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GB U19s win one gold and five silvers on final day of combined Senior, U23 and U19 World Rowing Championships in Canada

The U19 Men’s eight win means GB are senior, U23 and U19 champions in that boat class for a second consecutive year 

The final day of the 2024 World Rowing Senior, Under 23 and Under 19 Championships in St Catharines, Canada, saw eight U19 crews racing in A finals. Great Britain’s juniors won an epic gold in the Men’s eight in the last race of the Championships, meaning GB are reigning senior Olympic / World Champions, U23 Champions and U19 Champions in that boat class for the second consecutive year. Five crews (the women’s eight, women’s four, men’s four, women’s quad and women’s double) all won silver medals.

Peter Sheppard, GB Rowing Team Head Coach for the Olympic Pathway said: “After some superb racing by the U23 team on Thursday and Friday the U19 team didn’t disappoint on Sunday in their A Finals. The team matched their record medal haul from 2023 with six medal winning crews to round off an exceptional Championships for the GB Rowing Team age group teams of 12 medals (6 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze) from the 19 crews racing. The standout performance from the U19s was the U19 Men’s eight (M8+) who led from the start and dominated the final all the way to the finish line. The 5 silver medal crews all stepped up from their previous round of racing to win superb silver medals to put GB 4th on the medal table behind Romania, Greece and Italy. This also included 3 coaches coaching their first GB medal crew Rhona MacCallum (U19 W4x), Nick Barry-Parker (U19 M8+) and Vicky Spencer as Team Leader (U19 M4-).

“The commitment athletes, coaches and support staff made this summer, which was extended by two weeks, was second to none, and the team as a whole reaped the just rewards to be right at the front of the medal count. It is important also to fully recognise the support the athletes had from family, friends and their clubs, schools and universities both at home over the summer and then at the Championships with a massive fan base cheering the crews on. Without this support these results wouldn’t have been possible.”

It was gold for the Men’s eight (JM8+) of Harry Oliver, Oliver Richardson, William Harper, Elam Hughes, Edward Bayfield, Alec Wild, Leopold Hainlein, Timothy Gutsev and cox Edward Crosthwaite-Eyre, coached by Nick Barry-Parker.

A thrilled Harry, speaking after the race, said: “This is brilliant! It’s been a really interesting project and the most amazing, fun six weeks! And to come home with the win is just awesome.”

Taking silver were the Men’s four (JM4-) of Gabriel George, Christian Reese, Alp Karadogan and Patrick Wild, coached by Vicky Spencer.

Gabriel said: “We knew it would be a tight race from the start. There were a lot of moves at the 1k but we just trusted our rhythm. Hats off to Italy for having a great race, China for being so relentless through the middle of the race. We’re super proud of the process. It has been a long summer, but we’re very proud to be here racing with our friends.”

Also picking up silver were the Women’s four (JW4-) of Emily Nicholas, Acorn Cassidy, Emily Shaw and Martha Shepherd, coached by Bodo Schulenburg.

Martha said: “The race was awesome! We went pretty hard off the start, tried to get on to our rhythm early, which we did. The wind was quite a bit of a shock, so adjusting to that was definitely a challenge. For me, steering was also something I had to keep an eye on. We had a good race, we held on at the end, which was what we planned to do. I’m really happy with how we raced.”

Emily Shaw, who subbed into the crew from the women’s eight for Natasha Philips on medical grounds, added: “It has been short, it has been brief. I joined this crew ten days ago but we bonded quickly, but we were all in – all our hearts to get this boat up to speed. We executed our plan perfectly.”

The Women’s quadruple sculls (JW4x) of Eloise Etherington, Catherine Gardner, Amalka Delevante and Mia Lawrence, coached by Rhona MacCallum also won silver.

Amalka said: “We went into this race wanting to have the best run we can and pull off our hard work over the whole season into this one race. We’re really happy with the result and thankful to everyone who was involved in it”

Catherine added: “This has been the most insane process of my entire life. We got final confirmation in July and since then we got straight on a bus and went on a training camp for a month and a half. We’ve all got very close and we just can’t believe the outcome. We’ve been so process driven but, as Coach Rhona says ‘process equals outcome’ and this is the most outcome we could have asked for. It has been amazing.”

Another silver was won by the Women’s double sculls (JW2x) of Olivia Cheesmur and Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank, coached by Helen Taylor.

Violet said:  “It was a bit of a strong head wind but we took it on as much as we could and we did everything we could. We’ve worked so hard as a team together the past month. We’ve been through a lot. I’m so proud of us.”

Olivia added: “It has been a good month. We’ve been in so many different places training and it has just been great fun. The whole team is amazing. It’s just so cool to live in a camp with other people training for Worlds. It’s such a cool experience, it has been great, I’m so grateful.”

Also winning silver were the Women’s eight (JW8+) of Abigail Smith, Ansley Vicars, Emily Downing, Izabella Habdank-Toczyska, Sophie Sinclair, Amelia Westbrook, Ava Thurnham, Sophie Haisman and cox, Victor Bocquet, coached by Ryan Demaine.

It was a fourth place finish for the Men’s pair (JM2-) of Harvey Burford and Fraser Burdett, coached by Matthew Harris, who were in the bronze medal position until the final 400m when they got pipped to the post by a fast finishing Spanish crew.  A sixth place finish for the Women’s pair (JW2-) of Annabelle Thornton and Penny Irvine, coached by Holly Reid, was an exceptional result for this racey pair.

The Men’s quadruple sculls (JM4x) of Jimmy Harlow, Sal Dunn, Jerry Anderson and Joe Wellington, coached by Mark Wilkinson, finished second (eighth overall) in the B final. On Saturday, Olivia Bates finished third (ninth overall) in the Lightweight women’s single sculls (LW1x) B final.

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