GB Medals and gold medal crowd
World Cup Final day round-up.
The British Rowing Team’s two lead boats, decked out in their new Camelot livery, delivered gold in front of packed grandstands today. The men’s four dominated their race from the first stroke, while the women’s quad had the confidence to hold off a late challenge from a strong Russian boat.
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A delighted David Tanner, the British team manager xplained: “Pride of place today goes to our two gold edal winners, the women’s quad and the men’s four.”
And then, no doubt with one eye on his team’s potential or this year’s World Championships, Tanner added: With their new Camelot sponsorship these two crews
will head GB rowing’s challenge for this year’s World Championships in Japan.”
The British team were also given a boost to their preparations for the Gifu Championships by both men’s and women’s eights winning bronze medals. The women surged through Australia in the closing strokes, while the men looked confident in holding off the Netherlands and at the finish, had a good overlap on the talented Italians.
Tanner was particularly pleased because both eights contained so many young rowers: “Our two eights’ medals were a great way to end the World Cup helping GB to win the overall team trophy for only the second time. In both boats, many new athletes were blooded today and it’s a great start for them on their Olympic mission.”
There were more bronze medals for the lightweights, one for the pair and an impressive scull from Tim Male, in his single scull, saw him grab third place ahead of his young team mate, Zac Purchase.
Both these boats, together with Debbie Flood in the single sculls and the women’s double of Elise Laverick and Annie Vernon, were affected by the strong cross wind, as Tanner recognised: “The wind made racing very tough today especially for
our small boats but it’s clear that the medals went to the right nations and our younger athletes have learned a huge amount from competing in these
challenging conditions.”
All members of the British team spoke with great enthusiasm about the thrill of racing in front of a large home crowd and Tanner joined in their praise for the Eton World Cup: “This has been the best organised World Cup ever and the first in the UK. We had a great crowd today rooting for our crews and enjoying the top quality rowing in front of them. We’re set now to deliver a fantastic World Championships in August next year.”
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British medal reports
Men’s Four
If the new men’s four, sponsored by Camelot, showed any sense of nerves in following in the footsteps of Sir Steve Redgrave’s legendary Sydney crew, then it didn’t show. Andrew Hodge and his men raced with great maturity, They led by over a length at 500m gone
and, unlike in their heat pulled away even further towards the 1000m mark. Their margin at the finish was a comfortable three seconds
For Hodge, this was a sign that the boat was beginning to deliver its considerable potential: “ This was a much better race than the heat. Today we were a lot more in control and the boat was far more responsive.”
As they crossed the line, to a rapturous reception from the large crowd, both Hodge and new boy Peter Reed, celebrated in style. Both had chalked up their first World Cup win ever. But as Reed, who partnered Hodge to victory in the British pairs trials earlier this
year, pointed out afterwards: “Andy has got a 100% record this year, with great wins here, in the pairs trials and of course in the Boat race too.”
But the experience of Olympic Champion Steve Williams told when he refused to be drawn on comparisons with his previous crews: “We have to be better than any previous crews: times are faster, training’s moved on, in short everything’s better, so just being ‘as fast’ won’t be good enough.”
Nevertheless Chief Men’s coach Jurgen Grobler was more than pleased with his crew’s performance: “OK, so it’s the first regatta but I really enjoyed watching that race. I think the boys showed the sort of potential they have.”
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Women’s quadruple sculls
Great Britain’s women’s quad didn’t fluff their lines today and stuck rigidly to their script as the Camelot sponsored crew took the gold medal in front of an excited home crowd.
The quad set the seal on a good day for the packed grandstands that had just seen their Olympic heroes from Sydney and the latest incarnation of the men’s four in supreme form.
But the quad weren’t handed the race on a plate. Despite the difficult conditions, the top Russian crew stuck doggedly to their task and the gap between the two crews never grew to more than 1½ seconds.
A few weeks before the event Katherine Grainger had suggested that anyone coming to Eton would have to battle for every inch of water, and that was exactly the way it turned out: “When we got ahead, we didn’t get clear enough. It was difficult to break them, which set up an incredible finish. It was one of those days where the result was more important than anything else.”
Earlier in the week, Sarah Winckless had been happy just to be racing again, now she was just as happy to be a winner:
“It’s brilliant to be out here on our home ground and get across the finish line first was fantastic. The conditions were tricky, but we’re an outdoor sport we train day in, day out, so we knew we could deal with them well.
“Our race plan was to go out and break the Russians earlier than we did yesterday. But they obviously had different ideas and we never got a cushion. They had a go at us at the end, but we had enough to hold them off, so it’s mission accomplished.”
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Men’s eight
The last race of the Eton World Cup produced the icing on the cake for the British team in the shape of a hard won bronze medal by the eight. This young crew held third place all the way down the course and at the finish even had a good overlap on the strong second placed Italian boat.
For ‘2’ man Phil Simmons, the race was a testament to the internal focus that his crew was developing “As the finish came closer, I had a vague awareness that we were in the pack but I just kept my mind in the boat, confident that if we all did our own thing, we
would produce the best result in the end.”
