Sensational gold return for Glover with Swann
POLLY SWANN admitted picking up a European rowing title in Varese, Italy, yesterday was above expectations after helping Helen Glover to the perfect comeback in her first competition for five years.
The duo won the women’s pair gold in Glover’s first race since returning from the birth of her three children.
It was a sensational effort for the double Olympic champion with the 31-yearold Scot, a silver medallist in Rio in 2016, boosting her own case for selection for Tokyo as they repelled a late push by Romania to win in seven minutes 2.73 seconds.
“It’s been a long winter but just to come out with Helen to race feels pretty epic,” said Swann, who has been working as a junior doctor in the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic. “We didn’t come here expecting to win. We expected to have speed. But it’s nice to put the cherry on top of the cake so early on.”
Victory in the competition extended Glover’s unbeaten Championship record which stretches back to 2012 and she told BBC Sport: “I was thinking, ‘am I going to make it down the track?’, and it’s silly really because I do it in training every day.
“But just something about racing makes those doubts come to the surface. Now I’ve squashed those, I can look forward to being the athlete I am, and I want to be as well.”
Glover is bidding to become the first British rower to win an Olympic medal after having children and British Rowing bosses will now have to decide whether the twosome, world champions together in 2013, should stick together for the Olympics.
But Swann added: “I don’t make those decisions. I’ll see what the selectors decide. There’s an air of mystery with Helen coming back and her performing at such a high standard early on. But we’ll see what we can do even with a few more weeks training.”
The British men’s eight also struck gold after surging away from Germany at the 1,200m mark to lay down a marker for Tokyo, while Vicky Thornley rounded off the weekend with silver in the single sculls in her own pre-Games gambit.
Scottish pair Rowan McKellar and Karen Bennett picked up bronze in the women’s four to underline their readiness for Tokyo berths.
The women’s eight, led by Katherine Douglas came fourth, while Borderer Maddie Arlett was fifth in the lightweight sculls.
With two months until the Olympic selection deadline and racing opportunities limited, a revamped performance team will now study the data and the permutations on offer.
Rowing’s unique methodology of changing line-ups until the last moment has kept many on their toes with long-time coach Jurgen Grobler’s sudden departure last summer removing the past equity of longer-standing members of the British squad.
“Normally, in a normal year, you’d have final trials around now,” said Douglas, who had been assured of selection for a Games in 2020. “And then the boats are selected. There’s been like a lot of change higher up. Jurgen, obviously left. We’re all sad about it. It’s just a lot of change. So to be honest, I don’t actually know what’s happening.
“I think there will probably be some more testing after Europeans. Then hopefully, we’ll find out within the next month whether or not we’re going. But even then, they’ve said, if you catch Covid, and you get long Covid, you won’t go.”