JOSH IS A WORLD CHAMPION AGAIN
Hamilton’s Josh Armstrong helped Great Britain to claim a medal on the penultimate day of the World Under-23 Rowing Championships in Florida.
Great Britain took three medals on the second-last day of the event in Sarasotabradenton in the USA, with Josh part of the winning crew in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls (A final), alongside George Bourne, Matthew Haywood and Samuel Meijer.
They finished in a time of 5:51.77, ahead of Germany in 5:53.09. Italy were third in 5:55.17.
The women’s quad of Lola Anderson, Ella Toa, Molly Harding and Lucy Glover were also world champions in their A final, again beating Germany to the title.
Armstrong and co, coached by Kieran Clark of Tideway Scullers School, led the race for the final kilometre to claim gold and retain their World Championship title in men’s quadruple sculls.
Armstrong, a world champion for the third time, said: “It’s an overwhelming sense of joy and an element of relief!
“After winning last year there was some expectation to do it again, but I think we dealt with it really well.
“Crossing the finishing line first after such a hard race made it that bit more special.”
Meijer is now a three-time U23 World champion having won gold in quadruple sculls in 2018 and double sculls in 2017, and he said: “It feels absolutely amazing to defend our title.
“We’ve put a lot of work in as a crew and it has been an amazing regatta.
“We’ve built on every race and had a really fast semi-final. That final race was a really good way to earn the win – it was extremely hard-fought all the way to the line, but was so much fun to be a part of!”
The women’s crew, coached by under-23 chief coach Pete Sheppard, featured three debutants, with Glover the only crew member to have raced at an under-23 World Championships before.
Great Britain’s men’s coxed four also claimed a silver medal in a final which saw less than a second separate the top three crews.
The crew of Henry Jones, Oscar Lindsay, Casper Woods, Cormac Molloy and Scott Cockle, coached by Hugo Gulliver of University of London BC, put on a phenomenal final sprint to take silver and finish just 0.09 seconds behind the winning Australian boat.