It was an impressive first international gold medal for Benjamin Pritchard in the PR1 Men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x). He got out to a flying start and held the lead throughout to take the win more than six seconds ahead of Italy and Australia. “I’m elated! It hasn’t sunk in yet but it feels very special…  and on Father’s Day too! There’s a bit of extra motivation with my wife and daughter at home, so this feels very cool.” Benjamin said, speaking after the race, “I was trying to stick to my race plan and not get too distracted about those around me. Compared to the preliminary race, where I got sucked into who I was racing, today was so much better. This race has given me some learnings that hopefully I can work on before the Paralympic Games.”

World and two-time European champions Gregg Stevenson and Lauren Rowles maintained their unbeaten run in the PR2 Mixed double sculls (PR2 Mix 2x), crossing the finish line over six seconds ahead of Germany. “We always go out to win,” Lauren said, “we won’t settle for anything less at this stage of our careers and after the winning streak that we’re having. Today we wanted to go out, work as hard as we could, get that marker down before Paris and see what work we have left to do. It’s nice to be out here as I’ve never won in Poland before, so I had some wrongs to put right! Today I wanted to go out there and leave Poznan with a gold medal.” Gregg added: “We’re expected to win now so there has been different pressure for me this season, but I enjoy that pressure. We’ve been on an intensive training block where we’ve worked really hard. When Lauren is the boss you’ve got to work hard! We enjoy racing with and for each other so it’s a really good combination.”

Frankie Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Morgan Fice-Noyes, Ed Fuller and cox Erin Kennedy also continued their unbeaten run in the PR3 Mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+). Erin said: “We’re trying stuff out at this competition, it was a real opportunity to learn. This is the last exposure to multi-lane racing before every crew goes behind closed doors and tries to find more speed before the summer, so this was the last chance to test things out and it was really fun.”

Ed added: “There were a lot of unknowns coming into this race. There were a lot of racing crews that we haven’t faced this year, so it was nice to know where we stand. Now everyone’s going to go away for a few months before the big one in September.”

It was silver for European Champions Sam Murray and Annie Caddick in the PR3 Mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix 2x). Finishing just over a length back from the Australian World champions, Annie said: “There’s quite a lot of emotions, so we’ll see when they sink in! I’m happy we’re in the mix. We’re two months out from the Games so I think we’re in a strong position. We worked well as a team today, our communication was good. We knew the field was going to go out hard so as long as we stuck with them we would have a chance.

Sam agreed, “We know how much we’ve moved on and the progress we’ve made throughout the winter, but you never know how much other people have moved on. We were really keen to come here and see where we are in the mix. We were alongside the Australians for a large portion of the race which we weren’t last season, so I’m pleased with that, and this result is really motivating as we come into the final months before the Games.”

The Men’s four (M4-) GBR1 crew confidently kept up with the pack to take home an outstanding senior medal that sealed the World Rowing Cup for this boat class. Dan Graham, Douwe de Graaf, Sam Bannister and Matt Rowe won bronze and collected the overall World Rowing Cup trophy for the event. Sam said: “To perform out here next to crews who are going to the Olympics when we’re the development crew for our nation is amazing.” Matt added: “We learnt a lot about international racing today. We like to think that we’re up and coming and we hope this won’t be the last time that we’re somewhere like this!”. Dan said: “We were level with the Swiss in the last 500m, but we were able to out-sprint them at the end and push up on the Australian Olympic champions which was really cool, it was epic.”

Tom Dyson, Team Leader for Great Britain at the World Rowing Cup had earlier collected the World Rowing Cup trophies for the Lightweight women’s double sculls (LW2x) and Men’s eight (M8+). Commenting on the team performance, he said: “We had some superb results from our Paralympic squad, a highlight of which was seeing Benjamin Pritchard win his first ever gold medal. They will soon be heading to camp to focus on their final preparations for Paris.

“In addition, it’s so encouraging to see this strong group of development athletes come out here and attack their opportunity to race at this World Cup, supported by a top quality team of coaching & support staff. With the men’s four making the podium and so many of them reaching the final, the pathway for the LA Games is looking promising.”

The Men’s double sculls (M2x) was a tight race with the GBR1 crew of Stephen Hughes and Cedol Dafydd missing the podium by less than a second to finish in fourth place ahead of the French Olympic champions.

The Women’s four (W4-) of Juliette Perry, Amelia Standing, Eleanor Brinkhoff and Martha Birtles finished in fifth place, accruing enough points to ensure they collected the World Rowing Cup trophy for that boat class.

The GBR2 Men’s pair (M2-) of Jake Wincomb and Louis Nares; the GBR2 Men’s four of James Vogel, Miles Beeson, Tom Ballinger and Jack Prior; George Bourne in the Men’s single sculls (M1x) and Scotland’s Jake Woods racing as GBR2 in the PR1 men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x) all finished fifth.

