LEANDER’S Pete Reed once again dominated the men’s pairs final in Hazewinkel, the traditional Belgian venue for the British senior trials. Partnered by Alex Gregory, the Olympic champion won his event in fine form, while Olympic finalists Lou Reeve and Olivia Whitlam won the women’s event, writes Robert Treharne Jones.
Almost half of the 40 Leander athletes that travelled to Belgium qualified for the A finals, with stunning performances from Beijing bronze medallist Matt Wells, who pressed Alan Campbell hard in the men’s singles, but finally had to settle for second place. Leander’s Ian Lawson, the GB Olympic single sculler in Athens, won the three-way tie for third place ahead of Andy Triggs-Hodge and Steve Rowbotham.
In the men’s pairs Reed and Gregory were always going to be challenged by Reed’s clubmates Alex Partridge and Rick Egington, Olympic silver medallists in the men’s eight. After just 250m the two boats led the field and by the half-way mark Reed and Gregory had moved out to a half-length lead. Partridge and Egington were second, ahead of a strong performance from the third Leander crew in the final — Tom Wilkinson and Tommy Burton.
Speaking afterwards, Reed said: “I think we won the race in the third 500m. We kept the rate slightly higher and moved ahead. Then we didn’t put in any fireworks in the final 500m, there was nothing special, we just kept going”.
The women’s pairs was dominated from the mid-way point by Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve, the crew who qualified late for the Olympics, but who have grown into a potent force together. They took the lead from Jess Eddie and Alice Freeman at the 750m mark and then gradually edged away. Leander’s Jo Cook and Vicky Myers, the early race leaders, battled with the Nottingham pairing of Monica Relph and Jacqui Round with the latter pair taking third place.
Reeve said: “Last year my pairs partner withdrew just before the trials so I started on the back foot. This year has been very different, it’s been nice to know what to expect but we’ve also been under pressure as we were the pair everyone wanted to beat”.
In the women’s singles final Katherine Grainger won the eighth GB rowing trial of her career. Already leading after 250m she proved unstoppable at halfway, with only Leander’s Anna Bebington putting in a strong 350m near the end which narrowed the long gap to seven seconds.
Published on 20 April 2009
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