 06:32.73

3. Romania 06:33.33

Men’s quadruple sculls (A final)

1. Great Britain (George Bourne, Matthew Haywood, Josh Armstrong and Samuel Meijer) 5:51.77

2. Germany 5:53.09

3. Italy 5:55.17