Leander athletes help GB secure boats for Olympic and Paralympic games

GREAT Britain won nine medals to finish in second place at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade and qualify 13 boats for next year’s Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Highlights from the final day on Sunday included a win and qualification in the men’s eight, which included four Leander athletes, and Emily Ford and Esme Booth making history as the first British women to qualify two boats at the same regatta.

The world gold in the men’s eight, and Olympic qualification, was secured by Leander’s Jacob Dawson, Sholto Carnegie, Charlie Elwes and Tom Ford along with Morgan Bolding, Rory Gibbs, Tom Digby, James Rudkin and cox Harry Brightmore.

Speaking after their triumph, Carnegie said: “Olympic qualification is always going to be a little bit spicy. We just really believed in what Harry was saying and responded exactly to his calls, and stuck together as a unit. It’s been a tough season but we’ve kept together, kept pushing forwards and kept learning all the time.”

Narrowly missing out on the podium place but securing an all-important Olympic qualification spot was the all-Leander women’s eight of Natasha Morrice, Rebecca Edwards, Lauren Irwin, Karen Bennett, Esme Booth, Emily Ford, Hattie Taylor, Annie Campbell-Orde and cox, Henry Fieldman.

Speaking after the fourth place finish Campbell-Orde said: “I’m feeling mixed emotions. I’m very pleased to have qualified as it’s something we’ve been working towards throughout the season. But, obviously, fourth is probably the worst place to finish, so I’m also sad.

“I think it’s a product of the field this year, racing against the best. But this is such a new project for us, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved and ultimately I’m looking forward to next year because we’ve made it possible for there to be a next year.”

The previous day saw Great Britain win five gold medals, a silver and a bronze while Ford and Booth secured GB a place in the women’s coxless pairs at next year’s Olympic Games after finishing ninth overall.

Leander’s Erin Kennedy coxed the PR3 mixed four to gold and secure a place at the Paralympic Games.

Kennedy, who has returned to cox the crew after her treatment and recovery from breast cancer, said: “It’s been a big year. I remember this time last year I was at home feeling pretty sorry for myself but so proud of the team. I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time and so to be here and to be on the top of the podium with the best team in the world, I couldn’t be happier.” Great Britain also won gold in the PR2 mixed double sculls and bronze in the PR1 mixed single sculls. These boats, along the with the PR3 mixed double sculls, all secured their place at next year’s Paralympic Games.

In the Olympic class boats there was gold for the women’s quadruple sculls, lightweight women’s double and the men’s four, a silver in the men’s pair and a bronze in the women’s four. All these boats secured GB places at the Paris Olympic Games.

The women’s quadruple scull of Leander’s Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw along with Lauren Henry had a real tussle with the Netherlands throughout the 2,000m course but kept their heads to win GB’s first world gold medal in that boat class since 2010.

Brayshaw said: “It’s a first senior gold medal for all of us, and to do it today it’s just like all the stars have aligned. We have worked so hard to get to this point, we’ve kept it calm, we lost a blade over the finish line but it doesn’t matter because I’m so proud of everyone.”

Leander’s Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George achieved their best World Championship result to date, winning silver in the men’s pair.

Wynne-Griffith said: “Some things didn’t go our way today and that’s sport. We want to win, so today feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, but we did well to get that silver medal and we qualified the boat for Paris so from that perspective, I’m pleased.”

The women’s four of Leander’s Heidi Long and Rowan McKellar, along with Helen Glover and Rebecca Shorten were a little disappointed with their third place bronze.

McKellar said: “It’s not exactly what we were coming here for and I feel like we’ve just missed the mark today. We’ve stepped on in the last six weeks, throughout the regatta and that shows how much we can step on in the next year. It’s definitely made us hungry and I think it will set us up for a really good year.”

The men’s quadruple scull of Leander’s George Bourne and Tom Barras along with Callum Dixon and Matt Haywood narrowly missed out on a podium spot in the final strokes of the race to place fourth.

Summarising the regatta, Louise Kingsley, GB rowing director of performance said: “It’s been a fabulous week, this last weekend particularly has just been stunning. The first important step this week was to gain qualification spots.

“We have nine boats secure through to the Olympics and four boats going to the Paralympics next year. The next step is to allow some time to enjoy the medals and then go back and do lots of analysis and then get our heads down for the big one next year.”