Men’s four strike gold in mixed day
The British rowing team earned a “good in parts” report from the World Cup regatta in Lucerne yesterday, with the men’s four racing to gold but Vicky Thornley being pushed out of the medals at the end of their fifth regatta this summer.
The total was three Olympicclass and one international medal, but it was just strong enough to pip New Zealand to the overall World Cup trophy, which British Rowing chairman Annamarie Phelps received for the last time before she is forced to step down next March due to changes in governance rules.
The men’s four, visibly tired after three regattas in 24 days, nevertheless produced sustained power from 700 metres to 1,500m to overcome their steady start, gaining enough advantage to stay ahead of Italy and Holland during the final sprint.
“It was nice to finally find a midrace pace which was quite damaging,” said stroke Will Satch. “We can sprint but we’ve been focusing on other areas so that will come.”
“From the second World Cup to Henley we had a light bulb moment and we tried to continue that here,” said crewmate Matt Tarrant. “We’re gelling better together as a crew, we’re very calm and solid now.”
Single sculler Thornley was slightly too far off the pace to challenge for medals, but satisfied to beat her Henley Royal Regatta conqueror Annekatrin Thiele in a fast race taken out hard by Swiss sculler Jeannine Gmelin. “I’ve just done a lot of racing, which is exactly what we planned for me to do, so I’m just pretty tired,” said Thornley. “I put it all out there but knew I’d have to do something a bit different to get in the medals.”
The men’s quad were again led to the line by Lithuania, but with a smaller margin than before. The lightweight women’s double and men’s eight will be disappointed by sixth place but the women’s eight took bronze.