Henry Bailhache-Webb, who is learning his trade in the stroke seat, enthused about the performance of his crew: “this is the best eight I’ve ever rowed in and I’ve never felt so backed up in the final part of the race than I was today.”
Bailhache-Webb paid tribute to the work of his coach Steve Gunn: “I’m an aggressive rower but I’ve really come on with Steve Gunn’s single-focus coaching. Jurgen Grobler was full of praise too for this crew: “Just 10 weeks ago, most of this crew wouldn’t have imagined they would have a World Cup medal. This will be a great boost to their confidence.”
Confidence was a theme that Phil Simmons picked up on: “The crowd here were absolutely incredible and it’s given us so much confidence to be able to perform in front of such fantastic support.”
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Women’s eight
The celebrations of the young British eight, as they crossed the finish just ahead of Australia, to take a brilliant bronze medal, showed just how important this result was to build their confidence for the rest of the season.
Allison Knowles, who had earlier finished 7th in the women’s pairs event, explained just how she and the crew were feeling about this race: “Racing here has been our big project this year and we were all feeling really apprehensive, especially on the start but it was great to take the scalp of the Aussies.”
A strong Chinese crew headed the race but the British women had to deal with a ‘bow-ball to bow-ball’ race with the Australians all the way down the course. At 1000m, the British had a slight lead. With just 500m to go, the Aussie girls had fought their way ahead.
But as Knowles went on to explain: “We were really switched on having the Aussies next to us.”
Knowles was especially pleased with her crew’s maturity at the finish: “With a few strokes to go, Charlotte called: ‘it’s now or never’ and thankfully it was now because our crew really did surge over the line.”
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Lightweight men’s sculls
Great Britain went into today’s lightweight men’s single sculls final with two rowers on the starting line.The race got underway in possibly the most blustery spell of the day, but Tim Male stuck to his task and was leading the field after 500m and in second place at the half way mark.
The two Danish scullers – Rasmussen and Quist made their move in the last 1000m. In the end, Rasmussen was the comfortable winner from his compatriot, with Male taking the bronze medal.
Male reflected on a hard day at the office: “I was having real problems out there hitting the buoys and I’ve got really great respect for the Danish sculler who handled the conditions out there really well today. Before the race I had a strong belief I would make a podium position and I think I would have done so whatever the conditions.”
Zac Purchase won his individual race with the remainder of the field by a considerable distance. In his first year out of juniors Purchase excelled by making the ‘A’ final and without doubt his result today was affected by the adverse conditions which would have been a great learning experience for him at the start of his senior career.
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Lightweight men’s pair
Nick English and Daniel Harte took a well deserved bronze. Down the course, they had a battle royal with the team mates, Mike Hennessy and Simon Jones, who briefly led them at 1000m before Harte stroked his boat into a half-lengths lead with just 500m to go. Ahead, the experience of the Danish pair told, as they fought of the challenge of the second placed Egyptian crew.
At the finish, Harte’s pair was just 0.4 seconds ahead. But for the athletes, the real story was trying to row in a horribly gusting crosswind. English explained after the race: “conditions were really difficult out there, so it was a case off keeping on attacking and trying to get in as many clean strokes as possible.”
Harte added: I’ve got good experience of difficult conditions up at Strathclyde and that really helped today.”
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RESULTS WORLD CUP 2005 ETON, GREAT BRITAIN, 26-28 MAY
DAY THREE – SATURDAY 28 MAY, 2005
WOMEN – Lightweight
Single Sculls
Final A
1. Shimin Yan (China) 8:29.64
2. Ismaray Marrero Aria (Cuba) 8:29.98
3. Matilde Pauls (Germany) 8:35.33
4. Naomi Hoogester (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:38.04
5. Daniela Nachazelova (Czech Republic) 8:38.04
6. Lea Fluri (Switzerland 2) 8:53.80
Final B
1. Teresa Mas De Xaxars Rivero (Spain) 8:30.22
2. Chrysi Biskitzi (Greece) 8:30.80
3. Nora Fiechter (Switzerland) 8:34.40
4. Sinead Jennings (Ireland) 8:41.15
5. Benedicte Luzuy (France) 8:41.32
6. Jennifer Goldsack (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:57.51
Double Sculls
Final B
1. Lena Karlsson/Sara Karlsson (Sweden) 7:45.31
