Three golds and a bronze on epic day for GB Rowers
Great Britain鈥檚 rowers made history when they took three golds and a bronze on the finals day of the Paralympic Games regatta – their best haul of all time.
What a day for GB!
Rachel Morris started the gold rush when she turned an appalling start, as she termed it, into a final 350m surge in the arms-shoulders single scull to add Paralympic rowing gold to the gold she won in cycling in 2008.
Tom Aggar produced a fiercely determined performance to add bronze in the equivalent men鈥檚 event, holding off the 2012 Paralympic Champion from China in a race won by the Ukraine.
c. Simon Way
Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley lived up to the promise they showed in winning their heat in a World Best Time to win gold in the mixed double scull.
Pamela Relph became a back-to-back Paralympic Champion in the mixed coxed four when she and Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, James Fox and cox Oliver James brought home gold in the final race of a fabulous 2016 for the GB Rowing Team.
Grace Clough, Dan Brown, Pamela Relph, cox Oliver James and James Fox won LTA mixed coxed four gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic GamesSir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: 鈥淭oday听has been exceptional for our programme. To be top of the medal table was our first objective and we are undisputed leaders of that.
“Last year at World Championships we showed the standard of our squad by getting three silvers and a gold and we have converted two of those silvers to golds here. That鈥檚 no discredit toTom Aggar who got a great bronze.听I鈥檓 proud of the rowers.
鈥淎s ever I鈥檓 deeply grateful to the National Lottery without which none of this would be possible.”
Click on the expander boxes below for race reports, reaction and results in full.
Race Report
RACE REPORTS AND QUOTES
Five of the six finalists in Rachel Morris鈥 final of the arms-shoulders single scull were World finalists this time last year in Aiguebelette. Only China鈥檚 Wang Lilies missing then but she showed her pedigree by winning her heat ahead of reigning World Champion Moran Samuel of Israel.
Norway鈥檚 Birgit Skarstein, World bronze medallist, was drawn alongside Morris who has had a troublesome shoulder throughout the regatta.
Samuel started swiftly with Morris tucked in the chasing pack.听 Paralympic newcomer Wang Lili emerged to take the lead and it seemed as if Morris was out of the medals with Norway鈥檚 Birgit Skarstein also ahead of her.
鈥淭hat was the hardest thing I鈥檝e ever had to do considering my appalling start鈥, said Morris of the ensuing Herculean comeback which saw her win in 5:13.69 surging back through the field.
Tom Aggar reached today鈥檚 final via top spot in yesterday鈥檚 repechage having challenged World Champion Erik Horrie before taking second in the opening heat.
The opposing heat was won by the 鈥渘ew-find鈥 of the arms-shoulders single scull for men, Roman Polianski of the Ukraine who was today鈥檚 pre-race favourite for gold.听Reigning Paralympic Champion Cheng Huang also featured in this final.
Aggar was third going through 250m with the Ukrainian and Australian as expected ahead of him.听 China were a second back in fourth at halfway with Aggar still holding third. It was going to be close. In the final 500m Aggar showed all his experience, fitness and determination to hold on strongly to that bronze spot.
鈥淚 am so pleased to have made that cut and to have got on the podium鈥, he said. 鈥淭he event has moved on hugely since Beijing and it鈥檚 an amazing feeling.听 We did a lot of rehearsals of having to race three times here and I knew I had the fitness so being in the repechage didn鈥檛 faze me鈥
World Silver medallists Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley鈥檚 set a world best time in winning their heat to reach today鈥檚 final.听 France, drawn alongside them, were the World bronze medalists whilst the World Champions from Australia did not qualify for today鈥檚 final.
China鈥檚 Liu Shang and Fei Tianming were seen as the dark horses as the crews lined up for the final.听 The GB duo blasted out of the blocks and had a second over China by halfway and were never challenged after that.
An emotional Whiteley, who waited two and a half years for GB Rowing Team to find a suitably-classified athlete to race with him, said:听 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I can sum up the emotions.听 It was two and a half years of thinking every day that it would be alright in the end.听 There were days when I could have walked away some days but for the end prize to be Paralympic gold, I would have done it again in a heartbeat鈥.
Rowles added:听 鈥淲e beat the world record in the heat and we had confidence that we would do well but every crew out here is incredible so you know that you are not going to win it by miles. We have been putting in hours and hours and it鈥檚 so good鈥.
Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, Pamela Relph, James Fox and cox Oliver James knew, as they went to today鈥檚 start line, that they would need the race of their lives to retain GB鈥檚 Paralympic crown in the mixed coxed four.
Victory would give Relph back-to-back wins at the Games and would mean the crew had overcome the challenge posed by the USA whom the GB boat beat to World gold so narrowly a year ago.
Off the the start the GB quintet made their mark. By halfway they led comfortably and by the finish line they had clear water. to win in 3:17.170.听 The anticipated threat from the USA had been dissipated and Canada were third.
鈥淚t is an incredible feeling鈥, said Brown.听 鈥淭here have been some ups and downs on the way but it just shows that perseverance pays off鈥.
Back to back Paralympic Champion Relph said:听 鈥淚t feels amazing.听 Coming through that last 250m I knew that we had won it, I knew no-one would come through us and the crowd really lifted us鈥.
Fox added 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long time coming, it just feels amazing. We train so hard and people say you are so lucky and it鈥檚 not luck. It鈥檚 been four hard years every World Champs is a stepping stone but the Paralympic Games tops it off鈥.
Cox Oliver James added: 鈥淚 am very proud of this crew.听 We planned for it and got the result we needed. The perfect execution of a race鈥.
Grace Clough said it felt amazing to be a first-time Paralympian and a Champion, too.听 She said: 鈥淲hen I started the journey three short years ago, getting here was the challenge. Now I鈥檓 a Paralympic Champion.听 It听is more than a dream come through.听 It goes without saying that we have superb back-up team at Caversham and the Lottery funding that we get makes it all possible鈥.
Race Results
RIO 2016 PARALYMPIC GAMES FINALS, LAGOA RODRIGO DE FREITAS
ASW1x – arms-shoulders single scull
1.听 Rachel Morris (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:13.19 PB
2.听 Wang Lili (China) 5:16.65
3.听 Moran Samuel (Israel) 5:17.46
4.听 Birgit Skarstein (Norway) 5:25.04
5.听 Liudmila Vauchok (Belarus) 5:34.16
6.听 Claudia Santos (Brazil) 5:34.77
ASM1x – arms-shoulders single scull
1. Roman Polianskyi (Ukraine) 4:38.56
2.听 Erik Horrie (Australia) 4:42.94
3.听 Tom Aggar (GREAT BRITAIN) 4:50.90
4.听 Blake Haxton (USA) 4:54.25
5.听 Cheng Huang (China) 4:54.43
6.听 Rene Pereira (Brazil) 5:04.90
TAMix2x – trunk-arms mixed double scull
1.听 Lauren Rowles/Laurence Whiteley (GREAT BRITAIN) 3:55.28
2.听 Liu Shang/Fei Tainming (China) 3:58.45
3.听 Perle Bouge/Stephanie Tardieu (France) 4:01.48
4.听 Ester van der Loos/Corne De Koning (Netherlands) 4:03.43
5.听 Jaroslav Koiuda/Iryna Kyrychenko (Ukraine) 4:05.35
6.听 Michal Gadowski/Jolanta Majka (Poland) 4:06.26
LTAMix4+ – mixed coxed four
1.听 Grace Clough/Daniel Brown/Pamela Relph/James Fox/Oliver James (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 3:17.17
2. 听 USA 3:19.61
3.听 Canada 3:19.90
4.听 Germany 3:27.34
5. South Africa 3:28.39
6.听 China 3:31.12
Crew List
(Crews listed from bow to stroke with cox and with club, hometown and date of birth)
MIXED
Coxed four (LTA 4+)
Grace Clough听(Nottingham RC/Sheffield/21.06.91)
Daniel Brown (Upper Thames BC/Reading/29.11.82)
Pamela Relph听(Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)
James Fox (Univ of London/Peterborough/02.05.92)
Oliver James (cox) (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/05.01.90)
颁辞补肠丑:听Tom Dyson
Trunk/arms double scull (TA2x)
Lauren Rowles (Marlow RC/Birmingham/ 24.04.98)/
Laurence Whiteley (Tees RC/Northallerton/29.08.91)
Coach: Nick Baker
MEN
Arms/shoulders single scull (ASM 1x)
Tom Aggar听(Marlow RC/Maidenhead/24.05.84)
Coach: Nick Baker
WOMEN
Arms/shoulders single scull (ASW 1x)
Rachel Morris (Guildford RC/Farnham/25.04.79)
Coach: Tom Dyson
Medals
Contact Info
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