News

Posted: August 23, 2016

Big gusts of wind were unable to prevent GB Rowing Team’s defending champions making smooth progress on Monday afternoon as the Senior World Championships got under way in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour continued their unbeaten record in the lightweight men’s pair with a composed display.

The British pair first raced in the lightweight men’s pair at last year’s World Championships in Aiguebelette, winning gold. They have continued that unbeaten partnership during 2016, adding the European Championships title and two World Cup golds to their collection.
 
Scrimgeour was the lightweight men’s spare at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, meaning he and Cassells only reformed their partnership last week, but they were soon back into the old routine as they eased into an early lead.

The men’s coxed pair of Ollie Cook, Callum McBrierty and cox Henry Fieldman – a gold-medallist in the boat last year – also looked strong as they won their heat by clear water.

Fieldman is joined this year by Ollie Cook and Callum McBrierty in a combination that won World Cup gold in Poznan on their last outing, demonstrating the strength in depth of the GB heavyweight men’s sweep squad.
 
Their heat saw Canada and Ukraine fly out of the blocks but GB soon settled into a rhythm and began to reel in the front two.
 
Ukraine were quickly overhauled and it was now just a matter of when the fast-moving Cook, McBrierty and Fieldman would pass the Canadians. They finally got their noses in front with 300m to go and went on to take the win by a length and a half.  They progress to Thursday’s semi-finals

The lightweight women’s quadruple scull of Brianna Stubbs, Emily Craig, Imogen Walsh and Ellie Piggott – all World silver-medallists in 2015 – also laid down a marker by winning their preliminary race in fine style.

They showed they will be pushing hard to upgrade to gold in Saturday’s final as they won by a length from defending champions Germany in today’s preliminary race.
 
More than 100 GB rowers are competing on the Willem-Alexander Baan rowing course this week as Rotterdam hosts the combined Senior, U23 and Junior World Rowing Championships. The juniors start their racing on Wednesday.

RESULTS
 
WOMEN
 
Four – H2
 
1. Fiona Gammond/Donna Etiebet/Holly Nixon/Holly Norton (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:40.22
2. Melanie Hansen/Ronja Schuette/Charlotte Reinhardt/Lea-Kathleen Kuehne (Germany) 6:42.02
3. Kyra De Vries/Annemarie Bernhard/Willeke Vossen/Jocelyn Spruit (Netherlands) 7:00.50
 
MEN
 
Coxed pair – H3

1. Oliver Cook/Callum McBrierty/Henry Fieldman (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:59.31
2. Andrew Stewart-Jones/Benjamin De Wit/Kevin Chung (cox) (Canada) 7:02.82
3. Sergii Gryn/Artem Moroz/Oleksandr Konovaliuk (cox) (Ukraine) 7:10.73
4. Matyas Klang/Jakub Marovicka/Radek Suma (cox) (Czech Republic) 7:12.22
5. Nico Merget/Maximilian Fraenkel/Felix Lindemann (cox) (Germany) 7:14.90
 
LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN
 
Single scull – H3

1. Emma Fredh (Sweden) 7:43.55
2. Katherine Sauks (Canada) 7:43.92
3. Gemma Hall (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:52.33
4. Anastasiia Ianina (Russia) 7:52.37
5. Shuai Guo (China) 7:57.08
 
MEN
 
Pair – H2
 
1. Joel Cassells/Sam Scrimgeour (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:37.05
2. Mark O’Donovan/Shane O’Driscoll (Ireland) 6:38.84
3. Sergei Cherepkov/Aleksei Kiiashko (Russia) 6:44.40
4. Sergio Perez Moreno/Jesus Gonzalez Alvarez (Spain) 6:45.08
5. Lei Li/Zhongwei Li (China) 6:59.44
 
Quadruple scull – H1
 
1. Georgios Konsolas/Spyridon Giannaros/Panagiotis Magdanis/Eleftherios Konsolas (Greece) 5:57.46
2. Steffen Jensen/Andrej Bendtsen/Jens Nielsen/Mathias Larsen (Denmark) 5:59.35
3. Francesco Rigon/Andrea Fois/Michele Quaranta/Catello Amarante II (Italy) 6:00.97
4. Taylor Hendy/Mark Henry/Joshua King/Thomas Rendall (Canada) 6:01.98
5. Charles Waite-Roberts/Jamie Copus/Jamie Kirkwood/Zak Lee-Green (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:03.17
6. Pavel Garanin/Alexey Nekrasov/Anton Kuranov/Nazar Lifshitc (Russia) 6:07.06
 
PRELIMINARY RACE
 
LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN
 
Quadruple scull
 
1. Brianna Stubbs/Emily Craig/Imogen Walsh/Ellie Piggott (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:35.11
2. Judith Anlauf/Leonie Pieper/Lena Reuss/Katrin Thoma (Germany) 6:37.51
3. Xulian Xuan/Weixao Zhang/Weimiao Zhang/Xiaohua Yan (China) 6:40.33
4. Ashley Amos/Monica Whitehouse/Morgan McGovern/Emily Schmieg (USA) 6:42.59
5. Jenna Pelham/Sydney Boyes/Jill Moffatt/Kathryn Twyman (Canada) 6:43.90