The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
North pair celebrate an oarsome Euro silver
NORTH-EAST rowing duo Sam Redgrave and Lauren Irwin powered Britain to a silver medal in the women’s eight at the European Championships.
Gateshead’s Redgrave and Peterlee’s Irwin combined with Natasha Morrice, Karen Bennett, Esme Booth, Hattie Taylor, Annie Campbell-orde and cox Henry Fieldman to reach the podium at Lake Bled, Slovenia.
The British crew led the field through the first 500m but their redoubtable Romanian rivals had too much in the remainder of the two-kilometre course.
Britain crossed the line more than seven seconds behind the gold medallists and held off Italy to claim silver, finishing in a time of six minutes 8.01 seconds.
It was a repeat of the result at the 2022 European Championships with Redgrave, Booth, Ford and Irwin returning from the crew which reached the rostrum in Munich.
The crew’s next focus will be September’s World Championships in Belgrade, where they can qualify the boat for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Redgrave said: “It is always great to come away with a medal.
“We were going for that gold so there is a bit of disappointment there but we have a long season ahead of us and a strong group of women who didn’t race who were supporting us. We have the energy, determination and talent to keep pushing for that gold medal.
“We have a lot of strong and knowledgeable people in the crew as well. I am really excited about where we can go.”
The race marked a return to international rowing for 2016 Olympic silver medalist Karen Bennett, her first race since finishing fourth at the Tokyo Olympics.
She said: “It was definitely a blast from the past.
“It feels great to be back and it’s about getting back into the swing.
“It was a good start, although we’re really disappointed not to have won the gold medal.
“It’s the start of the season so there’s still a lot of racing to come up. Hopefully we can step on.”
■ PLYMOUTH rower Jacob Dawson played his part in a classic European final as Britain won gold in the men’s eight by a hair’s breadth.
Dawson combined with Morgan Bolding, Rory Gibbs, Tom Digby, Charlie Elwes, Sholto Carnegie, James Rudkin, Tom Ford and coxswain Henry Fieldman for a stunning victory.