Rowles and Whiteley take first world title
Britain’s rowers took two golds, two bronzes and three more Olympic qualification spots on the penultimate day of the World Championships here in Austria, and the sole disappointment was the men’s pair not qualifying for Tokyo for the first time on an otherwise highly successful day.
Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley had never won a world title before: they were still learning their trade in 2015 and have had injuries the past two years. But they steamed inexorably past Dutch reigning champions Annika van der Meer and Corne de Koning to triumph, the sheer speed taking both crews half a minute away from the rest of the field.
“For the last hundred metres I could barely see. Honest, I’ve never pulled so hard in my entire life,” said Rowles. “That’s the best performance Laurence and I have ever put out, and you can’t believe how much training and how much sacrifice went into that.”
The world’s best para-four easily won Britain’s 11th straight title in this event, a reign of dominance unmatched by any other British boat class. “Our aim is to go at least 10 seconds quicker [by Tokyo] than we did the other day,” said James Fox. “If we take 10 seconds off our time then everyone’s going to have a very hard time keeping up with us. That’s the plan.”
Bronze medals came courtesy of sprints and photo-finishes from the lightweight women’s double and men’s four. Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won their photo-finish for third against Romania by a third of a second, but Romania’s men took revenge two races later, beating the British four to silver by the same amount.
“I told Imogen there’d be at least one race in this regatta where we’d cross the line and not know where we’d come, and we saved it for the final,” said Craig.
“I could hear in Emily’s voice that she was excited, so I was tunnel vision and just pull as hard as I could,” added a breathless Grant. “I looked across and saw boats, but had no idea if they were ahead or behind. If that’s what we can do on just six weeks of training, wow.”
The women’s four kept themselves in the hunt until halfway and then launched an all-out assault on leaders China and Canada, eventually bursting through to win and confirm qualification for Tokyo in an event newly revived since its sole appearance in 1992.
“After the semi-final we said we were just going to channel serial-killer mode, complete focus, and we did it,”
said Holly Hill. “Out there today we won and took someone else’s four spots to go to the Olympics,” said Sara Parfett. “That’s pretty cold and heartless, but if that’s what we’ve got to do then I don’t care.”
The women’s pair qualified for Japan in their B-final, as did the men’s quad, picking up the last place for Tokyo after leading most of the way, but being pipped to the win by Norway. The eights, men’s double and single scullers Vicky Thornley and Ben Pritchard are in medal races today, with the eights needing to finish higher than sixth to confirm Olympic places.