News

Posted: August 7, 2016

The first two Scottish rowers in action in Saturday's opening day of racing, Alan Sinclair and Katherine Grainger, successfully progressed to their semi-finals on Tuesday - both finished second in their opening heats on a day when conditions in the middle part of the course caused real havoc, with a capsize and boat-stopping crabs happening throughout the racing programme.

Alan Sinclair from Inverness and his partner Stewart Innes led briefly at the start of their coxless pairs race but they let France slip past them, to finish second ahead of Romania to safely qualify for Tuesday's semi-finals.  Australia won their heat in this event while defending champions New Zealand won theirs, to keep their eight-year unbeaten record intact.

Afterwards. Sinclair was disappointed in his second place, saying, "we didn't row our best and we need to front up to the fact  that we didn't deliver our best rowing.  We'll be having a look at the video to see how we can make the changes in a few days' time."

Speaking about the whole Olympic experience, he added, "It's incredible (to finally be an Olympian).  I sat on the start line and I've been pretty nervous this morning.  It's overwhelming actually.  There's two more big races to come but it's been great so far."

Katherine Grainger opened the defence of her double sculls Olympic title with partner Vicky Thornley and they led for the first three quarters of their race, only to  see Lithuania slip past them in the closing stages.  They then held off a late charge by France to finish second, with all three of these crews qualifying for their semi-final.  This was the fastest of the three heats in this event, with Poland and New Zealand winning the other two.

 
Grainger spoke about the conditions, saying, "that's the worst Olympic conditions I've ever rowed in, but we knew how this course could be. You want better conditions, and you want to prove yourself more in better conditions.  A lot of it is mental and how you deal with it."  And reflecting on her difficult season so far, she added, "we've had a tough year, now it's about keeping a calm head.  There's more to come, more to work on."

Later, the men's quadruple scull crew with Glasgow's Angus Groom aboard, could only finish fourth in their heat, behind winners Australia, Poland and Switzerland, and now depend on Monday's repechage race to progress to the final.  Other British qualifiers yesterday were single sculler Alan Campbell and the men's lightweight four.

Olympic champion Heather Stanning from Lossiemouth and her partner Helen Glover start the defence of their title on Sunday.

After Saturday's racing FISA's Matt Smith predicted the probability of conditions worsening over the next three days.

Article by Mike Haggerty. Photographs courtesy of Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images