Leander athletes help GB top world cup medal table

LEANDER athletes bagged 11 medals as they helped Great Britain finish top of the medal table at the World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne last weekend.

Great Britain finished top of the medal table with seven gold, a silver and a bronze.

The women’s four, featuring Leander’s Rowan McKellar, Heidi Long and Sam Redgrave along with Imperial College’s Rebecca Shorten won gold in a World Cup record time of six minutes, 18.64 seconds.

Following the win, Long said: “I didn’t realise we were going that well. I think we saw that the conditions were slightly favourable today and we knew that if we executed our best race we would have a shot at the podium, so to win but also to come out with a World Cup best time exceeded our expectations.”

The men’s coxless four of Sam Nunn, Matt Aldridge, Freddie Davidson and Leander’s Will Stewart also picked up gold and in doing so beat the Australian crew that narrowly beat them in the final of the Stewards’ Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta the previous week.

The men’s eight of Rory Gibbs, Morgan Bolding, David Bewicke-Copley, Charlie Elwes, Tom Digby, James Rudkin and Leander’s Sholto Carnegie, Tom Ford and cox Henry Fieldman put in a good peformance to secure gold in a time of five minutes, 25.09 seconds.

Speaking after race Fieldman said: “It felt great to be back racing and it was really fun. I loved every minute of it. It was good to be back in the boat.

“I enjoyed a bit of coaching and seeing the sport from that side but to be back in the performance element is what I love. There’s a lot more pressure and the nerves that come with that but that’s part of the fun, and I’m really proud and pleased with how the guys performed today.”

The women’s quad of Kyra Edwards and Lucy Glover along with Leander’s Jessica Leyden and Georgie Brayshaw won silver behind the Chinese crew.

The final Leander athletes to claim medals were Emily Ford and Esme Booth who secured bronze in the women’s coxless pairs.

After finishing their final in third place, Ford said: “It was exciting to see the gap closing between us and the New Zealand crew. Credit to them, they haven’t been together throughout the whole year because Grace Prendergast has been at Cambridge, they’ll get stronger and hopefully we’ll get stronger too and we can keep pushing it on.”

In boats that did not include any Leander athletes, Great Britain secured gold in the men’s coxless pairs, single sculls and women’s lightweight double sculls and lightweight single sculls.

Speaking after the event, British Rowing director of performance Louise Kingsley said: “It’s been a great weekend for Great Britain on the Rotsee. We have won medals across all disciplines (sweep and sculling, men’s and women’s squads) so it’s been a solid team effort not just on the water but also behind the scenes. We have had two good World Cups in Belgrade and here and I’m very pleased with the results but we need to balance these performances with the perspective that some nations are not racing and others haven’t boated their top crews due to covid.

“We expect that by the time we get to the World Championships there will be stronger and far more competitive fields. We’ve got to keep our heads but know that what we are doing is on the right track and it should give us confidence to keep building towards the World Championships.”