The GBR1 Women’s double sculls (W2x) crew of Jenny Bates and Freya Keto were sixth. The Men’s double sculls (M2x) GBR2 crew of Rory Harris and Tobias Schroder were second in the B final, placing eighth overall.

The post Five medals for Great Britain on final day at World Rowing Cup III appeared first on 91��ɫ.

The racing came thick and fast for GB on the Rotsee at World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, with the last of the day seeing Olivia holding on to the third place spot in a tight finish in the lightweight women’s single sculls. Picking up her second bronze at consecutive events she said: “it was nice to have a flat lake this time to race on, the conditions were amazing and it was good to just be able to put more power down. It was nice to maintain my position from World Cup II, I felt like I was able to step on again for this race. I knew it was going to be tight on the line but luckily I had built enough distance through the middle to cling on for the last few strokes! It was a tough race but it was great to get out there and come away with a medal”.

Both Men’s four (M4-) crews will line up in the A final after GBR1 of Oli Wilkes, David Ambler, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson won their semi final ahead of New Zealand by a length and GBR2 of Dan Graham, James Robson, Sam Bannister and Sam Nunn came second, behind Australia in their semi final.

Oli Wilkes from GBR1 said: “We had a decent time trial yesterday and we wanted to step on today and be a bit more ‘racier’ and assertive in the first 1k. We have to respect our opposition, we’re racing against quality  crews  like the Kiwis and French who were close to us in the Europeans, so I think we managed to step on with the pressure that came from side by side racing. We’re happy with that race but we’ve got a bit more to go in the final tomorrow. I want to say a big well done to the GBR2 four as well, there’s a couple of guys in their first senior vests and we look forward to racing them tomorrow.”

Sam Bannister from GBR2 said: “This was our second race together so we just looked to improve on yesterday. We reflected on yesterday and worked on where we thought we could do better. We’re really happy with it. Hopefully we’ll just keep going like we have been, find some more speed for tomorrow and see where it goes. There’s two GB boats in the final tomorrow, there’s not many nations that could do that so we’re really proud of that.”

Emily Craig and Imogen Grant remain unbeaten this season, with another convincing win in the Lightweight women’s double sculls (LW2x) semi final.

“With every race it might be easy to say ‘we’ve won the last few so it should be a given’ but we never want to underestimate the competition and the new combinations that come to the event.” Imogen said, adding “It’s  always a pleasure to race and we want to keep doing what we’re doing, follow our processes and cross the line first.”

Emily said: “We got a nice clean start, took a canvas then half an length and we were in control from there. Bring on the final tomorrow.”

Ollie Wynne-Griffith & Tom George led their Men’s pair (M2-) semi final for much of the race but were pipped on the line by Romania by just 0.32 seconds. They will race the final on Sunday. After the race Ollie said: “It was a tight one and they’re (Romania) obviously a very good crew. We’re pleased with some elements of the race and know there are some we need to work on. There are probably 5 or 6 crews who think they can win tomorrow, and that’s what racing is all about, so pretty excited for tomorrow.”

Tom added: “there are bits to work on. It probably wasn’t our best journey in terms of how we wanted to race it. We tried to dominate and kill the race too early and that’s unrealistic at this level. We’ve got bits to work on, bring on the final tomorrow.”

Georgie Brayshaw, Lucy Glover, Hannah Scott and Lauren Henry will also race the A final after a solid performance in the Women’s quadruple sculls (W4x) repechage. Georgie said: “This repechage was another chance for us to get race practice, an opportunity to add in little things we want to tweak here and there and to try things out, so it’s never a bad thing. We’re a slightly new crew and it’s really come together. We see steps on every race we do, and I think that was another step on. We didn’t feel the need to go wild at the end, we just thought ‘right, we’re ahead, let’s cover our basis. We’ve got this’ and we got it in. It was a really solid race.”

Aidan Thompson and double Olympian John Collins will race the Men’s Double sculls (M2x) B final after a 5th place finish in the semi final. 2020 Olympian Chloe Brew and GB debutante Juliette Perry will race the Women’s pair (W2-) B final after a sixth place finish in the semi final.

Kyra Edwards was second in the Women’s single sculls (W1x) D final (20 overall while Tobias Schröder finished his men’s single sculls (M1x) F final in third place (33 overall).

You can follow the World Cup III action live across 91��ɫ social media channels and on BBC iPlayer and website.

Results from Day Two at World Rowing Cup III 2023

The post Olivia Bates wins World Rowing Cup bronze – GB to race in eight A Finals on Sunday appeared first on 91��ɫ.

]]>