2. Jo Hammond/Helen Casey (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:52.57
3. Lorna Norris/Tanya Brady (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:55.33
4. Alexandra Tsiavou/Maria Sakellaridou (Greece) 7:57.47
5. Niamh Ni Cheilleacher/Heather Boyle (Ireland) 8:01.80
6. Marit Van Eupen/Eeke Thomee (Netherlands) 8:06.88
MEN – Lightweight
Single sculls
Final A
1. Mads Rasmussen (Denmark 3) 7:38.75
2. Rasmus Quist (Denmark 2) 7:42.42
3. Tim Male (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 7:46.39
4. Zac Purchase (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 8:09.40
5. Gerard Van Der Linden (Netherlands) 8:38.79
6. Kazushige Ura (Japan) 8:56.49
Double sculls
Final A
1. Zsolt Hirling/Tamas Varga (Hungary) 6:35.15
2. Takahiro Suda/Daisaku Takeda (Japan) 6:37.67
3. Arnaud Pornin/Frederic Dufour (France) 6:39.80
4. James Lindsay-Fynn/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 6:44.59
5. Vladimir Varfolomeyev/Denis Moisseyev (Russia) 6:51.09
Pairs
Final A
1. Bo Helleberg/Thomas Ebert (Denmark 2) 7:11.20
2. Ahmed Gad/Hossam Azouz (Egypt) 7:12.99
3. Nick English/Daniel Harte (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:13.57
4. Mike Hennessy/Simon Jones (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 7:13.97
5. Valerij Saritchev/Sergej Bukreev (Russia) 7:24.15
6. Anders Christensen/Frederik Oesterberg (Denmark 1) 7:24.45
Four
Final A
1. France 6:11.43
2. Spain 6:17.25
3. Denmark 6:18.18
4. Netherlands 2 6:21.86
5. Poland 6:23.90
6. Paul Mattick/Dave Currie/Matthew Beechey/Nick Wakefield (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:27.43
WOMEN
Single sculls
Final A
1. E Karsten (Belarus) 7:46.31
2. Mirka Knapkova (Czech Republic) 7:49.60
3. Kathrin Boron (Germany) 7:56.89
4. Yulya Levina (Russia) 8:00.01
5. Sophie Balmary (France) 8:03.23
6. Debbie Flood (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:32.65
Double sculls
Final A
1. Rumyana Neykova/Miglena Markova (Bulgaria) 7:09.43
2. Christiane Huth/Britta Oppelt (Germany 1) 7:15.37
3. Amber Bradley/Sally Kehoe (Australia) 7:17.75
4. Elise Laverick/Annie Vernon (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:29.71
5. Yuliya Bichyk/Volha Berazniova (Belarus) 7:30.45
6. Camelia Lupascu/Florina Atomulesei (Romania) 7:35.79
Quadruple sculls
Final A
1. Rebecca Romero/Sarah Winckless/Frances Houghton/Katherine Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:36.96
2. Russia 1 6:37.45
3. Ukraine 6:44.21
4. Russia 2 6:59.57
OPEN
Pairs
Final B
1. Beth Rodford/Alison Knowles (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:41.00
2. Milka Tancheva/Anna Chuk (Bulgaria) 7:43.22
3. Annemarieke Van Rumpt/Laura Posthuma (Netherlands) 7:46.92
4. Majbrit Nielsen/Fie Graugaard (Denmark) 7:48.59
5. Kate Hornsey/Sonia Mills (Australia 1) 7:49.57
6. Libuse Bruncvikova/Irena Neffeova (Czech Republic) 8:00.74
Eight
Final A
1. China 6:15.40
2. Romania 6:17.59
3. Katie Greaves/Natasha Howard/Beth Rodford/Natasha Page/Florence Temple/Jessica Eddie/Anna Bebington/Alison Knowles/Charlotte Ware (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:22.82
4. Australia 6:24.50
MEN
Single scull
Final B
1. Andre Vonaburg (Switzerland) 7:22.70
2. Olaf Tufte (Norway) 7:27.79
3. Matt Wells (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:28.35
4. Lassi Karonen (Sweden) 7:30.05
5. Robert Sens (Germany 2) 7:42.33
6. Ralph Kreibich (Austria) 8:07.55
Final C
1. Colin Smith (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:15.83
2. Akos Haller (Hungary) 7:17.86
3. Sjoerd Hamburger (Netherlands) 7:19.14
4. Tim Mayens (Belgium) 7:25.50
5. Ian Lawson (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:37.53
6. Volodimir Pavlovskij 7:40.89
Quadruple sculls
Final A
1. Estonia 5:56.13
2. Czech Republic 5:57.65
3. Poland 1 5:59.78
4. Belarus 6:02.66
5. Ukraine 6:03.14
6. Alan Campbell/Stephen Rowbotham/Alex Gregory/Matthew Langridge (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:04.74
Pairs
Final A
1. Niksa Skelin/Sinisa Skelin (Croatia) 6:48.09
2. Ben Rutledge/Kyle Hamilton (Canada 2) 6:53.55
3. Scott Frandsen/Barney Williams (Canada 1) 6:53.82
4. Josh West/Kieran West (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.75
5. Mohammed Gomaa/El Bakry Yehia (Egypt) 7:03.75
6. Lin Wu/Zhangming Kong (China) 7:06.55
Four
Final A
1. Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Alex Partridge/Andrew Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:59.90
2. Denmark 6:03.03
3. Czech Republic 6:04.37
4. Netherlands 6:04.62
5. Poland 6:06.83
6. Ireland 6:11.50
Eight
Final A
1. Germany 5:43.30
2. Italy 5:45.29
3. Tom Broadway/Phil Simmons/Jonno Devlin/Tom Stallard/Tom Parker/Richard Edington/Simon Fieldhouse/Henry Bailhache-Webb/Acer Nethercott (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:47.24
4. Netherlands 5:48.86
5. Romania 5:51.94
6. Poland 5:55.26
